Friday's Internet Edition, May 09, 2008.
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“Cardiac rehabilitation has meant everything to me,” Ford said, “It gets me off of my recliner.”
At the age of 18, she had blood clots in her leg and had a vein removed. Four of her five pregnancies ended with Caesarean sections. The child born naturally survived, as did three of the others. Ford was also in an automobile accident many years ago, which resulted in shoulder problems that still affect her. She also suffered from asthma and had to take allergy shots. Still, this remarkable woman graduated from college at the age of 49. She was valedictorian of her class at Kansas Wesleyan University that year, and became a schoolteacher. When she retired at the age of 65, more serious health problems began to set in. Four the past several years, she has had congestive heart failure. She has had a heart attack, a stroke and diabetes. Ford has had surgery to remove her spleen and another to remove her pancreas. She also has had two knee replacements.
At one time Ford was more than 100 pounds overweight, but she shed 100 pounds. A lot of credit for this goes to Linda Stack, her daughter. Stack, who worked for years at Sara Lee Corp. in Winston-Salem lost her job at the company when it went through a drastic downsizing. About the same time, Ford was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and told she had to eat foods with less sodium if she wanted to live much longer. Stack was shocked to find how difficult it was to find low sodium food products in the Twin City and, as a result, started a store called Low Sodium Connections. A couple of years ago, she moved the Low Sodium Connections to Thomasville, near TMC at 1102 Lexington Ave.
“Linda has got something here that people who take risk by having sodium in their diet should take a look at,” said Sue Seymour, coordinator for cardiac rehabilitation at TMC. “It also has gluten-free products for people with those issues.”
Despite losing the weight, however, Ford’s health problems continued. Last May 16, she entered TMC’s Cardiac Rehabilitation Program.
“I lost over 100 pounds before I came to cardiac rehab, but since I’ve started coming here, I have lost some weight and also tightened up a bit,” Ford said. “Since I started exercising I feel so much better.”
Ford said she still has a lot of loose skin, but she is determined to remove it by exercise, rather than surgery.
“I’ve had enough of that,” Ford said of surgery.
The attitude Ford displays is appreciated by Seymour.
“Bette’s quite a determined lady,” Seymour said. “She has a dry wit, and she has really exercised a lot.”
According to Seymour, Ford’s sense of humor helps her, as well as her fellow patients in cardiac rehabilitation.
“We have a very supportive group of cardiac patients,” Seymour said. “They lift each other up and care for each other. They have all been through a severe trauma, and have faced death.”
Ford does 1,000 steps-per-session on a recumbent bike, as well as 10 minutes a day on a stationary bicycle, among other exercises. She also walks about a half mile in the hall.
“Bette’s made a lot of progress since she started coming here,” Seymour said. “She is able to walk more and spend more time exercising. She was extremely short-winded when she first came in.”
Ford remembers when Tom Doyle, director of TMC’s stroke center, tried to get her to exercise on a bike.
“You’ll never get me on a bicycle,” she remembers saying to Doyle. “My knees can’t handle it.”
But the knees did handle it to their benefit and hers, too.
“Tom not only got me on the bicycle, he got my knees loosened up to where I can peddle a lot better,” Ford said.
In addition to an exercise program, classes and individual counseling are held. There is even a psychotherapist on the staff to deal with the issues that come with cardiac problems. The rehab center also works with the state’s Vocational Rehabilitation.
“It is much easier for me to go shopping now and doing other errands,” Ford said of her improvement since entering the cardiac rehab program. “When I want to go visit somebody, I can do so, instead of staying at home.”
Ford even works some, helping her daughter out at Low Sodium Connections.
“I think we’re very fortunate that Novant Health and Thomasville Medical Center have these programs available in the community,” Seymour said. “We’ve had this program since 1979, when it was one of the first ones in the state. As a staff member, I feel I get a double reward because I’ve been blessed with great co-workers and the patients have been marvelous.”
Staff Writer Kevin Reid can be reached at 472-9500, ext. 230, or at reid@tvilletimes.com.