Candy Klenke felt like she had been holding her breath for months. She kept thinking: What’s bothering me? She wasn’t naturally anxious, and there wasn’t any obvious reason for her to feel tense.
Finally, her husband talked her into visiting her primary care physician. On Oct. 19, 2023, she saw her physician, had blood work done and went home. At 5:30 p.m. that same day, she was walking her dog when she got a call. Her doctor said she needed to go to the emergency room right away.
“I was scared to death,” said Klenke, 77, who learned her troponin levels were high. Troponin, a protein in cells of the heart, rises when there is heart damage. She spent several hours at the emergency room for more testing, then was released and told to follow up with her Novant Health cardiologist.
Everything accelerated from there. On Oct. 23, under her cardiologist’s care, she underwent specialized testing and learned she had blockages. By Nov. 2, she was having cardiac stents put in. The doctor came into her recovery room and said, “When did you have your heart attack?” Klenke’s reply: “I never had a heart attack.”
It was shocking; She’d had a heart attack at some point, but never knew it. “I never had the typical symptoms,” she said.
Cardiac rehabilitation for body, mind and soul.
What is cardiac rehab?
Because of her heart attack history and her cardiac procedure, Klenke was referred to a cardiac rehab program at Novant Health’s Heart & Vascular Institute Wellness Center in Huntersville. For cardiac rehab, patients are referred to the program if they have conditions such as heart disease or heart failure, or if they’ve had a heart attack, angioplasty, heart valve repair or replacement, or open-heart surgery. It’s a key part of the recovery process.
She eagerly jumped into her new routine. “I absolutely loved it,” said Klenke, who went twice a week. “I’m not the kind of person that would join a local gym, so this was perfect for me. It’s like a small community and you really get to know the people there; everybody cares about each other.”
The program is completely individualized to each patient based on their fitness and other health factors, said Caroline Schenck, a cardiopulmonary rehabilitation registered nurse at Huntersville.
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What happens in cardiac rehab?
Cardiac rehab combines supervised exercise and education about heart-healthy lifestyles to support patients in improving – and sustaining – cardiovascular strength. Alongside functional goals, individual goals during cardiac rehab could look like: being able to work out for 30 minutes on the equipment or being able to pick up grandkids.
“We start the program with an evaluation and personalized treatment plan for each patient,” Schenck said. “Then we schedule the patient to come for their specific class times, usually two to three days per week for an hour to an hour and a half. It typically takes 12 weeks for them to complete all of their therapy sessions.”
Each time Klenke and her fellow patients arrived at the facility, they were fitted with a heart monitor to ensure their safety during exercise. They typically moved through a group warmup and strength exercises, then they followed their individualized exercise “prescription” routine for 30 to 40 minutes on different pieces of equipment. Each session ended with a cool down, including flexibility and breathing exercises, along with relaxation therapy or education.
“The individualized exercise treatment plans are prescribed by the exercise physiologist,” Schenck said. “They are updated as patients make progress to make sure they continue toward meeting their goals.”
“I was the queen of the rowing machine,” Klenke said. “It was so good for me. I’m an overachiever, so if they told me to do 12 minutes on a machine, no, I was going to do 15, the best that I could, and really work at it.”
A sense of community
While getting started in the program was uncomfortable at first because she didn’t know anyone, Klenke felt welcomed instantly. “You’re one of them,” she said of the patients in the room. “You’ve had experiences with the same kind of thing. And you start to talk about what happened to all of you.”
Patients form bonds with the care team as well, Schenck said. “Patients work with a dedicated team of nurses, exercise physiologists and a registered dietitian. There’s an on-call doctor we can contact if there are any concerns.”
Klenke didn’t have any concerns. “I felt stronger,” she said. “Honestly, I was proud of myself and I just wanted to keep going and be the best that I could be, and be healthy. I never wanted it to end.”
“Once you get into the program, you don’t want to stop,” said Klenke, who continues to go to the Medical Fitness program. “I go every Tuesday and Thursday, and I feel so good. My body feels healthier and stronger, my muscles are tighter.”
She’s with a whole new group of patients, but she feels the same sense of community.
“We all laugh and talk to each other, everybody thinks about everybody else, and we all work really hard,” she said. “I highly recommend it to anybody who has heart issues. Don’t be afraid of going, just go. It’s the best thing you could do for yourself.”
For Klenke, who likes to keep up a healthy activity level most weekdays, the Medical Fitness program is the perfect complement. She walks 2 miles when she can fit them in, she does water aerobics in the summer, and she does chair yoga in the fall and winter. “In the morning, I am always busy,” she said. And she intends to stay that way.