Atlanta Retiree Receives Excellent Cardiac Care at Dekalb Medical - Cathy smith's story

My name is Cathy Smith. I'm a retired teacher living in Stone Mountain with my husband, Jim. We've been here for 37 years. I began my teaching career in New Jersey. I fell in love with my first class, and from then on, teaching was for me. I continued to love teaching through the whole 40 years that I did it, ending my career here in Georgia. I was over at the park walking. After I'd walked for just about 15 minutes, I felt very dizzy and extremely lightheaded. I called my internist. She said stop and call Dr. Dotson, which is what I did. Sybil Dotson, MD: I've been knowing Mrs. Smith since I moved to Atlanta and started practicing here, so I've been here 20 years. CS: Since I had been seeing my cardiologist every six months, she notices every little changing symptom. SD: There was something about her complaint of chest pain that I wanted to do another stress test on her to look for coronary artery disease. The stress test showed that there was what we call ischemia, which was surprising to me since I knew her quite well. I wasn't expecting this. And I went to her and told her we need to further evaluate. CS: My doctor scheduled a catheterization for me at DeKalb Medical. SD: We went through an artery, usually in the groin, and take a catheter and insert it into the major artery leading up to the heart, take X-ray pictures by use of contrast dye. CS: I watched on the screen, I was very relaxed. Some of my friends say to me, "How can you be so relaxed during a catheterization?" And I said "Because I'm with doctors who I know care." SD: The tests showed that she had coronary artery disease. CS: The catheterization led to them doing an angioplasty, and during the angioplasty they put a stent in, which opened the artery up. SD: The procedure was successful. There was no residual stenosis after the stent was placed in. She did fine overnight and was able to go home the following day. CS: My doctor told me I had a 95% blockage before the procedure, and after the procedure, I was happy to find out that it was open 100%. During my follow up appointment with the cardiologist, I discussed a pamphlet that I had noticed on a previous visit that was advertising the Wellness Center. Emily Ergle: The Heart Wellness Center is inside the Wellness Center at DeKalb Medical. We focus specifically on rehab after a patient has a heart condition such as a heart attack, they've had heart surgery of some sort, stent placement, open heart surgery, or they have a chronic ailment that prevents them from doing activities of daily living to their fullest potential. When a person is referred here, we bring them in, we do an orientation with them. At that time we're getting their basic health history, get to learn a little more about their condition, what's been going on with them, and we do a couple of quick tests with them: a 6 minute walk test just to get a baseline of their physical activity level. And from there we can customize an exercise prescription for each patient. Meredith Blackmon: We'll kind of ease the patients into the exercise and explain to them what this is doing, kind of give them a background knowledge of how this is gonna affect them and how it will help them, because a lot of people don't really understand the actual effects of exercise and how it will correlate with their heart. CS: First you would go and be set up with a monitor. After that they would take your blood pressure to make sure your blood pressure was in the normal range for activities. It was very comforting to know that I was going to be monitored while I exercised. I would start with the treadmill and then use the recumbent bike. There was a rowing machine. And then the air bike, as well as an arm machine. I spent about 10 minutes on each of the machines. I experienced a little disappointment at the idea of this ending after the 36 weeks, but realized that they would still be there, and I would just be there in the room next door, exercising. The reinforcement that I received from the people working there encouraged me to the point where I visit the Wellness Center at least 3-4 times a week if not more. I feel so much better when I'm doing things, like carrying laundry up stairs. I know people are gonna think that's crazy, but I feel much better when I'm active. I have been at DeKalb Medical for other procedures over the years and I will say that I've always received excellent care there. I would most definitely recommend DeKalb Medical, and have on many occasions to my friends.