| 029 | Free at Last | 2009-01-07 |
I visited my doctor yesterday afternoon and was set free. "Finish taking your antibiotics and do whatever you had been doing," were his instructions as he was pleased that I was on the road to recovery. This was great news asI was ready to put the pneumonia behind me as a been there, done that - past history.
The next day I was dying to get out of the house. My wife was at work and therefore could not tell me, no, so I bundled up and took the dog for a two mile walk to the park and back. It was around thirty degrees outside with a stiff breeze.
Monitoring my progress I was pleased that I had an almost normal heart rate and breathing pattern. I was probably walking slower than normal but it felt good to stretch my legs regardless of the speed.
When I turned around in the park I soon felt the fury of the wind. While walking toward the park the wind was to my back and it was quite comfortable, but with the change of direction came a change to my cozy environment.
The cold air filled and chilled my lungs. I thought I was going to die. Without a face mask, balaclava, or scarf I had nothing to cover and protect my mouth and nose from the cold breeze. I took a few moments to carefully plan my walk back home. Using the buildings and terrain as buffers from the wind, I slowly returned home. Jake, the dog, could not figure out why I was walking so slow. I tried to explain that I didn’t want to breathe any harder than necessary, but I don’t think he understood - after all he is a dog.
Finally back home I put a heating pad on my chest to heat it to a toasty warm state. Once I realized that I was going to live, I began planning my next walk - where to go and what to wear. I might look like Nanook of the north, but at least I was walking outside again.
Happy trails.