"I've Been Given My Life Back"
"I've been truly blessed--I've been given my life back."
-Valerie C. (Ft Worth, TX)
Valerie's Story
"I'm Valerie, and I am almost two weeks away from at the end of my treatment with Legacy Heart Care in Fort Worth. I came to Legacy as a result of my cardiologist ascertaining that I have small vessel heart disease for which any kind of surgery is not an option, so this was pretty much the only option open to me--and it isn't anything that I had been at all familiar with. However, the cardiologist explained a little bit about it and then I came to Legacy on an interview- type situation and they explained more, I thought, “Well, it's non-invasive, so it should be okay. And indeed it is.
- The Initial Impression -
It is a bit strange at first and it's certainly not painful--a little bit uncomfortable-- but my goodness they give you your own little “spa bed” (as I refer to it) and you get to choose your own movie or series--whatever you want to watch--so it's very easy for you to concentrate on what it is that you'd like to watch, and I'm sure you're not even aware of the motion that your body is going through.
- The Initial Effects -
The first week, I think I felt even more tired than normal (and I was a bit worried about that), and I spoke to the staff, and they said, “Well yes indeed, because your body thinks that you're actually running something like a 12-mile race.” Which--I don't know what kind of shape you're in--but I certainly wasn't in any kind of shape to be running a 12-mile race! Anyway, that is what’s necessary for our blood flow to become strong enough to get everything going in the right direction and help us medically to get better….which it has certainly done for me.
The EECP Difference
- Before EECP -
I can tell you that when I first came (well, before I started the treatment), I was certainly exhausted all of the time. I would go to the grocery store, for example, and just pick up a regular load of groceries, come back, and be too tired to take them out of the car. Since I live alone, that was a bit difficult. And then, I'd have a three hour nap.
So I got a bit involved in sleeping, resting, and generally not pursuing anything at all (which was interesting too). I'm hoping it's not where you are, but if you are, I can tell you that that's about to come to a sudden end. Because if you have the kind of results that I have had here (which there's no reason that you shouldn't have because I've had them), you can forget it! I had put that lifestyle down to being 73-years-old. I thought that that's how one felt when one is ill. It is not how one feels when one is 73-years-old, because I am here to tell you that life is different now.
- After EECP -
Before I took my treatment, I would go to the grocery store and have a very hard time having the energy to unload. Yesterday--(I have a little farm on which--besides lots of other animals, there are four huge thoroughbred horses--two of them have hoof problems and two of them have coat problems)--at six o'clock in the morning, I was underneath two of them working on their hooves, then I was working on the coats of the other two, then after that I fed them, and cleaned up, and then I swam 26 laps in my pool.
Now [my pool] is only 40 feet long, but that's 26 laps further than I could do before I started this program. Then, I took a quick shower, and I went to the grocery store (actually I went to Costco, and I went to another store, and I also got gasoline at Costco), came back, unloaded, and put everything away. Made lunch, got ready, came over to Legacy to have my treatment, came back, made some refreshments for a ladies’ meeting at church, learned how to do canning of green beans and plums, and came back from that, then followed up with a friend (who has some health issues), and then watched a movie for a while then went to bed.
So that’s the difference in my lifestyle in just the few weeks I've been coming in [to Legacy]. I've been truly blessed--I've been given my life back. Just by sitting there and watching a movie. There's nothing to worry about in this treatment; there's a full staff of very dedicated, very professional, very friendly, wonderful people to help you.
I hope you'll be as blessed as I have been in your journey towards good health, so good luck! And I can assure you--if I get to feeling puny again I'm coming back for another course.
So good luck! Maybe I'll see you around!"
