First week of cardiac rehab

Monday 17 mins treadmill, 15 mins bike, 10 mins hand cycle
Tuesday 20' on Bird (shhh not supposed to), Dr L appt, nutritionist appt
Wednesday 30 mins treadmill, 15 mins bike, 10 mins hand cycle

Monday I wasn't in the best of moods for rehab, why was I so negative? I guess it's my reaction to doing something new I don't want to do? Really though it wasn't hard, I don't mean the workout, I mean going to rehab and jumping through the hoops.

I arrived early, filled out my paper, grabbed a monitor and my pouch to carry it. I didn't want to do the warm-up (seriously, I'm already warmed up by 9 am, I've walked the dog and more) and besides the warm up exercises just seem dumb. Blood pressure 80/50 something, off to treadmill. They check on me a few times, check BP, ask about exertion level (exertion?! at 2.5 mph?!). I went over my 10 mins, headed towards 15 and they said OK go 15, I kept going....   Off to bike, again I went over time. Then hand cycle, where I did NOT go over time. They asked about pain, yeah some, more after the session though. Like I was punched in the sternum. Before leaving I marked my ziplock bag for my pouch with a Hello Kitty "awesome" sticker :)

Tuesday an appt with Dr L, I started it off dumb and made a really unnecessary comment about something, his response was polite but told me I was out of line. I want to say it wasn't a mean thing I said, but it was mean. In the end, my only complaint was the left leg pain in bed, and he only found issue in my lower back. So the lumbar disk stuff again.

Later Tuesday I had a last-minute appt with a nutritionist in West County. So more driving. I went into this with trepidation but a forced open mind. I wanted to hear what she had to say, but didn't want to hear what I had to change or had to avoid and had to not do. I was happy to hear she'd heard of FODMAPs (but maybe not SCD) and understood the elimination/reintroduction. Her hubby is a triathlete and she was a little confused by my non-car-loading (she said I was an outlier for that) (yeah, I'm an outlier...).  In the end, I should reduce saturated fat (beef, dairy), not worry so much on cholesterol, and increase soluble fiber. She also noted that my blood tests were also outliers -- that I can't attribute this to diet alone and I should follow up on lipidologist referral. She's thinking a lot of stuff, but I'm going to wait until I hear from said lipid specialist before too much speculation. And dietary change.

And don't tell anyone, but I did another 20 mins on the Bird after dinner. And I stopped taking the metoprolol blood pressure med. I felt so flat, and no energy, and no taste, and standing up was dizzying. But I'm on such a low dose, I think it's all in my head.

In the parking lot after this appt, I found a reply message from Dr A, said he put in a referral to lipid specialist. And that you can't eat your way to my blood numbers. Which, btw, were Trigs 46, HDL 135, and LDL 350. Yeah, Outliers.

Wednesday I had 2 of 36 rehab, I went in again in a forced better mood and did better. Hello Kitty helped my find my bag. I skipped the warm up and cool down (seriously, calf stretches and arm circles won't do it for me). I was allowed 20 mins on treadmill at 2.7 mph, somehow managed 30 mins haha. Again they asked about pain. And I asked if I can swim, do push-ups, or do planks (as recommended by Dr L). No, No, and No. Dammit.  While on the treadmill I had mild pain come and go. Then off to the bike, where I got 4.1 miles done! Again, didn't go over on the hand cycle thing. But I did turn up the resistance and tried to get up to 90 rpms.

DK texted as I left rehab, TaraB called me at work, lunch with TV, then quiet the rest of the day. Built a spreadsheet comparing saturated fats and cholesterol in common foods, then comparison with swaps. Do I really eat that much sat fat? Denial.....

Got an appt with Dr Semenkovich for lipids, gotta wait a few weeks on that. Will I make dietary changes between now and then? Yeah, obsessive as I am.Did some research on secondary (non-genetic causes of hyperlipidemia). TV suggested looking into the bile salts connection, given my gall bladder issues, but I'm not seeing a connection yet. Then looked in to hypothyroid connection, my thyroid tests came back normal, but....?

Thursday, not much. Did 20 mins on Bird maybe.

Friday rehab -- now I can confirm a pattern of symptoms, that may or may not start on the treadmill. But definitely on the bike -- chest discomfort, throat pain mostly on left side, and mild headache. Marsha will talk to Dr W and get back to me. When she called later, it was more of the same -- is it like the initial attacks?  No, but....

Saturday and Sunday -- took it easy. Wanted to hike but didn't. Mostly hung around the house and took the doggie for long slow walks. Symptoms not really notable.