What is the best walking pace after a double bypass?

They had me climb a flight of stairs in the hospital before they let me loose. They sent me home with instructions for walking every day. I was to walk a certain distance or number of minutes (I don't remember which) each day that increased each day. It may have been a certain number of steps each time at first. I remember walking out the front door onto the sidewalk and back, a distance of about 15 feet. Next day along the sidewalk to the driveway, next day part way down the driveway, next day further down the driveway, and more each day. My driveway is 170 feet long and that was a huge milestone. It was heaven when I finally went up the sidewalk far enough to encounter a neighbor to talk to and eventually all the way to the corner of the street. All of this was part of the instructions they sent home with me so I think it must have been done by timing the walk later on.

The pace was as fast as I felt like walking with encouragement to make it faster. The diner where I meet friends and get the daily paper is nearly a half mile away so that was a great goal. One day while sitting there I began to feel like I might pass out and a friend who had gone through lung surgery recognized the symptoms as BP med induced so he gave me a ride home. I began running part way over there each day and eventually got so I was able to run all the way ---- both ways.

Other than the first few days where they said exactly how much they wanted me to do there was never any limit on how far to walk or how fast. Just whatever I felt like with encouragement to keep increasing it. I think it was about 2 months when they signed me up for cardiac rehab where I got a well monitored exercise program.

 

Hey guys,

Was it hard for you, njoynlife? I mean, that requires a lot of patience in the first place. It would probably be hard for me to follow the given instructions since I would want to go jogging the first day they let me out of the hospital.

As you wrote, njoynlife, you are given instructions to follow once they let you out of the hospital. It is basically to climb a few stairs a day, to walk a bit everyday and to avoid any heavy structured exercises, since these could lead to additional complications.

You will progressively regain your energy over a few months after the surgery.

After the bypass surgery I had no desire to go jogging for a week or so anyway. My bedroom and bathroom are on the second floor so I climbed a flight of stairs more than once a day. Being a self employed TV tech though I did push the envelope a bit on getting back to work. No work = no money. I wasn't lifting 75 pound TVs the first week but I know I pushed it as far as I felt I could without injuring myself and probably more than they would have liked. You can tell if what you are trying to do is straining things that need to be still to heal back together. I found ways to move heavy TVs without putting undue strain on my chest, mainly using my legs to push them around.

Hey guys,

It is not smart at all to lift heavy objects after a bypass, njoynlife, you know this very good. Good thing you didn't do it, at least in the first week. Although you should have waited for at least about a month until lifting those TV's in order to get used to it by lifting other, lighter things and in order to start exercising more.

As Adria and njoynlife already wrote, Health n Joy, you will do this step by step. Literally. Your doctor should have gave you clear instructions on how much to walk in the first few days, and what exercises are you allowed to do.

Hello everyone. I hope that you are doing fine.

Njoynlife, your advice and your posts are really amazing. Please, keep going. You don’t have an idea how many things I have learned from you.

I am happy because I found this topic since my aunt has a lot of problem with this. She had double bypass surgery almost a month ago and she is really weird since that day. I really hope that your advice and your comments will be helpful to us all. We still are trying to find the best walking pace for her after this surgery.

Thank you! 

Hey everyone,

Adria is right, Health n Joy, you should have received these instructions from your doctor. I think that the best solution would be that you contact him and ask him to give you instructions, but on the other hand, you can just follow the same things that njoynlife did. 

Follow what he wrote, you don't have to do exactly what he did, but make it similar at least. Climb a few stairs a day, you will see for yourself how many can you take in the beginning. Follow how he used to walk in the beginning and make your walks longer each day, at least for a bit.

Hey there.

I agree that we can give you nice advice in here, that you can catch a lot of useful information, but unfortunately we can’t help you as much as we want to. Why? Because you really should look for advice from your doctor.

I remember that my friend once told me that the best walking pace after this surgery is easy walking and slow running. But I think that this really depends on your condition.

And there is no one who can tell you better how to behave than your doctor. He knows your condition and he is just the right person for this. Good luck.

I remembered something that I feel I need to tell you about. When I got out of the recovery room and back in a regular room my roommate was a 70 year old man who had bypass surgery a day or two before me so he was further along in the healing process. Having him there to talk to was a tremendous help and I credit him for much of my recovery success. He mentioned he just had his second bypass surgery after twenty years. I replied "second one? the next time they can take me out in the woods and shoot me". I was not feeling too chipper right after the surgery. He told me he had the best 20 years of his life after the first one and I had plenty to look forward to. I feel his attitude did wonders for mine and now I can say he was right. I'm 20 years and 4 days now and I've had the best 20 years of my life too. The people you meet during the recovery have a huge effect on how you do and keeping a positive attitude is mandatory. Cardiac rehab classes are the best thing you can do.

Well, thank you for sharing this with me. I would like that this is the case with my aunt as well, but it is not. No matter how hard we are trying to keep her positive, she is so depressive. I remember that one lady (she is 61 years old I think) – she had three surgeries in a very short time, and she told my aunt – Lady, this is not the end of the world. Get up and live your life, you are very young to be depressed. Those words are ringing in my head, like a bell but my aunt still don’t want to get up from her bed and live her life. I suppose that depression comes with surgeries, I don’t know. I will try to cheer her up. But the problem is because she is really hardheaded lady and I don’t know how to do this :/

I had quad by pass surgery,,,a week out of the hospital Westchester Medical center..I walked 3.7 miles..I was told to slow it down..I am 62 walked 6 miles everyday...After a few days left arm started to hurt..I call PA...she said slow it down..Today I didnt even walk a mile...