Day 2
Today it was a pleasure to have woken up after my 1st decent sleep after 2 weeks. I woke up many times due to the discomfort in my chest and a particular muscle that caused a lot of pain under my right ribcage.
I found out that I had quite a lot of bruising around my stomach and around the sides for some reason. I couldn't see it but my partner definitely could.
So today was my first proper walk outside. The cardio handbook says for the first week, do a 5min walk, 2nd week was 10mins and so on. At the six week point you are supposed to be able to do a 30min walk, briskly for part of it, raise your heart rate to the point of being slightly out of breath but still able to hold a conversation.
Off I went with my partner and we took a stroll down by the river. It was lovely to be outside in nature. The smells, the sights, it was just lovely. It was a gentle walk, a little down the road, I speeded up and all the while taking as deep a breath as possible (thats what the handbook says) but thats not easy when your chest has been ripped open!! So with a little pain, I took some breaths as deep as i dare and it was ok. Got a bit breathless whilst walking at a brisk pace, and that is completely normal and stopped once or twice to view the river and to see if we could spot any wildlife.
We turned around and set back off for home. Brisk pace, but the last part was a nice slow walk. Its a typical warm up, warm down exercise routine. I have done it thousands of times in the Army, so am well versed with the idea.
When I got back home, it was then apparent that I had been out almost 30mins!! So I was now doing exercise at the six week point on my first walk!! Thats perhaps stupid, but I felt absolutely fine. These exercises are generic, so the handbook suggestions are probably perfect for people in their 70's+ but thats not me. Always been fairly fit before my heart attack, never been on medication before, and rarely ever went to the doctors, so I am thinking that I am going to respond quickly and effectively than other people. To be honest, after my walk, I felt really good. It was so good to be out and walking in the fresh air and I had no issues with aches pains or anything else. Looking forward to tomorrow......