Busy Week

On Wednesday I went for my stress test. In more years than I can count, I was not able to walk on the treadmill and had to have an injection instead. This year they put me on the treadmill itself. I was nervous since I am still recovering from the surgery but they assured me it was safe. They set my target heart rate at 138 and told me I would walk for a minute and they would speed it up and then start an incline and things would get more intense after three minutes. After just two minutes I had hit my target rate. While that may sound good, my heart beats very fast right now. With that my blood pressure rises. They stopped the test and told me that was a baseline to see whether I should go to cardiac rehab. If so, I will have to take it slow to start out with and be closely monitored. Right after that I had an echo done. I am still waiting to hear from the cardiologist about these tests and hope it's sometime soon. He has called me late in the evening, and on weekends. He's a busy man. Yesterday I went to see my kidney specialist who was very pleased. I am down another three pounds and there seems to be no fluid that I am retaining right now. I confessed that I have been eating some salt now because my morning weights show that I am no longer retaining fluid. I am still on the medication to prevent that and I may be on it forever. That's okay as long as I am able to breathe. She thought I looked wonderful and much better than most people who are just 8 weeks post surgery. Everyone says that but my face is so thin now and my neck is a mess. I am thinking I may start wearing scarves with everything! I have some dark scars on my neck from where my swan was sewn in. My chest scar is not straight and still quite dark and much longer than the old one. I refuse to dwell on those things because I can breathe once again. After struggling for breath for the last year this thrills me. I have to remind myself to take slow that my recovery will be four months longer. In the meantime I am reading and keeping busy. I just read The Help. It was a good read. Have a great weekend.