So here I am in the morning, having slept in a different ward and a much quieter experience than the High Dependency ward. Having said that, there is a chap opposite me who is elderly. Ex RAF and is elderly. He sounds like he used to be an officer, well spoken, quietly spoken and after hearing some of the conversation he had with a nurse, doctor and a sister during the day, it appears he is either suffering a little of Dementia, or people are not listening to what he has to say. An example is at breakfast time, he was asked by a Health Care Assistant what he wanted for breakfast. She asked him a couple of times, but he was asleep!! Later in the day, he was given food that he hadn't ordered and he complained that he hadn't ordered it. The same woman said that is what he had ordered, but I know for a fact he was asleep. He got quite agitated by that. I can totally understand why. Poor guy, it seems like he has been on the ward for sometime, I don't know why, and I am not blaming anyone, but I felt really sorry for him. It seemed he was having a tough time. On the phone to his wife, and telling her that he was being listened to etc etc. It feels unfair, but I don't know the whole story. I hope he has recovered from whatever his condition was and is at home with his wife now. Fingers crossed for him.

Not much happening on the ward today, had a blood test, seems to be a routine thing for me. Today was the day I noticed just how bruised both my arms were. Purely from blood tests and different cannulas being inserted across 3 different hospitals. 

Today was chill out day. Watching a brilliant movie on Amazon Prime on my phone with my headphones in to block out some of the noise of the ward but I was much more awake today from everything that had happened and I felt like doing something different. Book of Eli with Denzil Washington. Such a great movie. If you haven't seen it, then you must watch it. Really good.

 In the afternoon, I asked sister what the chances were of going home tomorrow as I was feeling good and I think I was recovering well and quickly (I can be persistent in my thinking sometimes) Sister was good fun, we had some banter as I was persisting in telling her my partner is a nurse and could look after me whilst freeing up a bed on her ward. She relented a little by saying she would speak to the doctor about me. Imagine my surprise that less than 2 hours later, the doctor was at my bed suggesting that I was recovering well, but there are indicators they must adhere to which depend on when I can leave. So the crucial thing was blood pressure (through all 3 hospitals my blood pressure was taken every 4 to 6 hours, it was relentless) oxygen levels and a blood test that ensures a lot more things are starting to level off as the body starts to heal and returns back to some normality after all the drugs you're given immediately after a bypass operation (magnesium and Potassium being the major ones). So tomorrow morning, a blood test would be taken and a few hours later the results of that blood test would determine my eligibility of leaving. My fingers and toes were all crossed for the morning!! Time now to relax and get some sleep because tomorrow could be a big day!

Today I spoke to my cardiac rehab nurse. She rings me every week to see how my progress is coming along. I am supposed to be using an app on my iphone to record details of medication, walking, exercise and lots of numerous things. Today I told her I wasn't using it as its completely rubbish. The reason why its rubbish is that it keeps crashing and its just a glorified notepad. Nothing is automatic, you have to manually enter every single detail yourself. Not really an app is it? My iphone has an app called Health and it automatically records my steps I do on a daily basis which I am currently using to see my distance and my progress. The app the NHS want me to use does nothing like this. For those of you that ever have to use it, hopefully by the time you use it, it may have been improved. I hope so because it needs some drastic improvement. Its called My mhealth (no thats not a spelling error)

So part of the conversation was the exercise I had been doing and for the past week I have been doing 6200 steps on my daily walk. (my normal daily work involves around 8000 - 12000 steps per day) So I am doing quite well I think. However, the cardiac rehab nurse did mention that I shouldn't overdo it. Its only been 3 weeks since I left hospital and she reminded me of that, and said that too much, too soon could be determental to my heart as the heart is still recovering from the shock of a major operation. You know, I wish this information is told to you whilst in hospital or as you are leaving. Heres me thinking I really am going to recover quickly as I feel great. And now I have had to compromise with the nurse by saying I would still continue to do the 6200 steps per day but I would then have a day of rest afterwards. So every other day I will go for a walk doing 6200 steps. She was happy with that and thought it was a good idea. So now I am thinking that I won't recover as quickly as I want to, but to be honest, I am doing pretty well so far at the moment so I am not going to get hung up about it and worry. Perhaps on the days that I go walking, I will just speed it up a bit! 

I have inclluded several days into one article due to the fact that the walking is the same every day! So for these days I will mentioned that the first week I was walking steadily and changed my route a little to include a slight incline which was about quarter of a mile long. A brisk pace all the way ensured I raised my heart rate, got slightly out of breath but during and at the end I could still hold a conversation with someone. Considering I had smoked for 40 years and had a bypass, this was pretty remarkable and its such a good feel factor to be able to do that without worrying about whether I was going to keel over or have a heart attack, its invigorating and gives you great confidence. This recovery was going well and I was enjoying being outside for a walk. The rest of the time at home, I am just sat around, watching TV or using my computer but nothing else. No lifting, pushing or pulling anything. Sometimes you feel useless when others are running about doing things, and I like to help but I can't. So the daily walk is important to me. The recovery is going well and I feel the walking is a bit too easy.