Either they are being really cautious, or they don't know how to handle a case like mine, I'm not sure which. They know that I have been doing 30-35 minutes a day on the treadmill -- so today they put on the EKG monitors, and had me do five minutes on the recumbent stationary bike, then five minutes on the stepper (without the arm part, because the stitches are still healing internally), then another five minutes on the recumbent stationary bike. What a shock! All my rhythms look good; my blood pressure a few minutes after the last exercise had dropped to 130/82.
Tonight, I did fifty minutes on the treadmill, much of it at 3.5 mph -- and I felt great at 3.5 mph. In fact, the last couple of days I have found myself going up to 3.5 mph because I feel better at that speed than at 3.2 mph.
Its not that they don't realize how well you can perform. Its the fact that if they let you perform at that level your insurance will no longer pay for cardiac rehab. There is a target level and once you hit it you must graduate from rehab.
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