and I survived. Today was my first day of strength training and it actually wasn’t bad. The exercise physiologist was with me the whole time and showing me how to correctly do the workout. We did 10 reps (1 set) and will build up in weight and reps/sets over the next few weeks. Today we did legs and arms and one chest exercise and will add in more next Monday upon my return to cardiac rehab.

In other news, I have to say I love the care I receive through Johns Hopkins. I emailed my cardiologist up there to say I was having a hard time finding an endocrinologist that was good and felt comfortable with my case, given my cardiac risk factors. Diabetes is a huge risk factor for having a coronary event, especially in those who have known cardiovascular disease. A nurse explained it that heart disease causes built up of plaque in the vessels and diabetes thickens your blood, so having thickened blood move through a narrowing vessel =not good.

Within two days of emailing my cardiologist, he reached out to a colleague of his to discuss my case and see if he would be willing to take me on. Just two days after his email to the Doctor, I had an appointment scheduled and will be heading up to Hopkins for endocrinology at the end of this month. This is the level of care that I have always received at Hopkins and I am grateful for it.

My cardiologist also ordered one more set of blood work, just to make sure my kidney function is still good after the heart failure, just to be safe. So alas, I will be poked and prodded again this week on my day off.

My care includes a lot of specialists (11 to be exact) and a lot of coordinating with various doctors. It can be tiring at time and I spend a lot of time following up with offices for test results, making sure things were sent to another office, etc. It can be draining at times, but I look at the team of doctors on my ‘complex case’ and remember how long it took to find the right doctors and the right team and I am grateful for each one of them.

But don’t worry, I got this. I can handle all these doctors and all the details of my case. I just like to remind them I am a person and my case is complex. I am not the complex case. Learning that myself, took a lot of hard work and prayer. Thanks be to God for his grace.