Results of yesterday and a change of plan today

Good morning journal,the time is now 9:40am,I have been awake since 8:00am,and,this morning I feel pretty darned good for a change.My breathing is as easy as it has been for some time and I am so grateful.Yesterday,I met up with a very nice young man called Darren who assessed me for pulmonary rehab which begins on September 2nd.After some questions and a test on my oxygen levels,which were fairly good,he asked me to do a walking test.This involved walking between two red cones connected by a long piece of string,he put on what looked like a CD and pressed the play button."When you hear the beep,start walking to the end of the string,walk around the cone and rest,when you hear the next beep,start walking again",he said,"okay",I thought,"how hard can it be?",so I did,along the string,round the cone,rest,beep,and I walked again.It wasn't until the third stint of walking this line that I began to realize that the beeps were getting closer together,now THAT'S just plain sneaky!.I was still connected to this finger pulse reading thing,and,with every period of walking I realized that he was checking the reading.Anyway,it got to about the sixth or seventh time when the beeps were really close together that I said,"okay Darren,that's about it for me",he nodded and told me to sit down,which I did very gratefully.He asked when I next saw the doctor,I said August 22nd,he then said I should go sooner,which I had intended to do anyway as I needed his letter of support for my disability claim.I asked him why he thought I should go sooner and he said,"it may be nothing but your heartbeat is very irregular,it's been bouncing all over the place when you were doing the test",I thought oh great,just another thing I have to think about.My heartbeat had been bouncing between 98 and 137 during the test,and when I finally sat down it shot up to 154 before starting to come down slowly,so,change of plan today folks,I had intended to go to hospital this morning to have more blood work done for my diabetes and pick up some fresh batteries for my bionic ears.Now,I will see doctor Butler today and go to hospital tomorrow instead,hey,whatever works right?. I have to say though that I am feeling much more positive this morning than I have done for some time because I can finally see movement,progress in my treatments,but I have to meet them halfway,whatever it takes I will do,I have a little bit of fire back in my belly and I finally feel a little bit more like the old me,the stubborn old bear who would butt heads with tree trunks just because he could!,welcome back old friend,you've been away too long!. I actually smiled at my reflection in the mirror this morning,which is pretty hard to do at anytime because I'm not exactly a Brad Pitt lookalike,but the smile was genuine,not the plastic painted on version that I keep for other people,and it felt good.So journal,until next time,I'm going to go get ready to see the doctor,thank you my Father in Heaven for the strength and hope I feel today,this morning we are as strong as we need to be for now,today we fight!.