TheBanyanTree: Runaway Heart

[Margaret R. Kramer]

Boy, the gym was packed today!  I went about a half hour to 45 minutes
earlier than I normally do and I could barely find a parking spot.  I
suppose it’s because the weather is so crappy and people are more inspired
to workout inside.  It’s not as cold today, but we’re still buried in snow,
and I guess I wouldn’t want to run outside either.

My club has a very small locker room and when it’s crowded like this, we’re
all rubbing up against each other getting undressed out of our sweaty gym
clothes, showered, and getting dressed in street clothes.  I try to make
myself as small as possible so I don’t take up much room, but I still bumped
and jostled, and say, “Excuse me” a lot.

Since I’ve been working out more consistently, my heart is able to sail
along at a much faster clip than it used to, but I have watch myself
carefully.  Sometimes I switch the song on my iPod to a very fast one and
then I get my legs pumping and my arms flying and the sweat dripping, and
all of a sudden my heart starts blasting away, too.

I’m not sure what this is, since it doesn’t happen all the time, and I don’t
even know if it’s real, but my heart starts running away, and I have to slow
everything down to get my heart to slow down.

I usually work out after breakfast, so I do have something on my stomach.  I
feel OK, I just have to get my pace down, and then my heart comes down, too.

I’ll keep track of how often it happens.  I hate to go to the doctor,
because I have a $4,000 deductible on my health plan, which really means I
don’t have a health plan.  And by the way, my individual health plan premium
is going up $40 a month beginning in April.

But I’m lucky I have a health plan.  I’m very healthy and have no chronic
conditions; otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get affordable health insurance
at my age.

Joe is doing fine after his gallbladder surgery.  He has four small
incisions on his belly.  He has a healthy appetite and has been eating
healthy, easy to digest foods.  He’s been taking it slow with bringing
various kinds of foods back into his diet.  His digestive system is humming
along.

His torso is sore, but he can get up and down out of chairs and the bed OK.
He’s been resuming his normal activities.  He did grief group facilitation
yesterday and went to church this morning.  He will get his stent out on
Thursday.  They put a stent in the duct between his now non-existent
gallbladder and pancreas before surgery and will now need to remove it.

He gets tired, but not excessively so.  I think he’s doing OK.  He has a
doctor appointment tomorrow and will get checked out then.

I feel like I’m back in hibernation mode.  We’re buried in snow again and
it’s been chilly, although it’s warmed up a bit today.  The only good thing
is that the days are getting longer again.  It’s nice to get up around 6:00
am and it’s beginning to be light outside.  And it’s nice to have the light
linger until after 6:00 pm now instead of getting so dark at 5:00 pm.

It can only get better.  At some point, it will have to stop snowing.  At
some point, it will have to get warm.

Maybe by the end of next month we’ll be able to see the ground again.  OK,
that’s my prediction for the end of March – we will be able to see the
ground.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net
www.linkedin.com/in/margaretkramer

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.      
-Elizabeth Barrett Browning