Day 86 (231 Lbs minus approx 67)

A blast from my childhood, I have been on a TOTAL cereal kick. I ordered a bunch of the single serving boxes off of Amazon. I take them to work.

So yesterday I had my first exercise session at the MGH Cardiac Rehab unit. For those of you joining this blog already in process, I am going to these sessions because of a heart condition called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. This disease has become a bit of a regular character on TV in the past few years. Some of the shows that have used it for their characters are "Without a trace", "Eli Stone", and "One Tree Hill". I think the reason it has appeal to writers is that the victims of HCM can look, feel and act completely normal but still have an above average chance at sudden death.

Depending on whether the distortion of normal heart anatomy causes an obstruction of the outflow of blood from the left ventricle of the heart, HCM can be defined as obstructive or non-obstructive. Luckily for me, my HCM is monitored regularly and my condition is considered "non-obstructive" for now. Also, most cardiac incidents with this disease seem to happen to people under 30, so that's one advantage to my getting older. It's unclear to me at this point if the age anomaly is due to athletes being more active in their high school-college years, or if there is another reason for most sudden deaths occur to people under 30.

Another piece of good news is that there are medical interventions that can work if my cardiologists start to see advancement of this disease. There is surgery and alcohol sublimation and of course transplant. But as of last monday, the cardiologist at the Cardiac Rehab unit could not even detect the disease via stethescope.

So my cardiologist wanted me to begin my exercise journey while being monitored. So while hooked up to a bunch of electrodes and such, I jumped on the tread mill. They kept it pretty tame to begin with...I did about 40 minutes at a level incline and fairly slow speed (around 3mph). The good news is my blood pressure stayed about the same the entire time. A drop in blood pressure would have been a bad sign. So the cardiac people will monitor me for a few more sessions to see how it goes, and if need be schedule me for a stress test.

I will be allowed to lift light weights. I will learn techniques for keeping safe (no above the chest or head lifting) while still having a varied and effective workout. While you workout, one of the cardiac nurses gives lectures on various heart-related topics.

Most of the guys in rehab are coming off some sort of coronary disease / infarction. So some of them are curious as to why I'm there. But that's ok, they will grow to love me soon. It's awkward having the nurse instruct the guys about their sexual stuff...I might bring my mp3 player next time.