Volume
II, Issue 5 - Caring for Yourself — If You Are the Caregiver May
15, 2006
This free
online monthly newsletter is published on the 15th of every
month by
Maggie Lichtenberg, PCC
Recent open heart surgery patient and thriver
Caring
for Yourself — If You Are the Caregiver
Shared Experiences
Free Heart Surgery Phone Support Group
A Letter from My Surgeon
More Praise for the Book
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My selection of a topic for this
month is taken from Chapter 2, "Advice and Support
for Caregivers ,"
from The
Open Heart Companion: Preparation and Guidance for Open-Heart
Surgery Recovery. The
book's Table
of Contents is on the website www.openheartcoach.com.
Caring
for Yourself — If You Are the Caregiver
So what becomes very important during the open-heart surgery
recovery period of several weeks? Taking care of yourself too.
If fatigue and stress threaten to overwhelm you, don’t
hesitate to ask your own doctor for an anti-anxiety medication
so you can assure yourself a good quality of sleep each
night. And from the beginning, ask for help from
family and friends, especially if you also have children
to care for.
Get over being shy. Get over thinking
you might be imposing. Some will turn down a request
but most will not. Plan breaks for yourself. Set aside
time for a long walk with your dog—or a bike ride, a hike or an exercise or yoga
class—and ask a friend to cover for you while you’re
out. Make sure you get emotional support as well. If appreciation
from your loved one is not forthcoming, by all means ask
for it. If he or she cannot give it to you in that moment,
call a close friend for some reassurance and perspective.
You cannot continue to give without resentment unless you
yourself are being taken care of. Reach out to friends,
neighbors, even a counselor for short-term support. Caring
for yourself—and taking these initiatives—are
your responsibility.
“Buddy systems” can also be helpful for both
you and the patient in recovery. In addition to talking
to the physician about any questions that come up, consider
seeking information from former heart patients and caregivers
who have “been there.” Find a local support
group, or tap into a phone or online network – for
leads on this kind of support. And should something disturbing
come up, don’t hesitate to get immediate medical
advice, even if the patient balks.
Here is a response to last month's
Shared Experience from Susan Self in the UK:
"It
was interesting to read how the lady from the UK felt
after her heart surgery. I have tried to get
this kind of real world feedback from all kinds of
web sites but none of them really provide any information,
at least the ones I have found so far.
"Anyway,
I am a 47-year-old male who had open-heart surgery
to repair my mitral valve. The surgery was on
3/15/06 and I will be going back to work 4/18. After
4.5 weeks I feel I have recovered only about 30%
of my original aerobic capacity. There were
good days and bad days and I am sure there are more
to come. I
would get up in the morning feeling refreshed, start
to do some things, and boom! all of sudden I was
tired. I
felt as if I was dragging anchor! I hope all my aerobic
capacity will come back. I want to ride my mountain
bike again over hilly terrain, but at this point
I would settle for riding down a flat concrete street!"
— Steve
from Michigan
Please
Share Your Experiences
Please
email me at Maggie@openheartcoach.com
observations and experiences that will be informative to
others, like the commentary from Steve, for future issues
of Heart
to Heart or
for a future edition of The
Open Heart Companion. Please
include your first and last names, city and state. Thank
you!
If
you have purchased and used the E-Book or the paperback
book, The
Open Heart Companion,
please let me hear from you. What sections of the
book were most useful to you? Where did you wish
I would have included more information? What helped
you the most, and why? With your permission, I would
love to share your story or your review of the book.
Free Heart Surgery Phone Support
Group
I am currently leading a free monthly
heart surgery support group for both caregivers and patients.
It is by telephone for
one hour on a teleconference line that we all call into.
The next call will be Monday
evening, June 12, 2006, 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 paperback
book as well as the E-Book version
of The
Open Heart Companion: Preparation and Guidance for
Open-Heart Surgery Recovery are
now available. Click
here for the book's description. Click
here for ordering the paperback book, the E-Book,
or both together at a discounted
price.
An excerpt from a letter from my
Mayo Clinic Surgeon, Dr. Joseph Dearani
"... The
Open Heart Companion is a superb
accomplishment and a very practical guide for patients
requiring heart surgery. It
is extremely well organized, very informative, and provides
a profile for how we (medical profession) can do it better.
"The perspective of someone who has
experienced a particular situation is often more insightful
than that of experts with formalized training. In
fact, experience brings its own expertise and that's what
is in your book. Your
words have helped me become a better surgeon, not in the
operating room, put in pre- and post-operative care — thank
you. ..."
Joseph
A. Dearani,
Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Mayo Clinic
(written March 22,
2006)
Advance praise for The
Open Heart Companion
| Mehmet C. Oz, MD, pioneering heart
surgeon and author of Healing
from the Heart |
"This passionate and personal guide
will help you both survive and thrive after open-heart surgery.” |
| Christiane Northrup, MD, author
of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom |
“The Open Heart Companion is must reading
for anyone who requires open-heart surgery.” |
| Marianne J. Legato, MD, author of The
Female Heart: The Truth about Women and Heart Disease |
"This beautifully written, comprehensive and absolutely
accurate account of how to go into, come out of, and recover from open
heart surgery is a must for patients and physicians alike." |
| Amy Verstappen, President, Adult Congenital Heart Association
(ACHA) |
"Drawn from dozens of patient and caregiver interviews, the book
is filled with specific exercises and insights to make the open-heart experience
easier on the patient and loved ones." |
| Kathleen Blake, MD, cardiologist
at The New Mexico Heart Institute, from
her Foreword to The
Open Heart Companion: Preparation
and Guidance for Open-Heart Surgery Recovery |
“I am grateful to at last have a guide I
can recommend not just to my patients and their families, but also to
my medical and nursing colleagues as we strive to improve the care our
patients receive.” |
I look forward to receiving your feedback –
Warmly, Heart to Heart,
Maggie |
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Heart to Heart,
Copyright (C) 2006 Maggie Lichtenberg. All rights reserved.
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Maggie Lichtenberg, Publisher
Open Heart Publishing
4 Cosmos Court
Santa Fe, NM 87508-2285
Website:OpenHeartCoach.com
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