MENDED HEARTS: HEART SURGERY PATIENTS BENEFIT FROM CHANGES IN LIFESTYLE

~Correction: NETA SIEMERS SHOULD BE META SIEMERS

When Art Siemers had bypass surgery nine years ago, he made a few changes in his lifestyle. But not too many.

Siemers, who will be 74 next month, and his wife Neta, 62, still milk more than 100 cows each day on their dairy farm west of Cape Girardeau.

He no longer handles heavy bales of hay around the barn and he no longer eats a lot of fatty meats, fried foods, eggs or other high-cholesterol foods.

Instead of whole milk, the Siemers now drink skim milk that they prepare on the farm. They make homemade ice cream with skim milk or buy no-fat yogurt or ice cream, and they use fat-free salad dressings and condiments available at grocery stores.

Like other heart surgery patients, Siemers has learned to adjust to a somewhat different lifestyle and major changes in his diet thanks to his wife -- a former home economist who taught in high school and later at Southeast Missouri State University.

For Siemers and other heart surgery patients and their spouses, the local chapter of Mended Hearts provides timely, educational information and programs on the care and nurturing of heart surgery patients.

Mended Hearts was founded in 1955 by two men and two women recovering from heart valve surgery at a Boston hospital the previous year. The local Mended Hearts of Southeast Missouri Chapter 183 was organized in 1985 under the auspices of the Southeast Missouri Hospital Regional Heart Center.

Membership in the chapter is open to anyone who has a heart problem or who is interested in the objectives of Mended Hearts: to visit and encourage persons anticipating or recovering from heart surgery, to educate and inform, and to counsel and provide advice to families of patients undergoing heart surgery.

Bill Slinkard, 75, of Marble Hill, is president of the local chapter and a heart bypass patient.

Slinkard said most people think of heart surgery only in terms of bypass surgery. He said: "There's a lot more to it than that. There is angioplasty, pacemakers and surgery to clear clogged arteries."

Slinkard said the recovering heart surgery patient needs a lot of assistance and encouragement from his or her spouse and others. "In most cases, the spouse, usually the wife, also attends the Mended Hearts meetings," he said. "Usually the ladies must do a 180-degree turnabout in the way they buy and prepare food after their husbands have undergone some type of heart surgery. They must learn to substitute with low-fat or no-fat foods and foods that are low in sodium and sugar, and still make it nutritious and tasteful."

George Penzel, 1844 Wood Lawn, had bypass surgery in 1969 when he was 66. Penzel, a retired civil engineer with Cape Special Road District, underwent surgery following a heart attack.

Penzel said his heart surgery has "made me much more conscious of taking care of myself. I had quit smoking about 13 years prior to my heart attack, but since my bypass surgery I've been watching my diet a lot more carefully," he said.

"My wife also has a heart condition, so we both avoid a lot of fried foods like fried potatoes, pork chops, pork sausage, eggs, and all of the other stuff that I really liked. I was also a hearty eater, but now I've learned to eat less."

Penzel and his wife also exercise each day by walking three miles at West Park Mall.

Slinkard said in addition to learning more about healthy living and eating after heart surgery, Mended Hearts members provide counseling to those who have just undergone heart surgery.

"Theses people have been through heart surgery," said Slinkard. "They know what its like and can offer advice on how to learn how to adjust to a different lifestyle and diet. "Our meetings feature educational programs presented by physicians, nurses and dietitians.

"If more adult men and women were aware of the things we've learned at Mended Hearts it could help them reduce their risk of a heart attack or other form of heart disease."

Neta Siemers said adjusting to a new healthy-heart diet doesn't mean giving up everything. She said: "Instead of having two pieces of pumpkin pie, have one. Instead of using ground beef for our chili, we use ground veal, which we raise on the farm. It has very little fat in it."

Siemers said the local Mended Hearts chapter has compiled a dietitian-approved and health-care-coded cookbook for heart surgery patients. All of the recipes were provided by chapter members and are designed for those on low-fat, low-sodium and diabetic diets.

"During the winter Art and I usually have a bowl of hot cereal; either cream of wheat or oats with skim milk and a poached egg without the yolk," said Siemers. "For lunch we may have a turkey salad sandwich, using no-fat mayonnaise and egg whites. The key to a proper healthy- heart diet is too substitute the bad foods that contain lots of fats or cholesterol for those that do not."

For those who would like to know more about Mended Hearts of Southeast Missouri the next chapter meeting will be March 1 at 7 p.m. in the Harrison Room of Southeast Missouri.

On Feb. 5, Mended Hearts will hold a Walking Together event at 8:30 a.m. at West Park Mall.

For additional information contact the Regional Heart Center at Southeast Missouri Hospital, 651-5541.