Graham wanted to participate in cardiac rehabilitation once he was strong enough after surgery. She had heard about her options from her neighbor, who had also recently had a heart attack. “I also have two sisters who are nurses,” Graham said. “One of her girlfriends works at a cardiologist, so we talked with her about cardiac rehabilitation for her, and all her siblings agreed it was a good idea.”

Cardiac rehabilitation focuses on the “now” after a cardiac event. Stacey Greenway, the medical center’s director of cardiovascular disease management services, hopes cardiac rehabilitation will become an immediate program related to heart recovery.

“A multidisciplinary team works with patients to set and achieve goals that improve their health, quality of life, and functional ability,” Greenway said. “We create individualized treatment plans for each patient, including exercise, nutrition, medications, stress management, and other factors.”

For Graham, treatment started slowly, but she said she quickly felt comfortable. “The team is very smart and in tune with each person,” Graham said. “It made a big difference because I knew right away that I could trust them. It made me want to go.”

It also helped others around her have the same experience. “It didn’t matter if they were male or female or what their race was. We were all there for the same reason. Our bodies were broken in some way, but we survived and lived long enough. We were there together for the same purpose, which is to try to prolong the process,” Graham said. “I drew strength from them because I saw them working hard and wanted to do the same.”

The experience not only gave Graham a chance to get stronger after major surgery; “The only thing I got was hope,” Graham said. I hope I can live longer. ” Graham encouraged her and said it wasn’t just her exercise that made her better. It was also a class they offered. “I learned quite a bit from the classes that covered things like eating and dealing with this diagnosis,” she said. What Graham didn’t expect was the support she would receive from her therapist. “I reached out to Dr. Kari Killian because I was having a difficult experience with surgery and she did an amazing job. I can’t say enough positive things about that experience. Dr. Killian is a cardiac psychologist embedded in the heart failure program and is an important member of the treatment team, as it is not uncommon for patients to experience anxiety and depression after a cardiac event.

Graham wished he had been involved longer, but now that he has graduated from cardiac rehabilitation, he is able to do what he needs to do. “It allowed me to go home and do normal things like cleaning the house and curling my hair,” Graham said. She also quickly joined a gym to continue her progress and also enrolled in her personal training. “She finished her cardiac rehabilitation on a Friday and was at the gym the following Monday,” Graham said. “It wasn’t forced on me, but the cardiac rehab team gave me information. My sister goes to the gym, so I decided to go there too, and now I go every weekday. I will continue to exercise, think positively and eat right.”

Now that he’s feeling much better, Graham said he has plans for the future. “We’re working on converting one of the bedrooms into storage space, and we’re planning on painting the shed in the backyard in the spring,” Graham said. She also hopes to visit her daughter and her grandchildren in Phoenix, Arizona next winter. In the meantime, she said, Graham has given permission to her doctors to work as a volunteer in the cardiac rehabilitation unit. This is one of the ways she is able to share her own experiences and give back to her amazing cardiac rehabilitation team who have had an incredible impact on her life.

“I don’t care what I do. I just didn’t want to leave,” Graham said. “I love people, and I thought if I was around people who were going through what I went through, I might be able to tell them my story and help them.”