Mended Hearts Open Forum

I live in the middle of nowhere.  From what I've read, rehab is a 3x per week activity.  Driving/being driven an hour+ three times a week will be stressful.  So my question is, is cardiac rehab mandatory?

Sheila,

"Mandatory" might be a bit too severe a word, but cardiac rehab is very important and is strongly recommended by every cardiac professional and patient with whom I've ever spoken.

Having said that, there are online/virtual cardiac rehab programs available and I recall some people on this site using them during the height of the pandemic.  Maybe you can work something out where you drive into rehab once a week and do virtual sessions twice a week?

Check out the possibilities in your area and let us know how it goes.

Ira

It is definitely helpful to know that while you are slowly increasing your exercise tolerance that someone is actively monitoring your heart (telemetry) and checking your blood pressure before and after the exercise period.  An hour or more might make it logistically difficult for you, but the rehab program might have some flexibility in remote monitoring.  I'd say that it is worth driving once/week to get started and get some advise of how to proceed.  Not a cookie cutter experience so your needs/recommendations might be quite different than others.