Plumo Rehab day 29

[bobbioh]

DAY 29 - PULMONARY REHABILITATION

Today was an unusual day at rehab. The "oxygen man" as I call him, came this morning to refill my liquid oxygen tank, so I was not able to attend my normal 11:00am rehab class. I knew that a lot of people were not going to be there today due to company arriving, travel, etc. I decided to attend the 1:00pm class since next Tuesday is Christmas, and rehab will be closed.

There were only three people at rehab today at the time I attended. It felt so strange, and I didn't know either of the people. However, I have now made two new copd friends. Both of them work part time jobs in the mornings and therefore, they attend rehab after lunch. It was a nice change.

The time went by so quickly. I normally spend time talking to people or at least speaking and saying , but it was empty today and almost echoed in the gym. My stats were good, and my warm up walk and exercises went well. I did as was requested at my evaluation....which was to "not" start my warm up walk "briskly" but to start slowly and then walk faster. I did that and also some extra stretches.

I stuck to my normal schedule of 20 minutes on the bike at a level of 6-7 and 20 minutes on the Treadmill at 2.4 miles per hour. Most of the RT's were on vacation, so there was one RT there along with one nurse.

My cool down walk and exercises went well, and my stats were fine. I was hoping the RT would show me the upper body exercise machine I am interested in using, but they looked busy at the desk, so I decided not to ask but will wait until after the new year.

As I drove away, I looked up at the hospital and said a little prayer for all those hospitalized right now. I felt grateful that I was driving away and going home and sleeping in my own bed tonight and not a hospital bed. Rehab will resume next Thursday, so I will post again at that time.

Merry Christmas to all---Joyce