Cardiac Rehab

A week after surgery, I'm feeling pretty well and am cleared to start cardiac rehabilitation (rehab).

What the heck?

It's exercising at low intensities, while being carefully monitored, in a hospital setting, so they can make sure my new heart valve is behaving.

So I start about 10 weeks of walking on a treadmill and riding a recumbent bike while having my BP, heart rate, and O2 levels checked regularly, and while being hooked up to a heart monitor.

Because our insurance is Blue Cross/Blue Shield, I get to drive to Timpanogos Regional Hospital and attend rehab there.

We start really slow at 7 minutes of walking and 7 minutes of biking at really low speeds.

The goal is to build up to about 30 minutes of each, with gradually increasing speeds and intensities.

Penny, the RN assigned to rehab, is great to work with--thankfully. Otherwise, I'm not sure how dedicated I'd be to this whole routine. And her schedule is pretty flexible--anytime between 9 a.m. and about 3:30 p.m. works.

But, when am I supposed to be able to work? All of these follow up appointments are killing my available hours.

With about three weeks left, our insurance changes, so I have to switch to doing cardiac rehab at UVRMC in Provo. Yeah, that's not much fun. Plus, their protocols are so different.

At Timp, there were at most three other patients. Usually, it was just one other patient besides me, using the 2 treadmills and 2 recumbent bicycles.

At UVRMC, there are about 30 other patients in a huge room, with about 15 treadmills, 5 recumbent bikes, and some different equipment I've never seen before. Plus, they have very specific protocols about the two-hour time window they run rehab, wearing name tags, signing in, doing warm ups, waiting for someone to help you before moving to the next part of your routine.

It's a giant pain--not to mention the even longer drive. Now I have to pass American Fork Hospital and Timpanogos Regional Hospital before getting to UVRMC.

They tell me that their protocol is to get people to tolerate 60 minutes of activity. I'm already there and at a higher intensity than any other patients, so they're advancing to Phase 3 of rehab.

If they think I'm good enough, I decide I'm good enough too. I don't show up for my scheduled Phase 3 appointment, and no one calls to follow up, so I drop out and don't go back.