Another Sign of My "Significant" Improvement

After the recent improvement, I decided to go to bike on Tobacco Trail. It was my dream for over a year. The difficulty was to put my bike into my car. I thought of buying a bike rack, but seeing those racks are all quite high, which require lifting when in use, I decided to just trying to put bike inside trunk of my small Rav4 SUV.

When I just bought this bicycle from store, I put it inside my SUV trunk by myself, but the consequence was  severe, it hurt my heart. Over these years I realized that "heavy lifting" can do the most damage to my heart function. Also as long as damage was done, it required days, weeks and sometime even longer to recover. So for long time I've been very careful about lifting heavy things (actually not heavy for normal people at all) so putting bike into my care was totally out of question.

However, after my recent improvement, I decided to give it a try. yesterday.I put bike into trunk first, without too much difficulty, but after having quite good time in Tobacco Trail, I found it was more difficult to do repeat this task. The last step of this task was to adjust the bike's position so I could close the trunk door, and it was proven to be a "heave lifting" and I immediately felt the violent reaction of my heart. After I got home, I had to immediately lay down and rest. Not much serious malfunction followed but I still understood (by my past experience) that I had to wait longer to see the consequence, because usually the "consequence" really came much later, usually half day or one day later.

Now 20 hours passed, though I found myself feeling somehow weak, but overall I am quite OK. I can now "jump into conclusion" that this incident did not beat me, like many time it did before. I shall rest today, and maybe tomorrow, but I know there will be no relapse followed this time.

Hallelujah!

Biking - An Improvement and An Enjoyment

Finally, after purchasing a bike for over a year, I am able to do some biking.

I bought a bike last June. Just after a couple of times riding I had some quite serious relapses followed. I realized that biking (for me) requires more heart strength. Since my heart is my major problem so I quit bike for long time. However, after feeling more energetically recently, I decided it's time to try biking again. Last Saturday, after one of parents of my students pumped air into tires of my bike (I had some difficult to do that and he was so kind to help me), I started riding bike again. Since then, I biked about 5 times, averagely once per day, and each time about 25 to 35 minutes, and I found myself not only "survived", but also feeling better. It helps my metabolism tremendously.

I don't remember it's been how long I have not enjoyed biking. The last time I really biked was over 10 years ago! Still I cannot ride bike all the way from beginning to end, because I had to stop to walk whenever go uphill (the neighborhood is not perfectly flat), even those "hills" that are not steep at all. Today, when I walked along street a lady stopped car and asked if I was alright. I thought that was very kind of her. 

Anyway, after being tired of recording the progress or declines of my chronic condition, this, truly is a major improvement that is worth for me to write down!

"Imagined Illness" - Did I Get Enough?

Again today, someone suggested that my illness was imagined. I had to explain, as brief as possible. I thought I wasn't unhappy at all, but found myself a bit frustrated later. Why? Why is it so important to convince people about the truth of what I know?
I guess, after digging deep, it is because - 1, not only "imagining illness" is not my personality, but it is also just the opposite of my personality (During my entire early life, not only I did not imagine illnesses, but also I ignored their existence. I know many normal "tough" people would call 911 if they suffer only 10% of what I suffered); 2, I am still somehow "weak", need some mental understanding and support; 3, For so long time I have not found a clear logic to refute such "theory" effectively.&

Walking

This morning, I walked around neighborhood about 25 minutes (I thought it was 30 minutes), and came back with perfect heart rate. This is a proof that my heart function has been improved greatly. Also, I have been doing some studio rearrangement these days and sometime I was very tired, then I realized that I could be in big trouble if this condition happen couple of month ago. So I am glad I am much capable of physical work now, even though I still have some other less serious symptoms.