Health

Katy Maker, Nurse Midwife and Nurse Practitioner, joined the Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) Birthing Center team delivering babies, including waterbirths, last summer. She also cares for maternity and family practice patients in both the Waukon and Postville Clinic locations. Maker joins Dr. Dave Schwartz and Halie Ruff, Nurse Practitioner, as the hospital’s maternity care team.

Maker has over 30 years of experience as a nurse midwife and has assisted in nearly 2,000 deliveries.  She continues to add to that number, assisting moms with their baby’s birth in the Veterans Memorial Hospital Birthing Center.   Maker is also proficient in and encourages water births.

by the American Institute for Cancer Research
                
Do the holidays tend to impact your wallet and your waistline? Well you’re not alone. The good news: despite feeling several pant-sizes larger post-holiday season, such exaggerated weight gains are not typical. According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, most of us pack on far fewer pounds than we think. Now the rub: Although our annual holiday gains may be small, many people fail to lose the additional weight from year to year.

Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) will be offering free blood sugar testing and blood pressure checks with immediate results at the Waukon Chamber’s Holiday Hop Thursday, December 8. Free chair massages will also be offered. The hospital is joining The Copy Shoppe in its downtown location and will be serving energy bars and giving away prizes and coupons as well from 4-7 p.m.

Angie Mettille, RN, Certified Diabetes Educator and Juli Viet, RN, Community and Home Care Nurse, will be performing these free tests. Both of these checks take just a few seconds to perform and are free of charge. Massage therapist Shannon Bernatz, LMC, will be offering the free chair massages.

For additional information, call Veterans Memorial Hospital at 563-568-3411.
 

Veterans Memorial Hospital Clinic in Waukon will be closing a half-hour early at 6:30 p.m. Thursday evening, December 8. The clinic will reopen at 8 a.m. Friday morning, December 9.

The regular clinic hours for the Waukon location are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with early access Monday mornings at 7 a.m. and late access Thursday evenings until 7 p.m. Same-day appointments are usually available. Again, the clinic will need to close a half-hour early Thursday, December 8 at 6:30 p.m.

For questions or to make an appointment, call the Veterans Memorial Hospital Clinic-Waukon at 563-568-5530 or the Clinic in Postville at 563-864-7221.
 

The Veterans Memorial Hospital Diabetes Support Group will not hold a regular meeting during the month of December. They will begin holding their regular monthly meetings again in January.

For more information on the Diabetes Support Group, call Angie Mettille, RN, Diabetes Educator at Veterans Memorial Hospital at 563-568-3411.

The Veterans Memorial Hospital Radiology Department received a generous donation from Ruth Boden, owner and creator of Ruth’s Gift LLC, a Faith Stick (lip balm) company, in honor of breast cancer survivors. Boden created a special Faith Stick just for Breast Cancer Awareness and donated a portion of the proceeds to the hospital for its new mammography machine.

“I made this special Faith Stick for the month of October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” explains Boden. “I am going to continue to offer it through the end of the year as a reminder for women to get their mammograms.”

This special pink Faith Stick, along with many other flavors, is available at local stores such as Say Now! and the Copy Shoppe in Waukon, and at Touch of Class Styling Salon in Lansing. Each container has a special Bible verse that goes along with the product.

The month of November is National Home Care Month. Veterans Memorial Hospital Community and Home Care (formerly called Allamakee County Public Health) travels the entire Allamakee County area offering adults the assistance they need to remain living in their homes, for as long as possible.

Registered nurses and trained home care aides offer a variety of services including nursing visits, medication set-up and administration, dressing cares, IVs, catheter and colostomy cares, overseeing rehabilitation in-home programs and assistance with personal cares.  RN staff is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“The home care people go out of their way to accommodate anyone that they help in their homes and they are always willing to work around our schedules,” states Toni Kolsrud of rural Waterville.  “They are outstanding.  If they are ever running behind they always call so I know that. That’s the difference between this hometown hospital and the big world.

Congratulations to the numerous students who completed the recent Veterans Memorial Hospital Babysitting classes held Saturday, October 22 at the hospital in Waukon. The classes were instructed by Corinne Cook, RN, and consisted of teaching the qualities of being a good babysitter including basic child care, accident prevention, fire prevention, and first aid. These new babysitters also learned CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) and the Heimlach Maneuver in the case of a choking child.

The students who completed the Veterans Memorial Hospital Babysitting seminar included Claire Hankes, Brooke Hankes, Taylin Dehli, Easton Mohn, Lesly Vivero, Guadalupe Vivero, Eddie Miller, Mason Jones, Mya Jones, Henley Benson, Sutton Jones and Makendri Burington.
 

Did you know one in seven people entering the hospital will need blood?

Attend the next LifeServe Blood Center Blood Drive to be held Monday, December 5 from 12-5 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in south Waukon. Blood drives are held once per month. The LifeServe Blood Center supplies Veterans Memorial Hospital with its blood and blood products.

The LifeServe Blood Center is seeking donors to ensure a safe and plentiful blood supply in Iowa. Because there is no substitute for human blood, the need for donors is continuous.

Over half of the United States population is eligible to donate blood, yet less than four percent donate on a regular basis. A single donation of blood can be used to save up to three lives and help in treatment of cancer patients, accident victims, hemophiliacs and surgery patients. The LifeServe Blood Center is committed to serving the needs of Iowans by saving lives through volunteer blood donation.

As the elderly population continues to grow and individuals desire to remain independent in their own homes for as long as possible, home health care will continue to be a driving force in health care delivery in the next century.

Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) Community and Home Care is a locally-based home health care agency serving Allamakee and the surrounding counties. Registered nurses and certified home care aides travel the Allamakee County area and beyond to offer assistance to individuals who wish to remain in their homes for as long as possible, or need some assistance while they are recovering from an illness or recent surgery, oftentimes after being hospitalized.

Cheri White of Waukon has been receiving home health services since 2013 following a significant health event.