Volume
II, Issue 8 - The Importance of Pacing August
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
The Importance of Pacing
Shared Experiences
Second Hospital Sale for
the Book
Free Heart Surgery Phone Support Group
Consider Attending the ACHA National
Conference
Mended Hearts Conference
Library Journal
Review Excerpt
A Letter from My Surgeon
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My selection of a topic for this
month is taken from Chapter 9, "Home
Sweet Home — Maybe,"
from The
Open Heart Companion: Preparation and Guidance for Open-Heart
Surgery Recovery by Maggie
Lichtenberg, published June 13, 2006 by Open Heart Publishing. The
book's Table
of Contents is on the website at www.openheartcoach.com.
The Importance of Pacing
You may be past the open-heart surgery,
but the
hard work of recovery lies ahead. A professional colleague
of mine who emigrated to the United States from Romania
draws a parallel: she describes how immigrants who have
grown up under Communism kiss the ground when they arrive
in America, then get sideswiped by the hardships they encounter
in assimilating into the new culture. As the caregiver,
you may have been thinking, if I can just
get through the
surgery with my loved one, I’ll be home free. Similarly,
the patient has been thinking, if I can just get through the
operation and wake up alive, the rest is a piece of cake.
Not so. If you haven’t done so already, it’s
time to acknowledge that there is a long, winding road
ahead for both caregiver and convalescing patient. Plan
to treat yourselves to caring support from others.
For the patient, learning to adjust
to what you individually can handle, without pushing
yourself so hard that you risk a major setback, is the
secret to a good recovery from open-heart surgery. Remember
that each person’s recovery
is different. How active you were before surgery and the
nature of the specific operation you have had are two of
the factors that will affect your recovery time.
It will be six to eight weeks before
many of the items on your personal “watch list” will
no longer need your attention. And even six months later
your body will not have entirely forgotten its ordeal.
No matter how well your surgery has gone, you have been
through a formidable experience. It takes time, patience,
and a positive attitude to get to the point where you
can pick up your life again from where you left off.
The secret lies in pacing yourself wisely.
Here is a wonderfully candid share from a spouse who has
been caring for her husband after a triple bypass operation
in June:
My hardest objective was to keep a smile on my face
and encouraging words for my husband when the doctors decided
he had to have a triple by-pass surgery in order to save
his life. However, with the help of God, because I
was able to keep an upbeat attitude while I was around him,
I believe it encouraged him to really believe that he was
going to come through ok. He has had his times of depression
and discouragement especially while on the pain pills. He
has been able to reduce the pain pills to some extent
over the last week and therefore is not as irritable as he
was. I, again, had to overlook what seemed to be personal
slams in my direction and think of what he was going through. I
still kept a positive and encouraging attitude the best that
I could.
I have not had much help from others in the family
while going through this ordeal. My faith is what has
gotten me through and the prayers of friends who live
a distance away. I thought I would never be able to
handle all that was put on me so suddenly but somehow I am
getting through it by trying to keep a positive prospective
on all that I had to encounter from being a caregiver,
to keeping house, to making meals that would give him more
energy, to paying bills, and on and on. In essence,
I would say that it is very hard to do it alone, but it
can be done.
— Marianne
Ramsey, Albuquerque , NM
Please
Share Your Experiences
Please
email me at Maggie@openheartcoach.com
observations and experiences which will be informative to
others, like the commentary from Marianne above, for future
issues of Heart
to Heart. Please
include your first and last names, city and state. Thank
you!
Second New Mexico hospital sale for the
book!
As I mentioned in last month’s newsletter,
St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe has purchased
a bulk quantity of
The
Open Heart Companion and they
are giving a book to everyone who goes through St. Vincent’s
heart surgery program. Now the Heart Hospital of New Mexico
in Albuquerque, NM, has ordered the book to give to
their patients as well!
Free Heart Surgery Phone Support
Group
I lead 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, September 11, 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
2006 Adult Congenital Heart Association National
Conference
Friday, September 15—Sunday,
September 17, in San Francisco
If your heart issue is congenital, do consider attending
this conference. Here is the overview, on the University
of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine website.
It is geared to adult heart patients and family members alike:
All adults born with congenital heart defects, family
members, and interested health professionals are invited
to attend ACHA’s Fourth National Conference. This
event will bring together top US adult
congenital heart specialists to provide information on
the latest in adult congenital heart research, treatment,
and resources. In addition to sessions geared exclusively
for patients and family members, this conference will offer
ACHA’s first ACHD Research Symposium and CME credit
for health care professionals. Topics will include historical
landmarks in the treatment of congenital heart disease,
rhythm abnormalities, heart failure and transplantation,
genetics, complementary medicine, new imaging modalities,
prevention, pregnancy, exercise, ACHD and mental health,
women’s health issues, and disability law. Defect-specific
breakouts and an expert panel on future trends in ACHD
will also be offered, as well as plenty of time for peer
sharing and interaction with the experts.
I will be participating, and leading
a breakout session, “Preparing
for Open-Heart Surgery and Recovery.” Please see the
many conference topics that will be covered at either www.cme.ucsf.edu or www.achaheart.org.
More Speaking News
If you happen to be in the Phoenix/Scottsdale
area, I will be presenting a workshop at the Mended
Hearts National Annual Convention Saturday morning,
September 2, 2006, at the DoubleTree Paradise Valley Resort.
The topic: “Anticipating
and Managing Home Recovery: Reduce Stress By Planning Ahead.” It
would be wonderful to meet some of you in person! For details,
go to my
Calendar or the Mended
Hearts website.
Library Journal review
excerpt – June
15, 2006 issue — for The
Open Heart Companion
"... Where this book excels-and
many hospitals fail-is in sharing insight on what you can expect in
the transition from hospital to home and how to best manage the four-
to eight-week period of home recovery....This book does an excellent
job of encompassing patient-center concepts and helping readers become
knowledgeable about hospital processes and procedures that can often
cause stress and discomfort. Highly recommended for public and consumer
libraries."
Read complete Library
Journal review by clicking
here.
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)
Click
here for a description of The
Open Heart Companion. Click
here for ordering the paperback book, the E-Book,
or both together at a discounted price.
I look forward to receiving your feedback –
Warmly, Heart to Heart,
Maggie |
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Maggie Lichtenberg, Publisher
Open Heart Publishing
4 Cosmos Court
Santa Fe, NM 87508-2285
Phone: 505.986.8807
Email: Maggie@OpenHeartCoach.com
Website:OpenHeartCoach.com
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