It May Be a Little Early…

But I think I may have dodged a bullet.

I met with my Cardiologist today for a Stress test to see how my heart is responding to all the medications I’ve been prescribed.

I’m not sure what’s more stressful, being wired up to the machine, or walking at an ever increasing incline and speed for as long as possible.  The best thing about the whole process was I didn’t have to stop because of my heart, my calves cramped before that ever became an issue.

To think that a little over three weeks ago, walking more than 20 metres had me feeling like I was going to die, breaking out in a sweat, gasping for air and with tightness in my chest, and today I could walk high speed on an incline for 10 minutes before breaking into a sweat,  and breathing a little harder, with NO tightness in my chest.  A breakthrough.

The echo cardiogram showed that my heart has strengthened  a little, but my heart valves have pretty much recovered.  A sign according to my Doctor that my issues were of viral origin.

I’m now allowed to commence cardio workouts again o whatever level is comfortable for me, and encouraged to continue improving and increasing them.  I’m still caffeine and alcohol free, notthat I drank a great deal of either, but it is kind of tedious being told you have Congestive Heart Failure in one sentence, and “Don’t drink alcohol” in the next.  It’s one of those few times when you REALLY want a drink!  Salt is also off the dietary list, not that I add salt either, but as I’ve come to notice salt is in EVERYTHING, primarily processed and restaurant foods.  So we’ve been cooking a lot more, which isn’t such a bad thing either.

So as of today, more cardio has been authorised, my medications increased yet again, I’m not taking 72 hours of one drug in a 24 hour period, and 48 hours of another in the same time frame, and will continue to do so for the time being.  They’re function is to lower my blood pressure even further and strengthen my heart muscle.  I’ve even been fortunate enough (to date, and touching wood) to not have had any side effects or dizziness from the changed blood pressure.

So good news, but as I said, I’m not getting too ahead of myself.

After all of that we caught up with a good friend; Jeff for dinner, and a swathe of chocolatey goodness before heading home for the evening, where I’ve decided that my future will be chocolate free for a while.

A great start to the weekend! 🙂