Welcome back to the week five edition of the Tundra_Man heart surgery newsletter. I'm hoping this week's episode is a little shorter, as I continue my recovery and slowly return back to normal life, whatever "normal" is.

The first bit of good news is the reduction in one of my blood pressure medications seemed to do the trick to fix the issues I was having a couple weeks ago. Since the change I haven't had any incidents with my blood pressure dropping down to unreadable levels, and even better no fainting. They wanted my at-rest systolic (first number in a blood pressure reading) to be under 120, and for the most part it's been hovering around 115. During exercise it's been raising up to between 130 and 140, which is normal when you're working hard. Post-exercise, which is where I'd been having the problems, it now temporarily dips to around 95. 95 is on the low side of normal, but I'm still feeling OK so I can live with that. 95 definitely feels better than 65.

The pain has diminished from last week. As the doctor suspected, my increased pain levels I was feeling were most likely due to pulling an already stressed chest muscle a bit too much. This week it is markedly better. My incision area is also starting to feel better. Previously if I were to press on the scar (or lean against something with my chest) it hurt quite a bit. Now it's down to a noticeable, but mild discomfort. So that's encouraging because the incision seemed to be visually healing quite well, but the pain hadn't changed much from surgery day all the way until this week. Plus the cat seems to have radar and always manages to put a paw right on the scar, and now it just makes me wince instead of cry. The sneeze count is up to 14, and still hurts but is no longer the traumatic event it originally was.

Cardiac rehab has been going well. I've gotten to know some of the other patients in my class so I no longer feel like the "freak in the corner." I still am the freak in the corner, I just don't feel like it. Since my surgery date I've walked 104 miles. This last week was again lighter than I wanted mostly due to weather.

My blood thickness has now been in range for three consecutive appointments, so I'm hoping that's getting dialed in. If Friday's check turns out to be in range then I get to graduate to two-week intervals between pokes. Last weekend I had an altercation with the serrated edge on a tape gun and noticed that I now bleed for a few minutes on a cut that I probably wouldn't have seen any blood before I was on blood thinners. So that's one of the obvious things I'm going to have to get used to going forward. In the "living with blood thinners" video they showed me back when I was in the hospital they emphasized being careful to avoid cutting or bumping yourself. Ummm... it's obvious whoever made that video doesn't know me. Might as well tell an ostrich to be more graceful.

My target date to return to work is Monday June 10th. The surgeon's office said I could return now "if you really need to" but strongly encouraged me to take the time if I could. Some days I feel like I could easily go back to work, but I still have other days where I peter out after a few hours of activity and need a nap. I decided as much as I like getting paid, I'm going to hold off for another week and a half and try to recover a bit more before re-entering the work force. The 10th will be six weeks since I was discharged from the hospital and all activity restrictions will be lifted, so I won't have to worry about accidentally doing something to damage my sternum or incisions. Plus, until the 10th I still have a lot of appointments at the hospital so I'd be constantly leaving. After the 10th my hospital visits should significantly diminish in quantity, which will be nice. Not that I don't like the people at the hospital, but I've been there so much this last month that it's starting to feel like a second home.

So that's pretty much all there is to report on the recovery front. With all the rain Lake Tundra is still thriving behind my garage, but so far hasn't attracted pelicans so that's a good sign.