Sue 's Journal

Marie Myers  I was 63 at the time of my surgery, and I started rehab at 3 weeks post op.  My rehab consisted of treadmill, bicycle, and combo arm/ stepper machine. I started slowly doing about 5 minutes on each one, and increased to 20 minutes for each machine. My rehab was 3 days a week for 36 sessions. You could do this yourself at home, but you would miss the monitoring that goes with it. My blood pressure was checked 3 times each session, and I was on EKG monitor during the session. Luckily, I did not have any issues doing rehab. I was very active before my surgery, and my  cardiologist  said I could skip the rehab if it was “too lame”. I did enjoy the rehab, and it gave me some confidence to get active again. If insurance didn’t pay or if rehab was too far away, I probably would have skipped it. Hope that info helps!

Pamela Gregory  Hi Sue. I am 55 in pretty good physical condition and started cardiac rehab 8 weeks after AVR. I also did 36 sessions (I think that's all insurance pays for haha!!!) and it was the best thing for me no question. The monitor your heart the whole time and take blood pressure before and after. It gave me a ton of confidence to believe that my heart was going to work ok again. The people were amazing too as I had a few complete mental meltdowns while I was there. They were amazing and I highly recommend going!

Klara Čičić  Hi Sue, I was 33 and I started rehab 2 months after the surgery, it was right time for me, I wouldn't have liked it sooner than that. 

STEPHEN MORRIS  I think you basically start right after surgery, as they get you up and walking. The actual going to cardiac rehab was scheduled for me about a month after discharge. I  went once a week and did daily what they recommended. It was a roller coaster as some weeks I was able to do more and others not so much (Dr. Said due to medication change) Try not to push it, as they are experts at what they do.