BRIDGTON — Bridgton Hospital will offer a series of free public educational programs titled “Pump It Up,” focusing on heart failure, starting Thursday, Sept. 6, and continuing Sept. 13 and Sept. 20. The free series of classes will run from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Bridgton Hospital Physician Group Conference Room, in the former hospital building on Hospital Drive.
Registered nurses June Inman and Nancy Murphy, both nursing members of the Bridgton Hospital Intensive Care Unit, will host the program.
Heart failure is a condition in which the heart can no longer pump enough blood to the rest of the body. Symptoms of heart failure often begin slowly. At first, they may only occur when a person is very active. Over time, one may notice breathing problems and other symptoms even when resting. Heart failure symptoms may also begin suddenly; for example, after a heart attack or other heart problem. Common symptoms are: cough, fatigue,weakness, faintness, loss of appetite, need to urinate at night, pulse that feels fast or irregular or a sensation of feeling the heart beat (palpitations), shortness of breath when active or after lying down, swollen (enlarged) liver or abdomen, swollen feet and ankles, waking up from sleep after a couple of hours due to shortness of breath and weight gain.
Topics covered on Sept. 6 will include disease process, signs and symptoms with Alan Langburd, M.D., cardiologist from Central Maine Heart and Vascular Institute.
The Sept. 13 program will be on medication and heart failure, respiratory health and prescription assistance. The sessions will be presented by Gloria Morris, respiratory therapist; Bryan Thompson of R. Pharm; and Karen Mentus of the Prescription Assistance Program.
The series concludes Sept. 20 with Diet and Your Heart Health, presented by Linda Russell, registered/licensed dietitian, Exercise and Activity Tolerance with Nancy Donovan, Ph.D., Physical Therapy, and Psychosocial Aspects of Living with Heart Failure offered by Inman and Murphy.
For questions contact June Inman or Nancy Murphy at 647-6050. Preregistration is not required but is helpful.
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