Welcome to Heart to Heart

Published on the 1st and 15th of the month
The free bimonthly online newsletter from

Maggie Lichtenberg, PCC
Recent open heart surgery patient and thriver

Author of the forthcoming book
The Open Heart Companion:
Preparation and Guidance for Open-Heart Surgery Recovery

Each issue features a motivating topic from my upcoming book, The Open Heart Companion: Preparation and Guidance for Open-Heart Surgery Recovery, to be published shortly. The book’s Table of Contents is on the website. Excerpted from Chapter 6, today’s topic is:

Why Hospital Choice Is So Important

Especially if you are a first-timer in the hospital, you may feel clueless about which hospital procedure questions are important to address. Begin with a list of everything you think it will take to make you feel less anxious, and more comfortable within the hospital setting. For example, some hospitals won’t allow families to visit a patient while in the ICU. Raise this. Many hospitals have patient advocates available to help you navigate the key questions. All you need to do is ask.

It may seem obvious that surgeon and hospital go hand in hand, so there’s no need to question hospital choice. Yet surgeons have strong opinions about, and usually perform procedures at, more than one hospital. Hospitals’ reputations span from poor to excellent, and everything in between, when it comes to:

• Hygiene protocols
  
• State-of-the-art technology that can dramatically improve the safety of surgery
  
• Staffing of cardiac surgery nurses and technicians
  
• National standard comparison for a heart surgery department

Hospital choice is an area where you can exercise some control. For starters, go to www.healthgrades.com to get an evaluation and a ranking for the hospital where the surgeon wants to operate, as well as for the surgeon. Search for additional help on Medicare’s www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov and www.leapfroggroup.org/cp, where data has been offered voluntarily by hospitals. This is one step.

Another step is to ask your physicians – surgeon, cardiologist, internist – which hospital they would choose, and why, if they were patients. In addition, what kind of hospital will you find yourself in -- possibly a teaching hospital? If so, might you be the subject of a study designed to benefit the medical students as much as the patient? Would that be OK with you? Would you prefer a city hospital, where the technology may be more sophisticated and the experience broader, as compared to a smaller private hospital where care may be more personal? Make a list for yourself that addresses and answers these questions.

Here’s a gratifying response to the topic, “Tips for Mood Swings During Heart Surgery Recovery,” in Issue 4. I’m always happy to know when a newsletter topic has been helpful. Please keep your responses coming.

Maggie, thank you so much for writing this newsletter.  I had open heart surgery 3 1/2 weeks ago.  It came as a shock, because I went to see the doctor for an asthma attack.  After one thing led to another, I ended up having my mitral valve repaired.  I was lucky — the valve didn't need to be replaced.

Anyway, I have been so emotional and moody — not like myself at all.  I keep thinking, I am so fortunate.  Then I think about the scar, and just being married one year, and now finding out my husband has Parkinsons. All this brings me down again.

I have been taking it one day at a time.  I try to think positive. I went back to work sooner than they really wanted me to, but that has been a good thing.

I just want to let others know they are not alone — your newsletter let me know that. I am anxious for your book to come out.

Thank you.

             — Jackie Kennington, November 1, 2005, West Jordan, Utah

 Feedback Request

We welcome your feedback on our topics, and we welcome your requests to address specific issues in future newsletters. Please let us hear from you! What is going on at home now, for you, during your lengthy recovery from open heart surgery, that needs addressing? Simply email Maggie@openheartcoach.com. We look forward to your comments and suggestions for future issues of
Heart to Heart.

Free Support Groups

I am currently leading two free heart surgery support groups for both caregivers and patients. The first is by telephone, and it is monthly, for one hour. The next call will be tonight, Tuesday evening, November 15, 2005, 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM Eastern time (or, depending on your time zone, beginning 8:00 PM Central, 7:00 PM Mountain, or 6:00 PM Pacific). For a complete description and to register to receive the call-in number, go to http://openheartcoach.com/PhoneSupportGroup.html.

The second group is an in-person open heart surgery support group in my local area, Santa Fe, NM . The group meets at Women’s Health Services, 901 West Alameda , from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM. The remaining dates for 2005 are Mondays, November 28 and December 19. Light refreshments are served. For more information or to register, call 505-955-9436, or go to www.womenshealthsantafe.org.

My book, The Open Heart Companion: Preparation and Guidance for Open-Heart Surgery Recovery, is complete and with the editor. I’m hoping to have it available, first as an e-book, by the end of November 2005. Click here for previous issues of Heart to Heart for other topics covered in the book.  Click here for the book's Table of Contents.

I look forward to hearing from you –

Warmly, Heart to Heart,

     Maggie

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     Heart to Heart, Copyright (C) 2005 Maggie Lichtenberg. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without express written permission from the publisher.
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Maggie Lichtenberg, Publisher
Open Heart Publishing
4 Cosmos Court
Santa Fe, NM 87508-2285

Website:OpenHeartCoach.com