After a recent stint in the hospital, I was waiting for my local lung doctor to be back in the office again to discuss the possibility of pulmonary rehab with me so I could make some decisions.

One of the most irritating things about my hospitalization was how winded and breathless I became doing small “stuff” like even standing in the bathroom.

I walked around the unit as much as my body could tolerate but I took it slower too until I knew things were safe.  Especially because they had concerns that some of my symptoms might be related to pulmonary hypertension.

I was frustrated I had little to no PT while I was in there,  except for my last day.   I always feel very weak after I come home for a few days but I felt even weaker after that because I knew my activity was really limited.  I was already having endurance & stamina problems with exercise before this.

Yet, I knew I needed something to ease back into exercise so I took to Youtube.  I did a search of pulmonary rehab for transplant and then found this video:

Pulmonary rehab

It’s actually a hospital developed program so I felt more comfortable attempting it.

I, of course am not a professional so I can’t say I profess this to work for everyone or that anyone should attempt it without discussing it with their doctor.

But I found it very gentle & easy to follow & since I recognized some of the exercises from other courses of pulmonary rehab I had taken before I knew it was a safe bet for me.

I also could do this on 6-7 liters of oxygen in my room in a relatively small space & I did not spike around which was nice. That’s less of a demand than what I typically use to work out.

The second day I did it, I just skipped over the arm weight section, because I didn’t want to overwork those muscles & do the weights two days consecutively.

It still equated to around 25-30 minutes of activity with that omitted.

I’m posting this in the event it helps someone else.

I know it might get a bit repetitive & boring but it’s good for easing back in or for days when one feels weak.

I did a lot of the exercises sitting one of the days because I wasn’t feeling up to standing so it is adaptable.

(As per usual, the video has older patients but the therapist is younger & her voice isn’t grating, which is an added plus.  I take whatever help I can get when I can find it.)