Hiking back to health after open heart surgery

There are many steps from rolling out of a hospital bed after open heart surgery to the top of a mountain.

That’s the goal, but it’s early days yet. And it’s nothing unusual. There are plenty of stories about heart surgery patients who have scaled more heights than I want to, such as Mount Everest and Kilimanjaro.

Heck, I’d be satisfied to get to the top of Pilchuck by the end of summer and gain back some of the level of activity I had before before my aorta went kablooey, or in medical terms, dissected.

Long story short: Dec. 26, I was home alone in the kitchen. An intense pain hit the middle of my chest and traveled down to my lower abdomen. I grabbed the phone and called 911 and hung on talking to the dispatcher.

My legs went numb, I was feeling faint, and I lay down in the open doorway, just as the aid crew pulled up in the nick of time.

Off to Providence Hospital emergency room and eventually to surgery while my wife worried the night away, and I was blissfully unconscious.

Happy to say, I did wake up a day or two later, although without a clue as to where I was, or why, for a while.

Needless to say, I was lucky to be alive.

And lucky to be on my feet again eventually, although those first steps after a few days in bed were walker-assisted with a nurse by my side — and not very far-ranging.

But by the end of the nine-day hospital stay we (a nurse or my wife on my elbow) were cruising, without the walker, around the whole ward. Well, not very fast.

I can say the benefits and necessity of exercise, particularly walking, for post-operative patients were preached by doctors, nurses and therapists. The emphasis was on frequency and time, not speed and distance.

When we arrived home, the first few days involved walks around the house, circling through rooms a couple of times a day and, after a time, up and down a short flight of stairs, which was very tiring.

After several days, we ventured outside. (“We,” of course, are the wife and I. Walking alone soon after surgery is highly discouraged.) A stroll down the block and back was moderately exhausting, and it took more than a few days to make it around the block.

But day by day and week by week we extended the walks through the mostly levels areas of the neighborhood, reaching 20 to 30 minutes and even picking up the pace a bit at eight weeks post surgery.

Now, at 12 weeks out, the level walking is going fine, but anything more than a moderate elevation gain requires rest stops.

So the next step is to check with the doctor about what’s safe for me now and in the long run. That usually involves a stress test.

Once that’s established, I intend to continue daily walks, plus a weekend treat of revisiting some favorite walking routes and trails, building up strength and going upward in increments. Eventually, we should reach a peak.

Readers can stay tuned for my progress, along with information about trails in the area.

Ron Ramey: 425-339-3443; ramey@heraldnet.com

Post-operative exercise guidelines