Recovering from coronary bypass surgery is a challenge. The doctor's operate in a slow reveal mode. I suppose they don't want you to be too depressed. My ejection fraction (the percentage of blood in the heart that is expelled on each beat)is 20%, compared to 60 or 70% normally. It took a while for me to figure out that the nasty medicine I'm taking, with the dosage being gradually increased, is to try to improve the ejection fraction. This week I found out, after some input from the cardiac nurse at rehab that clued me in on what question to ask, I found out that the doctor's goal is to get my EF up to 30%. That is the level at which a person can function normally. (I was hoping to get to a higher EF than 30%). After my heart attack in 1997, my EF was 45%, and the only difference I could tell was that I couldn't sustain running at the same speed I was capable of prior to the heart attack. One thing about my heart condition is that I don't have any pain or discomfort. I feel like I should be able to do anything I did before, but I do have a sort of feeling of fatigue. The doctor and the nurses keep telling me that I still haven't recovered, and that I'm doing too much. I went to the doctor yesterday, and I still have pneumonia. Today the doctor called me to check and see if I'm doing OK. They are making me nervous, especially since I know they are not telling me everything. One thing that bothers me is that I don't have many risk factors for heart trouble except gender and age, and I was somewhat overweight. It is apparent that the only risk factor I have control over is weight so the only thing I can do now is lose a lot of weight, get really skinny and stay that way. The doctors seem to think that it was great that I didn't need bypass surgery until 10 years after my heart attack in 1997. (Back then they gave me a 10% chance of living 10 years, in fact they seemed puzzled that I survived the heart attack, so I have been a success from their perspective.)