Dec. 18, 2006
Earlier this year, Ben De Stefanis of Hubertus decided to have a doctor check his tinging chest pains and constant fatigue.
“I was getting chest pains, just like heartburn, and I was so tired by one o’clock in the afternoon that I would have to sit down for a minute,” De Stefanis said.
When nurses at Community Memorial Hospital in Menomonee Falls gave him a stress test, he was so short of breath they had to hold him up. Doctors found his heart had blockages of 99 percent on one side and more than half on another.
“That was on a Friday, so by Sunday morning, right away, I went in for surgery,” De Stefanis said.
Recovery has been a life-changing experience, according to De Stefanis, a 74-year-old retired construction electrician, because of an award-winning, first-of-its-kind rehabilitation program at Community Memorial.
While still in the hospital, he immediately began eight weeks of cardiovascular rehabilitation, working on treadmills to build his endurance. Leaving the hospital after a five-day stay, De Stefanis was amazed by how little post-surgery pain he felt.
Barb Fagan, supervisor of cardiovascular and pulmonary rehabilitation at Community Memorial, said heart surgery patients are brought back to workout centers on an outpatient basis to continue their multi-disciplined recovery. Patients are taught to identify heart health risk factors such as cholesterol, weight, diabetes and physical activity, while continuing cardiovascular training.
De Stefanis then regularly visited Community Memorial’s sportscare facility, for three weeks of “more or less strength training” with a physical therapist. Weight lifting and resistance training helped him build up strength in his legs.
“Before I had the surgery, I’d walk down the driveway to get the newspaper and I’d be puffing,” De Stefanis said. “Now I can walk for a half an hour at a pretty good clip.”
The addition of strength training to heart procedure rehabilitation won Community Memorial an award from American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation for being the first program to include such activity.
“There’s a lot of research that supports including that in everybody’s life,” Fagan said. “It’s a critical component of your overall health. You really can’t neglect the strength and conditioning aspect of the muscular skeletal system in recovery.”
De Stefanis said his previous activity was limited to golfing and gardening. Now his legs are stronger, and he’s about 15 pounds lighter than his pre-surgery weight.
“I’ve lost a couple of inches around the waist,” De Stefanis said. “I’ve had to make some new notches in my belts.”
Preparing for golf in the spring is a priority, but so is keeping his heart from becoming blocked again.
“I’m a guy that loves french fries, and I haven’t had a french fry since I had the surgery,” De Stefanis said. “I’m eating baked fish on a Friday instead of a fish fry.”
Many people who live long, quality lives have very active lifestyles, Fagan said. Fagan was pleased to know a 76-year-old woman who just competed in her 20th Iron Man Hawaii competition, after starting to exercise at age 49.
“It’s never too late to incorporate exercising into your lifestyle,” Fagan said.
De Stefanis continues to visit the medically-supervised workout center at Community Memorial. He said he met other heart surgery patients while he was in the hospital, some of whom did not continue the program after the eight weeks of initial rehabilitation.
“The reason I keep going back is because it’s a structured program and you’re more inclined to do it,” De Stefanis said. “They have all the machines that you need. They monitor you, so you know if a guy does have a problem they’re there.”
Many recovering heart surgery patients are keenly aware of their vulnerability while exercising and appreciate monitoring from medical staff, according to Fagan. She said De Stefanis has progressed well
“Cardiac Rehab people are probably safer than the average person walking around that doesn’t know they have a problem because they’ve made a behavior change that ultimately affects future events,” Fagan said.
“After the scare I had, I’m exercising,” De Stefanis said resolutely. “I want to hang around a little bit.”