Health

Are mammograms covered by Medicare Part B? What coverage can I get with Medicare supplement insurance? Do long-term care policies cover people with Alzheimer’s disease? Does every Medicare beneficiary have to make a decision about Medicare Part D?

Answers to these questions can be found by meeting with the Senior Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP) volunteers at Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH). Nancy Schoh of rural Dorchester is a trained volunteer and available by appointment to meet with any person or family with Medicare questions and concerns.

“This volunteer job is rewarding,” stated Nancy Schoh, SHIIP volunteer at Veterans Memorial Hospital. “It feels so good to help people. Many of them are older and don’t even have a computer at home so they really need the help. SHIIP is just what they need.”

Health tips from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Veterans Memorial Hospital Wellness Committee
 
March is National Nutrition Month. Building a healthy plate is easy when you make half your plate fruits and vegetables. It’s also a great way to add color, flavor and texture plus vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. Make 1½ cups of fruit and 2 ½ cups of vegetables your daily goal. Try the following tips to enjoy more fruits and vegetables every day.
1. Load the top of your pizza with a variety of vegetables. Try broccoli, spinach, green peppers, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and zucchini.
2. Mix up a breakfast smoothie made with water or milk, and frozen fruit - try strawberries and banana, or mango with pineapple or peach.  Toss in a handful of fresh spinach too!
3. Make a veggie wrap with roasted vegetables and cheese rolled into a whole-wheat tortilla.

Pulmonary rehabilitation is a program offered at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon that teaches a person to live and breathe better with chronic lung disease. Conditions such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, asthma, restrictive lung disease and cystic fibrosis can make doing everyday activities difficult due to shortness of breath and low activity tolerance. Participation in a pulmonary rehab program can help increase strength, manage shortness of breath, decrease anxiety and depression, and implement a consistent at-home exercise program.

Veterans Memorial Hospital will sponsor the next Babysitting Seminars Friday, April 7.  This class will be broken down into two different sessions with a morning session held from 9 a.m. to Noon and an afternoon session from 1-4 p.m.  The same information will be taught at both sessions, so students can sign-up for one session or the other. A total of 20 students will be taken in each session.

Both classes will be held in the Large Conference Room located on the lower level of Veterans Memorial Hospital.

Intended participants are individuals 10 years of age and older who are responsible for their own care after school until their parents come home from work, and individuals who care for other children in or outside of their own home. Girls and boys are welcome and encouraged to attend. Topics covered include fire and personal safety, accident prevention and emergency actions, nutritious snacks and basic care of children.

by Jill Fleming, MS, RD/LD
Veterans Memorial Hospital

You may have heard about green smoothies, but have you ever tasted one?  If not, you may want to reconsider.  Here is a short list of why you will gladly add a green smoothie to your daily diet. We have provided two recipes for you to try. Feel free to substitute any of your favorite fruits or vegetables.

To Lose Weight: When I work with weight loss patients, one of the easiest ways for them to start losing weight is to add more fruit,  vegetables and water to their daily diets. My most successful weight loss clients are now eating a total of 8-10 servings of fruit or vegetables daily. To easily reach this goal; eat more vegetable-based soups, make omelets loaded with vegetables and drink green smoothies often.

Veterans Memorial Hospital, together with Helping Services of Northeast Iowa, will begin offering the ‘Baby and Me - The Basics’ class Tuesday evening, March 14, from 5-8:30 p.m. in the hospital’s Large Conference Room.

Helping Services’ Certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians Barb Fjelstul and Rachel Weber will teach the basics of how to correctly secure children in their car seat and getting the seat secured in the vehicle. Barb Fjelstul, also a breast-feeding educator, will guide participants through the challenges and rewards of breast-feeding and provide techniques to ensure baby is getting the most benefit from nursing.

Rachel Stone, RN, a labor and delivery nurse, will give expecting mothers education on breathing techniques and coping with pain during labor.

Veterans Memorial Hospital will be offering Grandparenting Classes again this spring. Corinne Cook, RN, Babysitting Class instructor, will teach the next Grandparenting Class Saturday, April 15 from 9:30 a.m. until Noon. The class will be held in the hospital’s Large Conference Room.

In these classes, new or soon-to-be grandparents will learn all the new protocols to use when caring for their new grandchild. Some topics covered will include basic baby care, car seat safety, Tylenol/Ibuprofen dosing charts, home safety, poison control information, infant/child CPR, choking and other emergency medical information, as well as tips to support parents such as handling the baby blues and postpartum depression.  Free-will donations will be accepted to cover the costs of the class.

The Veterans Memorial Hospital Diabetes Support Group will hold its next meeting Thursday, March 16 at 10 a.m. The meeting will be held at Veterans Memorial Hospital in the Large Conference Room, located on the lower level of the hospital.

This diabetes class is open to everyone who has diabetes or who may have a friend or loved one with diabetes.  For more information on the Diabetes Support Group, call  Angie Mettille, RN, at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon at 563-568-3411.

Memorials were recently received by the Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation in memory of Teresa Myers by Lyle and Barb Wilkes; in memory of Larry Evans by Patsy Kerndt; in memory of Bruce Langland by John and Charlene Loven, and in memory of Pat Curtin by Mike and Sue McMillan.

Memorials were also received in memory of Ronald Hesse by Mary Beth Regan; in memory of Deb Metz by Danny and Sue Schlitter; and in memory of Donna M. Ward by Dr. Bill Withers.

Memorials and donations are appreciated by the Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation, a 501C3 organization. All donations to the Foundation are tax deductible. Memorials and donations can be sent to Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation, 40 First Street SE, Waukon, IA  52172.

The Veterans Memorial Hospital Radiology Department now offers a CT Cardiac Calcium Scoring test for a quick, convenient and noninvasive way of evaluating the amount of calcified (hard) plaque and build-up of cholesterol on the walls of the arteries in the heart.  The calcium score gives the medical provider an idea of how much plaque is in the patient’s heart arteries that hasn’t yet caused problems. This calcium score may help predict the risk of a heart attack and determine ways to reduce these risk factors.

The goal of the cardiac CT scan for calcium scoring is to determine if coronary artery disease is present and to what extent, even if there are no symptoms. It is a screening study that may be recommended by a physician for patients with risk factors for coronary artery disease but no clinical symptoms.  For anyone who has already had a heart attack, coronary bypass surgery or a coronary stent, calcium scoring will not provide additional information.