BCPA Journal - Issue 184 - British Cardiac Patients Association

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12 How do we ‘stat up’? - Corey Beecher It is a commonly known fact that ‘To exercise is better than NOT to exercise’. Well just being a fact does not mean that people will follow the advice given. After all we have a freedom of speech and therefore a freedom of action. Even when armed with the full set of information the choice is still that of the individual – and quite correctly too. We should not be living in a world of dictators informing us of what we should be doing and then checking up to see that we are doing as we are supposed to. It is a free choice as to how we choose to use our own free time and this should be how it stays. But some things are better for us than others, it has been scientifically proved. Exercise is just one of those areas, where regularly partaking in a form that you enjoy and can will provide you with many benefits. British Heart Foundation So how many of us actually pick ourselves off of the sofa and get out and moving? The British Heart Foundation regularly undertake a review of what people are doing in regard to their risk factor profile. They look into such things as cholesterol levels, medication compliance, diet, blood pressure, heart rates and physical activity levels. 1 Government guidelines The government offer us guidelines in terms of the physical activity we should be completing. The current guidelines are for three formal exercise sessions a week with you reaching a moderate intensity of exercise. This should be for around 30 minutes, Second copy of the crossword This is here so two people may do it. Fold back page 13 down the middle so you can see the clues on the left side of page 14 as well as this copy, without seeing the other crossword itself. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 excluding a warm up and cool down, which should last 15 minutes and 10 minutes respectively. Then having 2 days of daily active living where you are trying to be more active for an additional 30 minutes during the day. The difference between the exercise and the physical activity is that the exercise will need to be completed in one go, so just under an hour for the full session. The physical activity can be completed in any breakdown of the 30 minutes you can imagine. So if during a day you walked for 10 minutes, gardened for 5 minutes, swept the drive for 5 minutes, wandered around the shops for 10 minutes that would be the 30 minutes total. The latest published figures are interesting. They show that in England there were 34% of men meeting these government guidelines in 1998 and by 2008 that figure had increased to 42%. In Scotland the picture for men is similar, but the progression is slightly less. It was 40% in 1998 and by 2008 it had risen to 46%, so more men in Scotland were and are achieving the target than in England. For women, in England it was 21% in 1998 and rose to 31% in 2008. In Scotland it was 29% in 1998 and went up to 35% in 2008. So it shows that the Scots do complete more exercise. The percentages of people who exercise above, at, or below the government guideline of 5 times a week also paint a picture. In England 53% of men aged 16- 24 exercise above the recommended 5 times per week. However at age 75+ this percentage drops to 9%. 30% of the 16-24 group and 23% of the 75+ group achieve exactly 5 times per week. 16% of the 16- 24 age group and 68% of the 75+ group do less than that. Women in England show similar figures, with 35% of 16-24 group and 6% of 75+ group achieving more than 5 times a week. 33% of the 16-24 group and 16% of 75+ achieving exactly 5 times a week. 32% of the 16-24 and 78% of the 75+ do less than that. Now with the differing health issues that the older generation need to manage, it is imperative that they take the time to find activities that help them manage and assist them in keeping themselves out of hospital and on the treadmill – figuratively and actively speaking. So taking the time to try different activities when the opportunity arises can only be a positive move. Look in your local area for any sports development programme to encourage people to rediscover the sports they left behind in their youth. As an example Bedford Borough Council offer a discounted trial of 8 weeks of activities under their Reactive8 programme. This is for people between 30 and 50. It includes ballroom dancing, kendo, badminton, swim stroke improvement and golf. Look in your local library to uncover what is available near you to start you off on the quest for a new you. Compare with Europe Back to the stats now, with a look at how the UK compares with other parts of Europe. The breakdown is for people over the age of 18 exercising and is not gender sensitive. The categories are • exercising regularly, • with some regularity, • seldom, • never, and • don’t know. Think about where you may fall in this list of categories. For example, in the Czech Republic 5% exercise regularly, 23% exercise with some regularity, 25% seldom exercise, and 37% never exercise. In Italy 3% regularly exercise, 26% with some regularity, 16% seldom and 55% never. In the Netherlands 5% exercise regularly, 51% with some regularity, 16% seldom and 28% never. The UK figures are 14% regularly, 32% with some regularity, 22% seldom and 32% never. Ireland is the country with the highest percentage of people exercise regularly –23%. Bulgaria has the lowest percentage for any exercise, with 58% never taking any exercise. It is interesting to look at the figures and see where we, as a nation fall. With everyone doing just a simple short walk each day we could improve the percentage of people exercising in the UK; and maybe, just maybe, we could one day boast that we have the highest percentage of people in our nation regularly exercising and meeting the criteria for a fitter, healthier body. Let’s give it a go and overtake our European cousins and show them it is possible and that it is FUN. Source 1 British Heart Foundation Statistics database. heartstats.org, 2010
A New Beginning: Memoirs of a Voluntary Worker 1981-1996 – Fred Roach Keith Jackson In the February and April issues of the Journal we recollected some of Fred’s visiting experiences from his chapter headed Smiles and Tears. We continue with Transplantation. Transplantation On 18th August 1979 I had an appointment to see Sir Terence English at his clinic at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. There were an unusual number of patients waiting and we were told that the clinic was running late. Suddenly a doctor appeared who was obviously in a hurry and he announced that due to an emergency at Papworth Hospital Sir Terence English was unable to be present and therefore he would be taking the clinic. The patients were seen in record time – indeed it was one of the quickest clinic examinations I had experienced. Later that evening while I was watching the television news programme it was announced that the first successful heart transplant in the UK had been carried out at Papworth Hospital by Sir Terence English. The patient was Mr Keith Castle. It was my pleasure to meet Mr Keith Castle and his wife, Doreen, on many occasions during my work in the hospital. Sometimes he would stay for a few days for routine checks, at other times he would have to stay longer. He did not appreciate long stays in hospital yet he retained a good sense of humour. I remember meeting Keith on Surgical Unit Top Floor one Sunday and when I asked him why he had come in again, he said he must have caught some bug or other. His stay on this occasion was longer than normal and I visited him often during that period. Each time he would make some remark such as, ‘They still can’t trace the bug’. As I went to see him on my next visit to the hospital there was a large notice pinned to the door of his room. I had seen such notices in the countryside to announce a Pigeon Shoot. The notice on Keith’s door was a similar notice with the exception that the two vowels in the second word had been blotted out and replaced by a different single vowel. Prior to his heart problems Keith had been a builder in London. His sons had since taken over the business. He had visited a site where his sons were demolishing property and as one can imagine, Trafalgar Square is not the only place in London where pigeons congregate or leave their ‘calling card’. The dust from the demolished property had caused the problem. Once the villain had been discovered the Papworth team quickly found a solution. In 1985 Mr Keith Castle passed away. He and his wife Doreen had been valued members of the BCPA. Since his transplant he had been a fine ambassador for transplantation and had raised considerable funds for Papworth Hospital. Keith’s death was a sad blow but the work of the transplant team continued, in that, during 1985, a further five heart/lung transplants and over forty heart transplants were carried out. I spent a great deal of time in supporting them and their families. The one hundredth heart transplant at Papworth took place in 1985. The patient, Pamela, was also the youngest, being just nine years old. Her room was well stocked with dolls and Pamela soon became the proud owner of a nurse’s outfit. Hardly a day went by without one of the dolls having to undergo a ‘transplant’. The staff had great fun in supplying the necessary ‘nursing’ aids, hypodermic syringe (minus needles of course), ECG machines, and masks. It was amazing what could be made with silver foil. The introduction of the anti-rejection drug, cyclosporin, coupled with the skill of the transplant team was to make a dramatic improvement in the progress the transplant patients were making - which resulted in earlier discharge from hospital. Often I would meet patients and their partners who had been referred to the hospital to be assessed for transplant. If they were suitable for the transplant programme they returned home and would wait anxiously for ‘the call’ from Papworth. During the waiting period I often received calls from them on the helpline and when eventually the call came it was like a Fred & June Roach re-union of friends. I remember one incident when I had just returned home from my Sunday visit to Papworth and then received a telephone call from a lady in Kent. Her husband had received ‘the call’ from the transplant co-ordinator and she and her daughter were following the ambulance to Papworth. They expected to arrive around 7.30pm and would like me to meet them to give support. I returned to the hospital immediately and was there in time to welcome the family as the patient was taken to be prepared for surgery. The family went to see the patient prior to his going into the anaesthetic room at around l0pm. The co-ordinator came to see the family in the visitors’ room about an hour later and said that the operation was going ahead and would take approximately another three hours. The daughter and her fiancé were going to drive back to Kent after being assured that the operation was over, whilst the wife was going to stay in a visitor’s bedroom on the top floor of the Baron Ward. It was quite obvious to me that the wife was extremely tired and under great stress. I tried to persuade her to go to bed but she declined to do so. The next message from the theatre was that the operation was going extremely well and the patient was expected to be transferred to the ‘bubble’ at about 3am. Again I tried to persuade the wife to go to bed and was supported in this by the daughter and a nurse who also offered to provide a sleeping tablet to help her. I explained that, even if she stayed up long enough to see her husband it would only be through the glass door of his room and he would still be unconscious. I suggested that it would be far better for her to accept the nurse’s offer of a sleeping tablet and go to bed so that in the morning she would be more refreshed when she was able to see and speak to her husband. At 1am she agreed that she needed sleep and would go to bed after being assured that she would be called immediately if she was needed. There was one personal problem which caused me some concern at the beginning. I was severely hard of hearing in the left ear and wore a hearing aid. The operative word is ‘aid’ and it has its limitations. In a one-to-one situation, providing that the speaker enunciates clearly, there is no problem. However, in a ward there are many noises which override the benefit of the aid, coupled with the fact that many patients do not feel up to speaking clearly. Having been hard of hearing since my mid-thirties I had received training in lip reading or, to be more precise, speech reading. This entailed observation of the lips, eyes, head and shoulders of the speaker. In some respects this reading of body language was an advantage over those people who listened but did not observe. On one occasion I was about to visit a transplant patient who had a tracheotomy. The staff nurse told me that there was little point in me seeing the patient as she was unable to speak but I was welcome to visit if I wished. I entered the room and spoke to the young patient and she responded silently. I was able to understand clearly what she was saying and we were able to have a long conversation. I was a regular visitor during her stay and it was a delight when the tube was finally removed and I was able to hear her voice. 13
Page 1 and 2: Issue 184 June / July 2012 THE PATI
Page 3 and 4: Annual membership renewals and subs
Page 5 and 6: Peterborough Gordon Wakefield 01733
Page 7 and 8: doses of at least 75mg reduced long
Page 9 and 10: daughter drove the car and they too
Page 11: Dates for your diary W 27 June 7.30
Page 15 and 16: Membership and aims Whatever your i

BCPA Journal - Issue 184 - British Cardiac Patients Association

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