Graduation!

So today was cardiac rehab graduation today for myself, which I am happy and also sad.  I am happy that I have learned so much about heart rate zones and where I need to be.  Then I also learned about blood pressure and where I should be and what to do if I have low blood pressure.  They told me a while back to get a blood pressure monitor for my house but I never got one because I couldn't tell you what those numbers meant if it depended on my life.  Now after 12 weeks of rehab and me asking a thousand questions I know my blood pressure limits and what to do if they drop and I feel comfortable that I am not wasting 80 bucks on random medical stuff that means nothing to me when I eventually get one. 

I learned the most from bugging all the other patients in rehab about what procedure they had done, how they knew to seek medical advice, and how they felt in general about what people around them reacted to their diagnosis and how they felt personally about their own heart issues.  This is the part I am most sad about, before rehab it was just me trying to figure out this stuff alone.  Then once in rehab I had a network of professionals and patients that I could use as my support system.  Heck the second time I went to the hospital one of the ladies at rehab was already showing me some interesting things on my EKG while running that eventually led to my pericarditis diagnosis.  It does bother me a little to not have this vast network at my disposal three days a week any longer but they gave me all their contact information to keep bugging them.

One of my favorite movies is "About a Boy" and the theme throughout the movie is Hugh Grant saying: a man is an island.  Then in the end he realizes that man is not an island and we have to create a network of people that will support each other.    Ever since I have found this philosophy with my diabetes and now with my heart stint, I know that my network of people constantly grows and am better prepared for anything else that life throws at me.