The hospital saved your life. Rehabilitation helps you get your life back.

Mary Ellen Frazier, RN, and Emily Creason, RN, BSN
Cardiac & Pulmonary Rehabilitation Department, Pershing Health System

A heart attack, heart procedure, or diagnosis of a chronic lung condition can change the way a person approaches everyday life. Things that once seemed simple, such as walking through a store, playing with grandchildren, doing chores around the house, or running errands, can suddenly feel difficult or even frightening.

Recovery is about more than leaving the hospital and going home. It is about rebuilding strength, learning how to safely manage your condition, and gaining the confidence to return to the life you enjoy.

That is where Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation at Pershing Health System can help.

Meeting Patients Where They Are

One of the biggest misconceptions about cardiac rehabilitation is that it will be too difficult or intense.

“Some people think they don’t need cardiac rehab, that they can’t do it, or that it will be like a stress test,” explained Mary Ellen Frazier, RN. “We meet them where they are with their exercise.”

Cardiac rehabilitation is a medically supervised program designed around each individual’s condition, abilities, and goals. Patients don’t walk through the door expected to perform at a certain level. Instead, the rehabilitation team helps them begin where they are and safely progress from there.

Depending on the patient and the type of heart procedure they have undergone, cardiac rehabilitation may typically begin within two to six weeks. The patient’s surgeon or healthcare provider helps determine when it is safe to start.

As the weeks progress, Mary Ellen often sees changes that extend well beyond physical strength.

Patients gain stamina and learn more about their cardiovascular health, but they also begin to trust their bodies again.

“Success is having more confidence to go out and do everyday activities that they may have declined in the past because of fear or not having the strength,” Mary Ellen said. “It may mean doing more activities with their families or grandkids.”

Cardiac rehabilitation also focuses on strengthening the cardiovascular system and helping patients understand and manage risk factors that could contribute to future heart problems.

Learning to Live Better With Lung Disease

For patients living with chronic lung conditions, pulmonary rehabilitation provides a similar combination of supervised exercise, education, encouragement, and support.

Pulmonary rehabilitation is designed for people with preexisting lung conditions who may find that shortness of breath limits what they feel comfortable doing.

The goal isn’t to promise that shortness of breath will disappear. Instead, patients learn how to better manage it.

“We can’t just make your shortness of breath go away when a lung disease is already present,” explained Emily Creason, RN, BSN. “We work with you on how to pace yourself and manage your symptoms with activities.”

As patients become stronger and learn techniques for managing their breathing and activity levels, they may discover they can do more before becoming short of breath.

Emily says one of the most rewarding parts of her job is watching patients recognize that change for themselves.

“It’s rewarding to see it finally ‘click’ for a patient,” she said. “Usually after several sessions, people see an improvement in their energy, mood, and endurance. We love hearing toward the end of their rehab that they want to continue to exercise because they feel so much better.”

In fact, some patients are so encouraged by their progress that they purchase exercise equipment for home or join the YMCA so they can continue what they started in rehabilitation.

From Staying Home to Running Errands Again

Sometimes the biggest victories aren’t measured by numbers on a monitor. They are measured by what a patient is able to do outside the rehabilitation department.

Emily remembers one pulmonary rehabilitation patient who rarely left her home because managing her oxygen and everything that went along with leaving the house felt overwhelming.

“When she first started pulmonary rehab, she said she never went out and did anything outside of the house because she felt like it was too much to handle with her oxygen and getting everything together,” Emily recalled.

Through rehabilitation, they talked about ways to make outings more manageable and how she could pace herself.

Today, that patient is able to get out and run errands with greater confidence.

“She takes the time and paces herself,” Emily said.

That kind of progress represents exactly what cardiopulmonary rehabilitation is designed to accomplish. It isn’t simply about exercising for an hour. It is about giving people the tools and confidence to participate in their lives again.

Close to Home Matters

Cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation aren’t completed in one or two visits. Patients may attend approximately two to three sessions each week, often for as many as 36 sessions.

That makes having rehabilitation available close to home especially important.

“It makes them more likely to stick with it when it is close to home,” Mary Ellen explained. “It doesn’t cause a hardship trying to drive two hours one way for an appointment.”

At Pershing Health System, the program is local, individualized, and provided in an environment that isn’t crowded. Patients have scheduled appointment times, which also provides something surprisingly important during recovery: accountability.

Knowing that someone is expecting you can provide the extra motivation needed to keep going, even on days when exercise may not be at the top of your list.

And somewhere along the way, exercise can change from something a patient thinks they have to do into something they actually enjoy.

That is something both Mary Ellen and Emily wish more patients understood before beginning rehabilitation: Exercise can be fun, rewarding, and something to look forward to.

Recovery Is About Living Again

The goal of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation isn’t simply to complete a certain number of sessions.

It’s helping someone feel confident enough to go shopping again.

It’s having the stamina to spend time with grandchildren.

It’s learning how to manage shortness of breath instead of allowing the fear of it to keep you home.

It’s understanding your heart or lung condition and knowing what you can safely do.

And sometimes, it’s finishing rehabilitation and deciding that exercise feels so good that you want to keep going.

After a heart or lung event, getting stronger can feel overwhelming. You don’t have to do it alone. The Cardiac & Pulmonary Rehabilitation team at Pershing Health System is there to help patients regain strength, confidence, and independence, one step at a time.

Get Started

Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation at Pershing Health System is available by physician referral. Talk with your healthcare provider to find out if rehabilitation may be right for you.

For more information, call 660-258-1274.

Pershing Health System
Committed to Your Heart. Committed to Your Lungs. Committed to You.