Catching Up (again)

So once again, a few weeks have slipped by since I last updated. I took a second stress echo test on December 11. The test usually runs for up to 12 minutes. Most people don't go the entire 12 minutes. The point is to reach a target heart rate and then get pictures of the heart while it's pumping at that rate. My target rate was 185. After 11 minutes, I was only up to 170. I was at 4.5 mph and a 16% incline. A fast walk. As we neared the 12th minute, the doctor said he had what he needed and was going to stop the test and take the pictures. I asked to keep going because the speed was about to increase to 5.2 mph, a slow jog. He said he would let it go one minute over. At an 18% incline and with a ton of wires strapped to me and a blood pressure cuff on my arm, I finally got to jog. It was only for a minute. But it was fun.

When the test was over, the doctor looked at the pictures. His initial evaluation was positive. He said he didn't see a thing wrong. Next step...wait for my doctor to look at the results.

Friday's rehab was normal. They wouldn't increase my workload again until they heard from the doctor.

On Saturday, December 13, I picked up message on our home voice mail to which nobody had listened. Doctor Newton had called the day before with the test results. He said everything looked great and that I could start running again immediately. He cleared me to work my way back up to 10 mile runs within 30 days.

On Monday, I went back to rehab. Ed had not heard from Doctor Newton directly so no changes to my workout. Same for Wednesday. But on Friday, December 19th, everything changed.