Update about blogCa

I-40 picked up the old Rte. 66 somewhere along the way, maybe Little Rock, maybe Oklahoma City. But it is the 100th anniversary of Rte 66 so I enjoyed thinking about my parents driving on part Of it in. St. Louis at least. Here we continued from Santa Rosita to Gallup NM, then left both highways to go north to CO.
Showing posts with label Sarah Kendzior. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sarah Kendzior. Show all posts

Friday, July 31, 2020

Notes from my first day of Ornish Rehab

Looking east from the 3rd Floor of the Cardio care building...it probably looks a lot like the building across the parking lot. The mountains beyond are probably close to my home in Black Mountain.

A station outside the reception area offers hand sanitizers. I don't like Purell because of the after-sticky-lotion that it has. So I use a clean paper towel to wipe off my palms. Other times during the day I was happy to do 20 seconds of hand washing.

One view of the gym. I walked the track around the outside on Tues. I made it further than the distance of 0.55 miles which is the circumference at Lake Tomahawk. It was much easier to walk in an air conditioned environment. The treadmills with a yellow sign on them to not be used are to keep patients at least 6 feet away from each other (if there should be that many.)

Yep, we each wore a heart monitor as we exercised. And our fearless leader checked our blood pressure, our heart rate, and our oxygen percentage several times during the 30 minutes that we exercised today. There's also a central console which I think shows some technicians the status of our heart monitors. I am so pleased with the amount of tracking of our heart activity...this is why I feel very safe with the exercise program.

I think 16 times around on the red path of the walking track was a mile. I made 12 circuits, with a few rest stops as needed. It wasn't as hard as the day before had been at the lake. I think that's partly due to lower humidity. I'll keep trying to find a good time at the lake, because I need to have 180 minutes a week of aerobic exercise.

The chairs and mats are in the area where we'll have instructions about some of the weight training. I gauged my efforts were a bit light today.

And then we had a delicious vegetarian lunch, then talks about nutrition, stress relief and finally support groups.

I brought home a lot more reading, as well as things that I need to track. Oh dear, I'm not good at writing any more, with the nebulizer meds which give my hands the shakes. I'll do the best I can. Which was my intention for today. I did. And I was exhausted when I got home. I hope my endurance at having attention and sitting will improve as the 3 hours each afternoon will require that...Tues. and Thurs. We start with the exercise before lunch, which is good. When I get around to doing an hour's meditation I hope I can stay awake!

Today's quote:
When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatize those who let people die, not those who struggle to live. -Sarah Kendzior, journalist and author (b. 1978




Wednesday, June 10, 2020

A rose is a rose

I am trolling through older photos. Just found this one (which I may have already posted) and wanted to share it with you.

My dear friend, Ann was having a pacemaker installed today (Monday) at the same hospital in which I recently was a patient. Ann is about 12 years senior to me, and was from Denmark many years ago. I was happy to have a phone conversation with her Sunday evening, while she just was lying around waiting for her procedure. I met her at my little church here in Black Mountain NC. She's been very active all her life, and the one interesting thing I want to share about her is about her interest in the sport of fencing. She had actually learned a bit about it before her immigration to the US.

She loves to tell her stories. When she first arrived in the US as a young woman, she took a fencing class, where she met a young man that she became "smitten with."  They went out a few times, and then he moved from Washington DC to California (for work I think.) Ann decided that she would also go to CA, and proceeded to try to find the young man. That was quite an adventure, and she eventually did. They were married and have raised their children. Ann lost Jerry to heart disease several years ago. She now has 14 great grand children, with the latest having been born last week. She herself trained as a respiratory therapist, and knows quite a bit about medical terminology.

I hope she has a good recovery from this procedure.

When we again can return to our little church community, I'll be looking forward to one of her loving hugs...and to give it back to her as well.

Today's Quote:
When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatize those who let people die, not those who struggle to live.

-Sarah Kendzior, journalist and author (b. 1978)