I'm Jazzin' again!

Today was my first time back to Jazzercise after my UI (this is how I will refer to my heart attack from now on....UI or "unfortunate incident"). It's been almost a month and I have to admit that I was missing my regular Jazzercise workouts badly. I saw my primary care physician on Friday (Jan. 12) and she said she wasn't ready to say I could start back and that she wanted me to wait and see my cardiologist (next week on the 23rd) before giving it a go. However, in my infinite wisdom, I decided that she was just being overly cautious and that surely if my UI didn't kill me, a little low-impact Jazzercise shouldn't hurt!

So, I gave it a go...and am so happy I did! It felt great! I've been pretty much inactive these 3 weeks since the UI so I wasn't sure how I'd do, but I stayed with low-impact moves and was able to work up a good sweat without getting out of breath or feeling any ill effects...yea!

I think I've been the victim of a bad case of conflicting wants. I wanted to go to Jazzercise AND I wanted to lay off and let my heart heal/recover. So, what do you do when you have two things you want but they conflict? Well, you choose. And for the last 3+ weeks, I've chosen to lay off. But, the thing about conflicting wants is that they have a lot of conditions attached to them many times that help make the choice between two things easier. My desire to go back to Jazzercise had a couple of conditions: I don't die while doing it (the primary condition!) and I don't hurt myself or cause damage while doing it. It's amazing how much I have feared another UI or doing anything that might damage my heart further or hinder my recovery in any way. And the fear has been almost paralyzing. I don't think I really allowed myself to really grab onto the fear and let it show visibly, but my actions (or inactions) have demonstrated it was there. But, the fears and the conditions finally became secondary and I decided to just go for it...and made a choice to go.

So, this is a big day! I'm Jazzin' again and felt really, really good! Wendy and I had a blast whooping and yee-hawing our way through the workout and our instructor even played a few of my favorite songs to welcome me back. Of course, I think she also made sure the defib unit was ready just in case. ;)

I hope everyone's day, like mine, held a little victory for you somewhere along the line no matter how small.

- Karen

[25w,3d]