Karen, it is forever most likely.

I have horrible scoliosis that has pushed all of my organs around, and my heart is being squished because of it. When I work out at all, even walking a normal speed for more than 1min, my heart rate goes up to around 200bpm and stays there.
A couple of years ago when I tried to lose weight I was working out on the eliptical 3 days a week and did weights at least 2 days a week. I did this for 4 months and my heart rate never got any better, even after losing 50lbs! I started getting extremely bad chest pains so I went to the doctor and had all kinds of tests run on my heart. My heart is perfectly healthy, just squished, so it can't take working out.
So unless I want to have a heart attack no working out for me. It just sucks because this weightloss is SO much slower since I am not allowed to work out.