Health

The local Grief Support Group will hold its monthly meeting at Veterans Memorial Hospital Wednesday, March 8 at 2 p.m. This informal meeting is open to anyone suffering from any type of loss, whether it be death, divorce, illness or some other grief.

Feel free to attend and bring a friend. This grief support group meets the second Wednesday of each month at Veterans Memorial Hospital.

The Auxiliary of Veterans Memorial Hospital will be holding its monthly Euchre Marathon for all individuals of the community interested Thursday, March 16. Men and women are welcome to attend, even if not an Auxiliary member. The Euchre marathons are held the third Thursday of each month at the Senior Citizens Room located in the Waukon Wellness Center.

The Auxiliary’s Euchre Marathons begin at 11:30 a.m. with dinner, if desired. Call Northland Agency on Aging at 877-838-8077 to eat dinner. Card playing will follow at 12:30 p.m. until approximately 2:30 p.m. Anyone wishing to stay and play cards following the Senior Citizens meal is more than welcome to do so. Proceeds go towards the Auxiliary of Veterans Memorial Hospital. Prizes will be awarded.

Anyone interested in attending, but preferring to play Bridge is also welcome to join in. It is asked that they come with their table of four players, however.

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 has a friend or loved one with diabetes. For more information on the Diabetes Support Group, call Teresa Myers, RN, C.D.E., Diabetes Educator, or Angie Mettille, RN, at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon at 563-568-3411.
 

Veterans Memorial Hospital will begin the next Prepared Childbirth Education classes (formerly called Lamaze) Monday, April 10, and that class will continue for two more consecutive Monday evenings beginning at 6 p.m. in the Large Conference Room.

The Prepared Childbirth Education classes at Veterans Memorial Hospital are offered in three sessions that allow the expectant parents to choose which topics they wish to learn more on. They may choose to attend one, two or all three sessions. Session 1 covers labor, delivery and the postpartum period following delivery; Session 2 includes relaxation, breathing and pain management; and Session 3 covers infant care. Tours of the OB Department are available with each session as well.

Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon will sponsor a Babysitting Seminar Saturday, March 25, from 8:30 a.m.- 12 Noon. The class 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 are not the sole babysitters in today’s society. Boys are also welcome and encouraged to attend.

Topics to be covered include fire and personal safety, accident prevention and emergency actions, nutritious snacks and basic care of children.

Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon has begun to transition to a new electronic medical record system as of March 7. This new system will now link to all departments, encompassing all areas of the hospital, including the billing department.

With this change, patients will see a new statement following any hospital service which will be a completely different look from what they are used to receiving due to the use of a new vendor. In addition, patient account balances will also be handled by a new system that will be unfamiliar to the current patients.

Since this transition will take place over the course of a few months, the hospital wishes to inform patients they may receive statements within just a few days of each other. Also, the statements from the two different vendors do not look alike, which may also cause confusion, and the hospital wishes to apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Memorials were recently received by the Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation in memory of Dick Delphey by Carol Paus and Dane Zarwell, Scott and Sandra Zweep, Betty Staggemeyer, Pearson Families, Keith Pearson, Agnes Pearson, Kent Pearson, Marjorie Pearson, Richard and Joan Leiran, Evelyn Burke, Brian and Karen Burke, Mike and Heather Hanson, Ray and Mary Ann Burke, Rosanne Sweeney, Mavis Berns, Don and Dawn Blocker, Betty Hogan, Jim and Margo Sweeney, Kevin and Kaisa Norwood, Jim and Dolores Schmitt, Harold and Marlene Payne, Jim and Sallie Driscoll, Randy and Amy Densberger, R. and Ann Deames, Mike and Diane Bols, Ed and Janey Schulte and Mary Kay Delphey.

The Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation gifted a new cardiac rehabilitation system to the hospital with the funds raised through the many donations made during the community campaign held one year ago. This new telemetry system enhances the hospital’s Chronic Heart Failure and Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program by providing more reliable, accurate patient monitoring.

During exercise sessions, the nursing staff can focus more attention on patients while the system records and displays essential patient data and alerts staff to changes in an electrocardiogram (ECG). Updates can be made to patient information, plan of care, and progress notes without interrupting patient monitoring and reports can be easily generated for individual sessions or across multiple sessions.

by Diane Butikofer, RN, ER Supervisor at Veterans Memorial Hospital

Individuals who experience any type of chest pain need to take that pain very seriously and seek medical assistance. There is always the possibility that pain may be caused by a heart attack or some other form of heart disease and must not be ignored. Immediate medical attention is the only way to stop or decrease the damage to the heart.

The common signs and symptoms of a heart attack include the following:

1. Any type of chest pain. It may be a crushing pain, a feeling of heaviness such as an elephant standing on one’s chest, or even a squeezing of the chest.
2. Pain that radiates down the arm, or other areas of the body such as the neck, jaw or shoulders.
3. Weakness or shortness of breath, nausea, light headedness and/or possible sweating.

The local Grief Support Group will hold its monthly meeting at Veterans Memorial Hospital Wednesday, March 8 at 2 p.m. This informal meeting is open to anyone suffering from any type of loss, whether it be death, divorce, illness or some other grief. Feel free to attend and bring a friend. This grief support group meets the second Wednesday of each month at Veterans Memorial Hospital.