 I had a heart attack and triple bypass. My surgery was a little extensive. They did what they call a triple bypass. After the heart attack and the doctor suggested cardiac rehab to me and I knew I needed some help because I was very, very nervous about exercising. I'm 91. Well, I was 90 at the time. Right after the surgery I felt great but then as I went along I think I went down as far as my performance level and at one point I actually, if I were walking I would have to stop for a couple of seconds or a half a minute or so to catch my breath but once I got back into the physical training part of it I haven't had that experience anymore. I do have a history of exercising so after this occurred I was very nervous about exercising again. I thought I'd just sit on the couch, never get up again and just because I was that nervous. My name is Alias Bezito and I'm the cardiac rehab nurse here at Winthrop. We see the patients come in a little nervous, a little apprehensive. They have a loss of confidence in their body and then in 12 weeks they're strutting out the door. There's a whole change in the way they hold themselves. They're a lot more confident. They feel a lot better. They're not frightened and they really feel that what they've gained here through their exercise they can pretty much do anything on the outside. Cardiovascular rehabilitation is a central element to cardiac health. Not only can we dispense a pill but we can also tell the patients participating in cardiac rehabilitation so that way it empowers the patient to become more proactive for the health and it helps them actually adjust due to therapeutic lifestyle changes that are needed once to prevent them from going back into the hospital so they actually feel much better compared to what they had before they started cardiac rehabilitation and three tools to minimize medications. Medications can actually be minimized as a person engages and goes through the cardiac rehabilitation experience. They asked me to come into the rehab program for 13 weeks and three times a week so I enrolled and I was happy to do it because I get... I have a treadmill and bike at home and here they have more equipment and it's a regiment. Patients come in here after they've had a stress test and we take the stress test and we look at it and we plug the numbers from the stress test into a formula and we come up with an individualized exercise program for them. The program runs for about three months. It's 36 sessions. Each session comprises of one hour of exercise. From the moment they walk in the door they get their cardiac monitor. They decide where they want to go to exercise. The first couple of sessions we guide them but after that they can pretty much take off on their own and they decide how much time they want to spend on the equipment. I was intimidated at first and I even during the orientation as I sat down with you and go over things beforehand so you're not just thrown to the machines if you will it's explained every step of the way. You're individualized. You're taken slowly. You're not like I said okay go on the machine go do what you gotta do. They show you how to use the machine. They show you what set up a plan that's individualized for you. Some person may be able to lift more weights than me. Someone may be able to go faster or slower. Everyone at their own pace at their own rate. Coming in here I was doing things very slowly. The staff was fantastic. They welcomed me with open arms. They were very good about explaining things to me how things were going to work what they were going to try and do to get me better to where I was before the heart attack. We guide them through their exercise with a monitor on with a heart monitor and this allows us to accelerate their exercise protocols and at the same time make their heart stronger by challenging it and more efficient. This is something that patients can't get by going to a gym or exercising on their own. At the same time we have someone on the floor watching them showing them how to use the equipment observing them. We're looking at their color. We're looking at their breathing. We're looking at their facial expressions. It's a supervised environment and this is actually well known in the medical community is that the supervised environment provides a gradual strengthening exercise. So initially the patients start out at a very low level of exercise at a very low level of intensity but that intensity is actually gradually increased over time and so by increasing the intensity the patient's endurance also increases. How are you feeling? Good? And they don't actually realize it initially but they're seeing that they're getting stronger they're feeling greater and actually psychologically it provides a good feedback to them. When I first got here I really hated doing the treadmill and I'm more comfortable with it now I'm more comfortable with the elliptical You can do 5 minutes you can do 10 minutes you can do 15 but somebody's watching your heart rate and going to be suggesting to you that you push it a little bit harder or take it a little bit easier and it actually is somebody who's trying to help you build yourself up a little bit. Now I know, oh great I feel, oh that was normal they said I do watch my heart rate at home I have a little to add, two things so when I'm walking I do watch okay it's getting a little too high I cut it back a little bit and that was taught to me before I had no idea that I can go to that level that feeling was normal or that feeling that's so normal slow it down no one was there to teach me that this helps me learn and understand that. They had me going very slowly and they worked very closely with me the big thing was I used to go to gyms but coming here they would monitor you somebody always watching to make sure you're okay we crept at a slow pace but they kept raising that pace and it was fantastic the way they watched me. When I came in on the treadmill, I'll use that as the baseline I was doing a 1.2 on the treadmill which is a very slow walk what you saw today was I was doing a 5.0 and that's a jog. After the 40 minutes are done with exercising and people can certainly take rest periods we have them do weights with us we get together as a class and we do about 5-10 minutes of weight lifting and this is done basically to make them a little bit stronger it's not done really to make muscles it's done so that when they're going to the grocery store they can easily lift the packages out of the car they can lift their grandchildren up without much effort and you know it's very low level the staff here was, I can't say enough how great they were and how attentive they were the nurses, they care there the devotion they care about each one of us individually we each have individual concerns I like the girls and also I like the other people that were here who with me for quite a few weeks we talked about our problems and how we feel and everything else and it was a little camaraderie we know that exercise helps low level depression and anxiety and we know that patients after they've had a big event, a cardiac event whether it be open heart surgery or stents or heart attack that they do have some anxiety and they do have some mild depression and what we see is that the exercise really does help them their spirits are lifted, they have fun and that feeling of doom that they had when they first came in here is lifted and they don't actually realize it initially but they're seeing that they're getting stronger they're feeling greater and actually psychological it provides a good feedback to them even going home I had better energy I had better outlook it helps your psyche it helps your well-being, your mental, your social your physical everything about it, it has helped we hear that we support each other that's the biggest, another biggest thing is to support one another we've all had an issue some minor, some more serious but everyone is here for one reason to make themselves well and to keep themselves well you heard the other patients talking about how they were able to talk to other people and kind of bounce off their concerns to them and kind of compare notes that's a great support system that they can't get at a gym or they can't get in solitary exercise after a heart event you're not exactly 100% sure and tentative about where you're going and this will help you explore how far you can push it it was beneficial and I would recommend people who had hot surgery or other problems that they find the time and they come here for the 13 weeks or however long they program their program calls for by the time I get out I was so confident now that I can go out and start exercising on my own and that was so important to me and this cardiac rehab is what did it you get one person walk through the door and an entirely different person walking at the end it's an investment in my life for my family if I'm not here for my family who's going to be?