Ideally if you’ve just had surgery or been living a mostly sedentary life, you walk a short distance. As far as you can go in a few minutes without stressing yourself. Then slowly increase from there.
What worked for me was a two minute walk that I stretched out to three minutes after three days. Then increased it to five minutes for a week. After the week I felt much better and noted that my walking pace was increasing. I wasn’t back up to my pre-hospitalization speed but was feeling stronger.
I utilized the health app on my cell phone to keep track of my walking time and number of steps I was taking. So for the first week I worked up to five minute walks. Then spent the next week doing daily five minute walks.
The third week I doubled up to 10 minutes, that would be equal to a good half mile walk. Not too bad for having been in the hospital a few weeks before. Still on a 10 minute walk a day, I get hit with another setback.
The day started out fine but I was feeling tired and shortened my walk by half. Then I get a call from the cardiologist office. It’s been 4 weeks since my surgery and I’m still wearing a heart monitor. It has recorded an anomaly and transmitted the data to the monitoring station who notifies the doctor’s office.
I am informed that my heart rate has slowed to forty beats a minute. And I am asked to report to the Emergency Room. Oh joy. More fun.
At the ER I get checked out and my heart is at 36 BPM. By the time they get me situated and into a room upstairs I’m down to 30 BPM. Doctor comes in and informs me I need a pacemaker. Apparently the valve replacement surgery has healed up and caused some scar tissue which is apparently blocking the signal route to the lower chambers of the heart.
Long story short, I get a pacemaker that evening. I am informed later that prior to surgery my heart rate has dropped to 20 BPM. Two nights in the hospital I go home on a limited activity restriction. No walking for 10 days.
Then I get to start over. A bit tired from everything, I start with 5 minute walks. Up it to 10 after a week or so and eventually make it up to 20 minute walks in 5 minute increments. It takes a little over a month. That’s a whole mile.
In another month I am at 40 minutes, completing two miles. I had one step between one and two miles at a mile and a half. The best part is being able to complete the walks without being out of breath. No huffing and puffing.
I am also able to push my heart by pushing my speed. Not really fast but I go from an average of 2.0 MPH for a short walk up to 3.0 MPH. Now that I am doing two mile walks I want to push it a bit more. Build strength and speed.
My speed goes up to an average of 3.1 MPH and then 3.2 MPH. Not speedy but faster than some. I wonder if I can get it up to 4.0. We’ll see.
The moral here is that no matter where you are at when you start, you can improve your health by walking. Get your physician’s approval before starting. Don’t push yourself too hard. Increase your time and speed as you are able and enjoy it.
That’s my story on getting back to walking. I have always enjoyed walking. I check out what nature and beauty there is. I love checking out gardens and seeing what flowers I can identify. And identifying birds, visually and by their song.
Until next time.
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