It was wonderful, and now that I am back home, my body is feeling it, too. Many of you that have known me here for a while will remember that for the last few years I have barely been able to get around, let alone exercise. Some days, even walking was out of the question, and I barely was able to get out of bed due to the exhaustion. I have had a-fib and CHF for a number of years, and each year, the heart just wore out more, until it was functioning at 23%EF last summer. Because the meds weren't helping anymore, my doctor decided it was time for a heart procedure called a cardioversion. Basically, they scraped the inside and outside of my heart, and put it back into rhythm again. I feel much better now and have been getting more exercise this year. I have been taking the Lugol's iodine for the hypothyroidism, but then I read that it is also very beneficial for both the a-fib and the CHF. I am doing so much better now that I have even been working outside in the yard and garden this spring, until the weather got too hot to be outsiide much. The last time they checked, my heart is now working at around 40%EF, so much, much better ! My Medicare Advantage plan now includes a fitness program called Silver and Fit; so both Bobby and I went down and signed up at the fitness center, and today was our first day. I will be doing mostly swimming and water aerobics, at least for a while, until I build up more muscle and endurance. She also started me on a cardio machine that is like walking or maybe cycling, except it is recumbant, so you do not have all of the stress on the knees like you do when you are walking, and it works out both the arms and the legs. We are planning on going several times a week, and my husband is happily enjoying his workout on the weight training machines while I am swimming. After the swimming, I relaxed in the hot tub and put my legs and feet up by the jets and got a wonderful massage. I am now drinking my green smoothie protein shake, and then going to recuperate for a bit.
Yvonne! You go girl! I'm so happy that you're so happy! Swimming is great! And the Hot Tub with a smoothie…Yay!!!
@Yvonne Smith. How is the fitness program going for you? My Medicare Advantage plan also gives me a free health club membership and now that I am over pneumonia and a bout of the flu with a sinus infection to boot, I am hoping to start my fitness program on Monday. Ours has an indoor pool which I'm looking forward to using along with some machines for toning up and building upper body strength. I'm also happy the health club is just a short distance from our home.
I was told by a lady that worked for Medicare for years, not to get the Advantage Plan due to lack of choice for different things. So, we got the regular Medicare Plan, and that, along with our Supplement Plan and Rx Plan paid a very nice chunk of money for my $35K rotator cuff surgery last year. We only paid some $400 for the surgery and PT. We checked into our local YMCA and, due to my wife's income, it would cost us $95 each per month to be in it. That wasn't going to happen! Would have loved to do exercises in a nice warm swimming pool or relax in a hot tub, but not for $95 each a month. And, besides that, the Seniors we seen there apparently are fully retired, of which of my still works a full-time job.
Wow, that's a lot @Cody Fousnaugh, my daughter pays $100 a month for the Y and that might be for the whole family. She never goes because she just runs.
I pay $48 a month for the Y for just myself. It includes all the area Y's in the county ( $3 extra) which was good when I worked in the city and lived in the suburbs. I don't think I have Medicare Advantage. It just says Medicare on my card.
Never goes and pays that per month? If that's the case, sounds like my 1/2 brother who pays a monthly premium for Medicare, but uses VA Medical instead. HIs wife doesn't like it that he basically wasting money on Medicare, but he runs his own money/what he spends.
We have been extremely happy with our Advantage Plan, @Cody Fousnaugh . However, what is right for us, might not be good for everyone else. I had heart surgery and mine was totally covered, plus expensive heart medications; so I have absolutely NO complaints about coverage, and having the fitness membership was just "frosting on the cake" for us. We go every other day, @Babs Hunt , and just love it ! Our fitness center is connected with Huntsville Hospital, and so it is very well-equipped. Besides all of the different workout weights, it has a whole row of treadmills with all of the deluxe features, so you can actually watch tv while you walk, or plug in your smartphone or iPad. I don't do that; since I don't like TV; but I like that it monitors my heart rate and things like that. I also use the recumbent cross-trainer, and will eventually work into doing some muscle building after I am in good enough shape overall to try doing something like that. I don't really enjoy doing exercise just to be doing exercise, and I would much prefer to be building up muscle strength by doing yard work, rototillering the garden spots, or weed eating. What I really enjoy is the swimming, and the hot tub. I swim and do water exercises for an hour, and afterwards feel it in my whole body. I always sit in the hot tub first, both because I enjoy it so much, and for the benefits of hyperthermia killing any virus or bacteria that might have sneaked into my body. Then, into the swimming pool to cool off and enjoy swimming. I figure what the hyperthermia doesn't get, maybe the hypothermia will (although our pool is nowhere near cold, just cold after the hot tub). With the every other day schedule, one week we go three days, and the next week four days; barring really bad weather, which sometimes throws us off-schedule by a day. I wear my Fit Bug Orb, which clips to my bra, and that keeps track of my steps each day, and connects to the Fitbug website at night to upload the info to my dashboard. I can manually add in things like yard work, gardening, and the swimming; and I like seeing how my exercise progresses. I am looking at getting a more complete fitness tracker, I want a Jawbone UP. The one I want most is WAY out of my price range at almost $100 on Amazon; but the regular ones are on sale for around $20, which is much more affordable for me. The Jawbone can even check your heart rate, and how well you are sleeping at night, although the one I am looking at does not do the heart rate, that is the more expensive one. I think that having the fitness tracker is a great motivator for helping me remember to move around more, and I am really glad that I got it.
Yes, but her sons and husband went but now nobody seems to go because they have changed to going to the country clubs gym. Except my daughter, she still just runs. That's how I know how much she pays because we were just talking about it recently. She's thinking of canceling her membership.
Yes, we like what we have for medical and Rx. Actually, what we have is better than the company insurance plans we've both had in the past for work. Thing is, aren't both of you retired? You can go at any time? We don't have that. I'm retired, but she isn't and I sure wouldn't go without her.
We are both retired, @Cody Fousnaugh . After my heart finally got to where I couldn't breathe well enough, or at least get the oxygen circulated in my body, and was having bad dizzy spells from that, plus couldn't stand up or walk much, I had to stop working. Even the part time job that I had selling newspaper subscriptions from a little kiosk got to be too difficult for me. Bobby had the liver failure and almost died from that about three years ago; so he couldn't work anymore either, plus we were old enough for SS pension. There are always benefits and drawbacks to any situation. For us, the benefit is that now we can go to the fitness center anytime we want, so we make the most out of it.
Our local YMCA is pretty upper-scale and "high-tech". When we checked out the membership two years ago, wife was actually making less salary than she is now, which means the monthly cost would even be higher than then. However, we do get some swimming in during the summer months when our apt. complex pool is warm. When it's warm, we love it. Another thing, a lot of Seniors (in our age bracket) don't go to a Pistol & Rifle Range for target shooting. We have a membership in our local one and like going........that's exercise. And, from what I know, nobody on this forum has a powerboat........we do and use it. Try "launching", "retrieving", and "tying up" 20 foot Cuddy Cabin for some exercise! Guess we don't need the YMCA after all. Everyone gets exercise in however way they can and afford.