I got a call from my cardiologist, Dr. Reddy, who said we need to check things out.
Found that one of my main arteries was 70 percent blocked.
So he put in a stent.
That was in February, and after that, he recommended that I do cardiac rehab.
And Rush is my hospital, so I did it here.
I went to see the doctor.
She scheduled a few tests and found out that I had a blockage that needed a stent.
Went back to the doctor and she suggested this rehab.
Um, rehab.
She said yes, exercise.
And, I said, uh, you know, I said OK, I’ll try it.
The Cardiac Rehab Program at Rush Oak Park is an outpatient program.
It is typically 36 sessions done two to three times per week.
The patient really decides if they can come two times per week or three times per week.
So it takes approximately four months for them to complete the program.
It establishes a discipline, which I think cardiac patients need for complete and
continuing health.
Since I did rehab, my blood pressure has gone down.
And of course, I’m on medication.
But I was before, as well.
The information that they gave us, some of the food that I was eating has too much salt
in it, and that was surprising to me.
Not a lot of red meat.
Just a whole list of things that, things that we shouldn’t eat.
There’s often a fear that develops, especially after a person has a heart attack.
Do I push myself too much?
That’s the advantage of cardiac rehab, because with an exercise physiologist and
nurses around you, they don’t bug you all the time, but they monitor you.
A very safe and controlled place.
They have an EKG monitor on them, which is cordless.
So we’re monitoring every single heartbeat that is happening when they’re at
cardiac rehab.
It’s nothing to be afraid of.
You’re not going to have a heart attack.
It’s going to help your heart.
It would help you to breathe better, help you to walk better, help you to do exercise.
Each week we increase the intensity or the incline and then we’re continuously adjusting
or reinvestigating how are their risk factors doing, their cholesterol, their blood pressure,
their weight, as well as their psychological health?
I can do a lot of things that I wasn’t able to do before I had this rehab and the stent
put in my heart.
I would go shopping. Of course I had to sit down for a while, catch my breath.
Now I can walk one end of the mall to the other end of the mall and not get out of breath.
I used to regret going downstairs to do my laundry, but
now it's very easy.
I think nothing of it.
This is not about becoming a marathon runner.
This is about getting back to being a productive component of society, productive component
of your family, and back to being who you want to be.
So we help that.
Seven days a week, either I walk early in the morning about 5 a.m. or I ride my bike
about seven miles.
And my endocrinologist, Dr. Cunningham, and my cardiologist, Dr. Reddy, both seem to think
that’s a good routine for me.
I just like to go down the road, and I get to where I go, and sit for a couple minutes to rest,
and then bike back home.