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Healthy After Heart Disease

Posted on: Monday, 21 February 2005, 09:00 CST

Sandy Reid doesn't just exercise when she can. It's 30 minutes to an hour, every day. And fried foods? No more.

After a heart attack last year, when she was just 41, she's doing all she can to improve her health.

Ed Hageman now considers himself an exerciser, too. It was triple bypass surgery last June that drove him to it.

He hits the treadmill at least three times a week and has cut back on sodium. "I'm to the point now, I feel bad if I don't exercise," said the 47-year-old father of three.

It took heart surgery for the two Rock Hill residents to start thinking healthy. And it took Piedmont Medical Center's cardiac rehabilitation program to help them adapt their new, healthy lifestyle.

Through the program, they exercised while monitored by machines and staff, learned to manage their diets, talked to counselors about their ordeal, went to classes about heart health and more.

Though each of their lives was greatly affected by their illness, they agree having heart surgery had its benefits - a new, healthier them.

They are lucky to have that second chance. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the American Heart Association. Causes include family history, unhealthy eating, lack of exercise, smoking and high blood pressure.

The cardiac rehab program helps patients make the best of their second chance. The program began in 1997, when the hospital's heart center opened.

It has grown from one patient and one room in the heart center to an expanded area serving 25 to 30 patients a day. The new center, off the hospital's main lobby, opened in July 2004.

Reid and Hageman both say they eat better and regularly exercise because of the help they got from the cardiac rehab center, and their new lifestyle has impacted their families. Hageman's wife, too, cuts back on sodium, and Reid's daughter, son-in-law and their granddaughter just joined the YMCA.

These are the kind of results that the cardiac rehab program staff likes to hear. Keeping up with a diet and exercise regimen is the ultimate goal for the patient.

"It's hard for us to make any kind of changes," admits Debby King, a registered nurse with the cardiac rehab program. But cardiac rehab helps, and that makes it easier to stick with long-term.

The program helped change Hageman's outlook on exercise. Before his surgery, he didn't do any exercise other than playing with his kids, ages 13, 11 and 8.

That inexperience made him apprehensive before he started the program. The exercise was challenging. But now, he said, "It was well worth it." He has continued to walk and do strength training.

The program serves any patient who goes through the hospital for heart-related issues, such as bypass surgery, heart attacks or coronary disease, said Dr. Harry Hicklin, a cardiologist with The Sanger Clinic in Rock Hill who is the program's medical director. Heart patients can be referred to the rehab center by their doctors, too.

The center looks like a little YMCA, said Claudia Robinson, program director, who just for left a job closer to her North Carolina home. It has exercise equipment and medical equipment. There is a treadmill, bicycle and weight equipment and monitoring devices to make sure the patient exercises at a safe level.

Other staff members include an exercise physiologist, who helps create a program for the patient to use in rehab and for the long term; a visiting dietitian, who teaches healthy eating habits; and a vocational rehabilitation counselor. There are counseling sessions on depression, returning to work, stress management and smoking cessation.

Patients go to rehab a few times a week for several weeks, depending on what their insurance covers. Each person gets a different workout plan, depending on his or her situation.

Reid went to rehab two to three times a week. She worked out on the treadmill and the bike, and later incorporated weights.

She had been surprised by her heart attack because she is young, had a relatively healthy diet, exercised a couple times a week and didn't smoke. So she wanted as much attention as possible, because she feared what her body could handle.

She talked to the dietitian, who suggested she cut back on fried food and caffeine drinks. And when she felt down or scared, she talked to the counselor. Her heart attack was attributed to stress; she has found ways to slow down and cope with it.

She now walks on a treadmill at her house or outside. "I can tell a difference when I don't exercise," she said. "It makes you feel better about yourself" and gives her more energy.

If she wasn't working full-time, though, she'd still be doing cardiac rehab, she said. "I'd go through that over and over and over again."

Jack Cox of Rock Hill had open heart surgery a year ago last December and followed up with cardiac rehab. His insurance provided 35 visits, but when that was through, he chose to continue going and paid for it out of pocket.

"The people are interested in your welfare," he said. "They really work with you to be sure you're doing your exercise right."

Before he works out, he is weighed and hooked up to the monitors.

He doesn't enjoy working out there like he does the golf he plays twice a week. But, he said, "I do it because it helps my heart. At my age, I just feel like I need to keep doing something."

Lauren Hoyt 329-4079

lhoyt@heraldonline.com

Source: Herald; Rock Hill, S.C.

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