I cannot say a lot happened today as I made an effort to take a rest day. Yesterday was a big day for walking and I did things for the first time. I watched a little football today, the end of the Red's last baseball game for 2019 but spent most of the afternoon on the phone talking to two old friends that have had heart surgeries. One friend just had his 8th heart attack at 66 years old. My other friend at 65 years old had his heart surgery a few years ago. But that is not all of the medical talk ... MJ my dog sitter stopped by yesterday to see the hounds and pick the check for the last week she worked ... she fell last week and broke her arm !!!
After waking up at 4am for the first time of the night I couldn't go back to sleep and finally gave up about 45 minutes later deciding it was time to make coffee. The hounds never woke up to follow me to the kitchen so they must have finally fallen back into their routine. In fact at 6am they were still sleeping and no whining for breakfast.
I could tell by the time I walked to the kitchen with the walker that I was stronger than yesterday and felt no soreness in the hip or leg after my long walk to the mailbox and back Saturday afternoon. That mailbox is across the street, around the curve three houses down and then about a half a block after that. The post man left the biggest Amazon box on my porch but put the three other Amazon padded envelopes in my narrow mailbox along with some letter mail.
I took it slow. I took short steps and I stayed on the sidewalk, always aware of the uneven sections and making sure my cane was near while walking. Yet ... I did most the walk on my own, slowly, holding the cane in case I needed to balance myself. At no time did I feel dizzy or lightheaded. As soon as I got home, I opened up the packages that included another seat cushion, some DVDs and a couple of books.
I could tell the walk took something out of me so I laid down for about an hour and eventually fell into a 30 minute siesta.
I have walked about a 1/3 of what I have the past three to four days. I wanted to rest, relax and let the muscles recuperate as if I was taking a day off from riding a bike. I am kind of in a 'danger zone' because I felt so good today. I did a lot of walking inside the house on my own without a cane or the walker. I watched how I turned walking and how I turned going from the fridge to the kitchen counter. A few times I actually forgot what my situation was. That is not a good thing ... it's when mistakes are made.
So I am kind of between what to do. My doctor told me to "listen to my body" and walk. Well my body tells me to walk on my own with no support. Friends I have talked to today all say I need to walk with my cane no matter what. "It's only been 3 weeks" they say. My two heart surgery friends tell me they would walk with the cane at this point in time no matter how good they felt.
My hospital booklet tells me I can drive between 3-6 weeks. I have only a couple of places I need to go to but neither trip involves any kind of shopping. I will continue to have groceries delivered for months from now. I will call the doctors office tomorrow to see if I can drive or not. I feel like I can and with the seat cushion that came yesterday it is also for car seats giving me just enough height to get in and out of the car without breaking any rules.
I've thought more than I wanted to about my heart condition and that might have been brought on by the two long phone conversations with the two friends I spoke of. At least I will have everything lined up if I have to have surgery out of town. Someone to take care of the hounds and another keep an eye out on the house. I would prefer to have someone live here 24/7 while I am out of town for surgery. MJ said she will still be able to do her job after the put a new hard cast on her forearm Monday. She might know someone to stay here full time with the hounds.
I have also thought about diets today ... lots of thinking ... too much sitting around ... too much letting my mind wander. Like I have said before there is just so much diet information out there I don't know what is the best, who to believe etc. Every doctor, friend, etc has their own ideas on the best diet and they are all different.
One good thing ... all these people that I talked to, including the neighbor that had knee replacement surgery, from heart surgeries to knee replacements ... they all survived their surgeries and are back doing their normal hobbies and activities.
A lot on my mind today ... I need to get started on one of those new books I ordered.
The perfect weather day her in the Wild West today.
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