It is the "Now What?" that has been my preoccupation for the last eight months and will likely be on my mind for the foreseeable future.
Part of the recovery is the physical rehabilitation. An even larger part is the educational process. In my case, I had to complete a number of classes about living with heart problems, heart healthy life styles and general knowledge about the pharmaceuticals used in treating heart diseases before even being admitted to the physical rehabilitation centre.
The Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Health in Motion Program involved two sessions a week doing exercises under the supervision of a nurse, a physio-therapist and a dietitian as well as one class room session a week.
The classes were spread out over the first eight weeks of the program and covered topics like:
- Risk Factors for Heart Disease and Stages of Change
- Exercise and Goal Setting
- Dietary Risk Factors
- Basics of Heart Healthy Eating
- Super Heart Healthy Foods and Foods to Avoid
- Label Reading
- Eating out and Meal Planning
- Coping with Heart Disease
The smartest thing I did was to take my daughter Nancy with me to the first round of classes. I encourage you to do the same. Take a family member with you to as many classes as they can attend.
There are two reasons for this. First, I was still quite dopey for the first couple so a lot of the information didn't stick. The second reason is that a lot of the life style changes, the mood swings and depression that are the after-effects of open heart surgery require not just co-operation from your family but their active support and understanding.
Even though you are the one feeling the physical pain, your whole family feels the repercussions of your operation.
Steps today: 10,287
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