Stories
Here are some of our patients’ stories
AL’s Story
AL is now retired but at the time was a busy business man …
I was walking the dogs one Monday morning and about 1km into the same 3km round that I always do, I just couldn’t get up the hill. I should say at this point I was unfit, somewhat overweight, working long hours and travelling long haul a lot, eating hotel food and almost constantly jetlagged.
I couldn’t catch my breath and whilst I don’t remember much pain, I felt a huge weight on my chest. I thought maybe that I had angina or a breathing problem and I managed to walk home (which I am not allowed to forget was not a clever thing to do!) and said to my wife that I maybe I should get checked out. Feeling a bit better, my wife dropped me just down the road from the hospital and I walked into Yeovil A&E. It wasn’t busy so I was seen in about 20 minutes. I explained the tightness in my chest and the shortness of breath so an ECG was done, blood taken and I was told to go back to the waiting room. After about 15 minutes, with a lot of urgency I was called back in, whisked into the ED, wired up to machines and had several injections. I was told that I’d had a Heart Attack!
The medical staff were very attentive and I spent most of the day in the ED wired up and had more drugs. I was visited by the Nurse Consultant who said she’d seen my charts and had already booked me into have an Angioplasty on Wednesday.
Phase 1
Apparently looking very ill but with less tightness and feeling a bit of a fraud although utterly exhausted, I was admitted to the Cardiac ward early evening and spent a sleepless night with many machines constantly pinging away at the nurses station and worrying that maybe my (minor in my view) Heart Attack may have been the warning ‘tremor’ before the main event and so very grateful that someone was keeping an eye on me.
Apprehensively, on Wednesday morning I was taken over to Taunton Hospital for the Angioplasty. The worst part was waiting outside for the operation as I’d been told that there was a 30% chance that they wouldn’t be able do any repair there and then and I’d then have to have open heart surgery which could be upto six weeks away and I’d have to stay in hospital basically immobile in the meantime. However I was wheeled into the ‘Lab’ which was like something out of a science fiction film with technology and screens everywhere. I opted to stay awake during the procedure and was completely mesmerised. Through a tiny hole in my wrist, they inserted a device which was guided through my arteries to my heart with a ‘live’ x-ray picture on a huge screen. I was in there about 50 minutes and fascinated the whole time with no pain whatsoever. I had three stents fitted and the change in me was sudden and extraordinary. The nurse who greeted me in the recovery area afterwards said that I looked so much better already. I was transferred back to Yeovil for the night, discharged on the Thursday morning and my Consultant said that basically I’d been ‘reset’.
Phase 2
In some mental shock, I spent the next six weeks at home recovering and wondering what the future held for me.
Phase 3
After six weeks I was called back to the hospital to start my rehabilitation. Not knowing what to expect, I was taken into a Gym and put through a ‘Step Challenge’ which I felt I did OK at but looking back, I was terrible!
The Phase 3 Cardiac Recovery Program at Yeovil Hospital is professionally designed and flexible, accommodating different people’s abilities and medical situations. A professional Instructor takes you through a warm up and then into a workout designed specifically for you on many different cardio exercise machines, finishing with a cooldown and a short 10 minute ‘educational’ briefing on one of many aspects of why you are there and your choices afterwards (e.g. physiology of cardiac issues, healthy lifestyles, blood pressure, what cholesterol is, etc.). I did two sessions a week for the next twelve weeks and completed the program with a comparative step challenge where I realised just how bad I’d been at the beginning!
In one of the educational sessions, we learnt that the gym and Phase III program is not run by the hospital but by a registered charity, Yeovil Heartbeat. It was founded by an Emergency Medicine Nurse in 1994 who realised that there was no real follow up for people with cardiac conditions once they were discharged. Relying on donations and fund raising events, the charity designed the program and now provide and maintain the equipment and pay for the Instructors. It is considered to be one of the best rehabilitation programs in the country.
Phase 4
Having completed Phase 3, Yeovil Heartbeat offer a follow up program whereby patients can continue their rehabilitation and get even fitter! It is a voluntarily continuation of the Phase 3 sessions with a small fee per session (that is a fraction of what other Gyms charge!) with continuing support from Instructors and medical staff close by.
At the time of writing, I have done 3 years of twice a week Phase 4 sessions and have no intention of stopping. Many other people who attend the gym have been coming for many more years. I feel healthy now and am relatively fit. I try to have a balanced diet (although I haven’t given anything up!) and I can physically do things easily that I wouldn’t even have attempted before.
I consider myself to be extremely lucky that the Cardiac Rehabilitation program provided by Yeovil Heartbeat exists. Had I been elsewhere in the country where I may have been discharged with no or little follow up, I am sure I would have gone back to my old lifestyle and by now could have been medically ‘in trouble’. I have no doubt that Yeovil Heartbeat have changed my life and I see many others at my gym sessions who would say the same.
To all the staff at Yeovil Heartbeat and Yeovil Hospital – Thank you!