"And we're walking"
8/18/2009
August 18th
“Well, I’ve Never been to Spain but I Kinda Like The Music.”
By Waylon Jennings
As the weeks progressed my ability to tolerate the heart drugs improved, but the fact still remained I was a cardiac patient. I was still short of breath and found that my heart pounding “thuds” continued to unnerve me. I called the doctor for reassurance. She didn’t give me much.
“You’re still in heart failure. Remember when I said your ejection fraction had to come up?”
“Yes.”
“Well, if it doesn’t and these ‘thuds” as you call them continue we’ll have to put a internal cardiac defibrillator in place. How are you doing on your walking?”
“My walking? Oh, I’m doing pretty good.”
“What exactly does pretty good mean?” She was probing for information. Her voiced sounded like she was smiling.
“About 45 minutes a day.” I didn’t know why I was being so vague. I do remember I had a nagging feeling that my casual walking days were about to end.
“I need you walking ten thousand steps a day. Your heart muscle needs to get stronger and the Japanese have done studies that show ten thousand steps a day is what you need to be doing. Get yourself a pedometer and check in with me on your next visit.”
When I told my husband what the doctor had said I distinctly saw his eyes light up when I mentioned the word pedometer. I felt compelled to give him a word of caution. “Oh, no you don’t. We are not doing another flow sheet.” He opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again. “Wise choice,” was my indelicate affirming response.
Within forty-eight hours I became the proud owner of a new pedometer and started walking almost immediately. It didn’t take me long to figure out that unless I started every morning with a five mile walk, the longed for goal of ten thousand steps would simply remain a fantasy number on some study from a Japanese doctor’s research lab.
“These hills are hard!” I wailed one day as we moved onto mile number five. I would love to say that my husband had sympathy for my plight and offered to go get the car. He did not.
He has offered to walk with me, he said, not carry me. He believes his job is to encourage me, not give in. He then goes on to tell me we still have trips to take together. He tries to lift my spirits by telling me that the world is waiting for us and it’s just over the horizon or “in your case after the next mile.”
He needs me, he tells me, to be travel ready. He reminds me that we have traveled well together. It is probably the thing we have always done best. Africa is waiting. Greece is waiting.
“Florence” I said. “Isn’t Florence waiting?”
It has now turned into a game we play. “Hmm, yes.” He says slightly out of breath himself. “Wait a minute. We’ve already been there. How about Spain?”
“Spain? Spain sounds good. There’s so much of Spain we haven’t seen. Remember that amazing Fada music we heard in Barcelona?”
Annnd, we’re walking....
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Posted 8/18/2009 in Misc | |
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