Hospital Recovery: Monday to Wednesday

Today

Today is Wednesday November 18 and I may have overdone things a little. I did four walks earlier in the day. The total minutes from all the walks add up to over an hour. My longest individual walk was 21 minutes, all the way to the fountain near the Laguna Town Hall, if you know our area. Right now I feel a little warm after so much activity. I also got some blood work done and had coffee at Peets with Meg. While at the hospital, Dr. DCM encouraged me to increase my activity by 50 percent each day. I'm still trying to figure out how much to add. Tomorrow and I can talk about exercise goals with my cardiologist, Dr. M. in Sacramento.

Recovering Monday 11-9 Through Wednesday 11-11

In general each day I got a little better and stronger. I tended to get more sleep at night. I had a shower one day and that felt great. I did it myself with Meg handing me things that I needed. I did the four short walks each day around the floor. Sometimes my first walk was early in the morning after vitals were taken, but before the team made rounds. Sometimes the San Francisco Chronicle was available and I would pick up a copy.

On Monday and Tuesday, progress was steady. Things like getting out of bed, walking, and using the urinal became easier as time went along. Many times each day I was supposed to use a breathing device(called an incentive spirometer) to measure the volume of my breaths. Though I was active in terms of walking, it was difficult for me to get to 750 ML on the device. Even today (Nov. 18), the most I can get is just over 2000.

Wednesday, in contrast to the slow but steady progress of the earlier part of the week, was a day of ups and downs. I started out strong. I did my walk. But I still couldn't take deep breaths. The kids arrived around lunch time and it was great to see them. Because of H1N1, most hospitals, including Stanford, require children to be at least 16 in order to come inside for visiting. With Sean at age 13, we decided to meet Zoe and Sean in the garden area in front of the main entrance. It was good to see both of them while I stayed in a wheel chair. They had lots of questions. I showed them the top of my scar, which they were curious about. Both now tell me a I looked a little gray, and they had expected me to look better. I did look better (or at least felt better) earlier that day. But by lunchtime when they arrived, I was very tired.

Sometime on Wednesday morning PA Y stopped by. She said that I was still retaining too much fluid and would not be going home that day. My weight was still significantly higher than when I checked in. At some point that day I had a chest CT.

Later that day the cardiac rehabilitation nurse visited us, and I had trouble keeping my eyes open. On the one hand, she noted I was doing very well in terms of my activity. On the other hand, deep breaths were difficult and I couldn't register much volume on the spirometer. Later, the physical therapist visited me and we a had good session which included climbing some stairs. As a reward, she found some chocolate ice cream for me in the refrigerator. The day ended on a high as I perked up in the evening. I remember spending at lot of time with my mom that night.

Tomorrow, I will write about the events of Thursday November 12, which turned out to be the key to my final hospital recovery. As I finish writing tonight around 9, I actually feel pretty good.