Saturday, October 15, 2011

Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Thursday, Oct. 13th was  Nicole's last pulmonary rehabilitation session.  We have been going twice a week for the last four and a half weeks.  She will have another 6 MW (minute walk)  test and then our last educational class which is on stress management... something that I definitely could use.

On the first day of rehab she did a 6MW(minute walk)  test in which she walked 710 ft.  I am so hoping that she will improve this today.   During her rehab visits she walks on the treadmill, does an arm bike, rides a stationary bike and than does a nu step machine.  Her first day she was able to do 1 min. on the treadmill, 3 min. on the arm bike, 2 min. on the nu step and 2 min. on the stationary bike for a total of 7 mins. total exercise.  I don't have a copy of the breakdown of each piece of equipment from Tuesday but I know she was up to 26 minutes of working out.

I am so proud of the progress she has made.  I know that this has come at quite a cost to Nicole with the fatigue and just overall not feeling well due to the busyness with the rehab and all the doctor's appointment we have this month.

I am grateful for the rheumatologist who really pushed me to talk to her doctors about this and I'm grateful to the cardiologist for actually ordering it.

I am grateful for all the respiratory therapists and all the patients at rehab who were so kind and nice to Nicole. They usually don't see such young patients.

I pray that I will be able to stay committed to making Nicole exercise every day (or at least 5 days) even if she only rides the bike we have for 5 minutes or even if we walk up our street and back so she will not lose what she just worked so hard to achieve.  Just like with other things I will have to be her motivation.

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