Surprisingly, the nurses got me moving the minute I came round from the anaesthetic. At first, I felt extremely weak, and physical movement was tough. The trickiest thing was training my brain to re-coordinate itself with my heart.<\/p>\n
I started slowly at first, walking just a few metres. Then, incrementally, day by day, I increased the distance. By the middle of December, I was walking up and down the streets near where I live, in all weathers, wearing a Dryrobe to keep warm.<\/p>\n
I benefitted enormously from a cardiac rehabilitation centre called CP+R (Clinical Prevention and Rehabilitation), which gave me daily advice over Zoom. Soon they had me lifting weights, running on a treadmill and testing my VO2 max. All the while they were checking my heart rate through a monitor. It was invaluable guidance.<\/p>\n
That was over the winter of 2025-26. My recovery was surprisingly fast. Since then, I\u2019ve been skiing in the Alps and cycling in Crete. In late June, I\u2019m heading off on a 10-day solo trek in Kazakhstan, and in August I\u2019ll be trekking 200 miles in Montana.<\/p>\n
In the future, I\u2019m confident I can be just as active as I was before my operation. But I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be climbing to such high altitudes. It would be foolish to die unnecessarily on a mountain.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve pretty much stopped drinking alcohol because it has such a dramatic effect on one\u2019s heart rate. I\u2019ve changed my diet, too, reducing carbohydrates and increasing nuts, fibre and protein. I eat a couple of boiled eggs twice a week. Three days a week I make a smoothie with macadamia nuts, walnuts, almonds, kefir, fruit and whey powder. I eat chicken breast every day.<\/p>\n