Health

The local Grief Support Group will be holding its monthly meeting at Veterans Memorial Hospital Tuesday, September 10, at 5 p.m. in the Meditation Healing Center, located just inside the main entrance of the hospital. This informal meeting is open to anyone suffering from any type of loss whether it be death, divorce, illness or some other grief.

Those interested should feel free to attend and also bring a friend to the meeting. This grief support meets the second Tuesday of each month at 5 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Hospital.

Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) Community and Home Care - Allamakee Public Health is looking ahead to the month of September, which is National Preparedness Month, to raise awareness about the importance of preparing for disasters and emergencies that could happen at any time.

“We want to encourage everyone in the area to remember to have a preparedness plan because disasters do happen. For instance, Iowa has had 122 tornadoes this year. The yearly average for Iowa is about 50,” states Sheryl Darling-Mooney, RN, Allamakee Public Health Supervisor. “We feel the month of September is a good time to remind the public to have a plan. We can have very volatile weather in the Midwest and we encourage everyone to follow these suggestions from Ready.gov, to make a plan and be ready, just in case.”

Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) Speech-Language Pathologist Steven Mazzafield offers a Stroke Support Group for individuals who have experienced a stroke, as well as caregivers and family members affected by stroke.

Monthly meetings are held the first Thursday of every month at 2 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon.  The next Stroke Support Group meeting will be held Thursday, September 5, at 2 p.m. in the Large Conference Room. The Stoke Support Group provides opportunities to share tips, tricks, or trials among participants, offer support for caregivers, and provide an opportunity for socialization.

Tatum Iverson is the full-time social worker at Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH). Her role is very large, touching most every patient’s care who enters and leaves the hospital, working closely with hospital staff, patients, their families and their insurance companies to coordinate the proper levels of care needed and be sure these are approved. She can provide the assistance families need for taking the next steps following a hospital discharge and can also help with a referral to skilled care, even from another healthcare facility.

The members of the Auxiliary of Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) is actively recruiting new and returning members to join them during their annual membership drive which is going on now.

The Auxiliary of Veterans Memorial Hospital is devoted to providing the hospital and its patients and visitors with many services. The Auxiliary also holds annual fundraisers, such as the Women’s Health Day Luncheon each fall, the Pillow-Perk in October, a garage sale in the spring and the Auxiliary’s annual membership drive each July. All the money the Auxiliary receives goes back to the hospital for equipment.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), vaccines help the body learn how to defend itself from disease without the dangers of a full-blown infection. The immune response to a vaccine might cause tiredness and discomfort for a day or two, but the resulting protection can last a lifetime.

Infections are unpredictable and can have long-term consequences. Even mild or symptomless infections can be deadly. For example, most people infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV) never show any sign of infection. But for some, the sign appears years later as an aggressive, life-threatening cancer. By then, it’s too late to get vaccinated.

Vaccines work by imitating an infection - the presence of a disease-causing organism in the body - to engage the body’s natural defenses. The active ingredient in all vaccines is an antigen, the name for any substance that causes the immune system to begin producing antibodies.

Did you know one in seven people entering the hospital will need blood? Did you know that only four percent of those eligible to give blood, actually do?

Give the gift of life and attend the next LifeServe Blood Center Blood Drive to be held Thursday, September 5, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., at the First Baptist Church in south Waukon. Blood drives are held once per month in Waukon, the first Monday of the month, but due to the Labor Day Holiday the September drive will be held Thursday. The LifeServe Blood Center supplies Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) 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. Blood donations are greatly needed.

by Katy Maker, Nurse Midwife and Nurse Practitioner, Veterans Memorial Hospital Medical Clinic

Choosing whether to breastfeed or formula feed your baby is only one of the many decisions expectant parents will make. It takes time to make such an important decision because it will not only affect your baby’s life but also the lives of the entire household. Breastfeeding is a commitment that both parents are involved in as it takes support from the partner to be successful.

“National Breastfeeding Week is an excellent time to think about lots of issues around how we feed our children,” states Katy Maker, Nurse Midwife at Veterans Memorial Hospital and Clinics. “The neat thing about breast milk is that it’s always ready, it’s made specifically for that one child, and there are many ways to involve the whole family.”

A supervised exercise therapy program for Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) is now available locally in our Cardiac Rehab Department. The therapy is a medically supervised 12-week exercise and education program for patients experiencing symptoms of limited blood flow to their legs due to blockages in the arteries.

Peripheral artery disease is a common, serious disease affecting more than 8.5 million people in the United States.  Symptoms of PAD may include pain, cramping, and muscle fatigue during exercise that resolves with rest. This is called intermittent claudication. Studies have shown that this Supervised Exercise Therapy can help patients increase their exercise tolerance, decrease pain, improve wound healing, and decrease long-term complications from peripheral artery disease.

August is National Immunization Awareness Month. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports history shows that vaccines are the safest, most effective way to protect yourself and your family from many preventable diseases.

Everyone should get all recommended vaccines at the recommended times. It is especially important for children and adolescents to get catch-up doses of any missed vaccines or vaccine doses as soon as they can. Adults should get all recommended vaccines for their age or other risk factors such as health conditions or occupation. All adults should get tetanus boosters, seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccines, and any vaccines missed in childhood.