NuStep at the rehab center

Here are my pink laced sneakers pushing and pulling on the recumbant stepper machine at Pumonary Rehab. I'm working it up to 20 minutes each time I come in three times a week.

I'm showing how it looked when I started. I had already done 20 minutes on a tread mill, showing a bit over .7 of a mile. And following this routine, I joined others in my "class" to do weight training using thera-bands. Whew. And all this work is paying off.

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From my other blog, Three Family Trees...I posted this last week.

I finished the Ornish Cardiac Rehab (9 weeks) on Sept. 24, 2020. While the pandemic continues, we all wore masks except to eat the nice vegetarian lunches. I increased my abilities to walk and climb hills, and lost some weight. But the Ornish program talks about not just recovering from heart disease, but reversing it.

So I learned not only to eat vegetarian and low fat dishes, but to prepare them, because my usual places to get food out weren't making these kinds of things. And I had to keep track of everything I ate. And I also took active part in a group counseling session, and a meditation/stress reduction session twice a week. I also did these at home on the days I didn't go to the rehab program.

My cholesterol number was halved. And I started losing weight. Not to mention, I don't get out of breath just doing simple tasks any more. 

And just finishing that program, I turned a corner and addressed my chronic lung difficulties. So now I'm in pulmonary rehab. It's more focused on endurance. We started with a test to see how far we could walk in 6 minutes. I dare say when I complete the program I'll have that test again. We also do some weight training, as well as recumbent stepping. I am up to 20 minutes on each of the walk and recumbents. So my walk is now over a half mile (0.7 last Friday.)

I have eaten a few things not on the Ornish diet. But each time I make sure to go back onto it strictly the next day. I'll be meeting my cohort friends this Tuesday to see how everyone has been doing in the 2 1/2 weeks since I last saw them.

And I'll finish the 8 weeks of pulmonary rehab in a few more weeks. Before then, I'll see my pulmonologist and have a breathing test this week also. So I hope the fact that my coughing has greatly reduced will show up as better health in my lungs. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, as I write this I'm doing a breathing treatment with a nebulizer. I haven't changed my treatments, nor did I stop any of the cardiac medications that I was put on following my May heart attack with a stent inserted on my heart. My cardiologist did see me already, and says I've increased my heart volume from 30% to 50%, which is low normal. (A heart doesn't pump out all the blood that's in it at one time. 60% is normal.)

Anyway, I've decided to spend some time focused on my ancestry again. So I'll start soon, and be submitting some new compilations here again. I'll start with my Rogers/Swasey ancestors of my father, George Rogers Jr.

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Update on Wed. Oct. 14, 2020

The pulmonologist said my breathing test was better than a year ago.

I asked if I could stop taking some of the meds I'd been on, namely the one that made me shaky and not even able to write. He said yes, skip the Albuterol in the nebulizer, but keep it around in case I need it. And I could use the saline solution in the nebulizer just once a day, preferably in the morning.

I haven't been coughing every time I change positions, especially at night...so I feel much better about having been doing the exercises now since the last day of July. And I'm thinking of somehow continuing them through the winter. 

And yesterday Oct. 13th, 6 of the Ornish graduates in my cohort #35 met in a park with our masks on and talked about how we're doing, and some of our concerns. On the top was the possibility that the hospital will no longer offer the Ornish program of rehabilitation. We don't know for sure the outcome of the meeting last Friday. So we all are holding our breaths on that thought. 

I have been looking through many vegetarian cookbooks lately. What a fun thing to do. I want to eat everything, and only a few will actually make it to my table.