I looked up in rehab Friday and I saw that everyone in the place was crying, I thought the worst, as one might in rehab, but it turned out Penny, one of my rehab buddies, was graduating it was her last day, and last days in rehab are emotional days, I am learning. Mine is a month or so away, I do not look forward to leaving these people, I am much connected to their stories and lives. My friend Carol and I are plotting to meet for lunch at the Round House next week, she is a special person and I miss her. We share a keen interest in farms and animals, and she read my play “Last Day In The Life of Mapleview Farm.”

Penny works in an office in Vermont, I suspect we will not see one another again,  as is the case with most rehab colleagues when they graduate. It is quite remarkable how quickly powerful friendships and connections form in a setting like that. I didn’t feel it for a few days but I very much feel it now. Patty, the head of the rehab unit, just returned after her mother died, we are all feeling her process every step of the way, getting regular reports.

Penny got some records and a certificate of graduation. Cardiologists love cardiac rehab, they insist people who go through it live longer than heart patients who don’t. I am gaining ground in my recovery, we figured out my fluid retention issue, it has nothing to do with my heart, and I’m off the medications for it. I am beginning to get my blood sugar numbers back in line after four months of instability (common after open heart surgery).

I got my cholesterol test results back from the lab, I’m told they are very good. For those of you nurses out there, here they are below. Recovery and rehab are hard and daily work, but I am getting there. I wish Penny well and I will miss her, we talk music on the treadmill.