Pumping Marvellous

and if Carlsberg made patient waiting rooms…

We are pleased to announce that if you like reading or would like to give a perfect present then visit the Royal Blackburn Cardiology Out Patients Department for a selection of superb books by famous authors including Tom Clancy, Lee Childs, John Grisham, Michael Connolly, Stephen Brown and David Baldacci to name a few.

All I can say is a very generous man called Russ who lives near Ewood Park has donated over 200 books to the charity. Now these aren’t tatty books these are hardback books with covers and are in perfect condition and we mean perfect.
If you bought all these books from Amazon or a book shop you would be looking to pay at least £2800.

Lancashire Telegraph – written by Catherine Pye

FUNDING has been secured for a new heart failure ‘tool kit’ for patients leaving the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

The Hapton-based charity Pumping Marvellous applied for £22,000 from NHS North West to produce 1,500 tool kits — parcels of information on how to live with the condition after discharge — and hope  to launch them at the end of September.

Nick Hartsthorne-Evans, 42, set up Pumping Marvellous after he suffered heart failure, aged 39, from picking up a virus.   He said: “Hospitals do their best to give leaflets that are clinically correct, but is that what the patient needs, to read about how morbid it is?

“What they give you satisfies your needs for about six months. It’s not a life-long thing.

“What we’re doing is based on the ‘bounty bag’ that new mums get after giving birth. It will give patients all the information they need throughout their lives on how to manage the condition. “There will be information in there for the employer, about smoking cessation and alcohol management, information for carers, and how make sure someone is getting benefits they’re entitled to.

“For the cost of each tool kit — about £15 — it will have a great impact on reducing hospital admissions and will make people less symptomatic

After an 18 month trial period, Nick hopes to be able to secure more funding to roll the scheme out regionally and then nationally.

When set with a challenge to help and support children aged between 3&4 at Rosegrove Nursery for their healthy lifestyle education week we jumped at the chance. Wow what a week! On Monday the children were set a challenge to memorise 10 pieces of fruit and vegetables for their sponsorship of Pumping Marvellous. Throughout the week they were tasked with their families to remember all 10 fruit and vegetables and on Friday they would be tested on how many they’d remember and what a great job they did. Rosegrove Primary School raised £816.04. Pumping Marvellous will then make a donation of £408 to the Blackburn 3D echo scanner appeal “The Heart of Blackburn Appeal”. So the children have not only raised money to help local Heart Failure patients but have also made a significant contribution to the appeal for the Royal Blackburn Hospital 3D scanner.

We know it is very important to create legacy when completing these types of exercises so we decided to utilise the skills of Laura at the Burnley Healthy Lifestyle Team. Laura completed a smoothie morning with all of the children in a try and taste nurturing style which we know they all enjoyed. This has led the nursery to continue this with the children. What a fantastic result considering all the bad press lately surrounding the obesity levels of children within the East Lancashire area. Unfortunately the Buffalo Project which we completed this exercise under was funded by the lottery and didn’t get its funding to continue. A very large disappointment for all and this will only affect children.

Nick receives an Award

Nick Hartshorne-Evans the founder and now Trustee of Pumping Marvellous won the “Health Champion of Burnley” award last night with 200 people at a packed Mechanics Theatre in Burnley on the 16th June 2011. The event was hosted by Tony Livesey the BBC radio and TV presenter.

This is what was said by the organiser. The award was sponsored by Aircelle of Burnley, Burnleys largest employer and manufacturers of Aerospace Nacelle’s. A true world leader.

“Nick was admitted to hospital with an infection of his heart muscle resulting in Heart Failure in January 2010 at the age of 39. Nick has worked hard to recover and accessed Burnley Councils Healthy Lifestyles team for support. Nick’s passion to help people in a similair situation to himself led him to set up “Pumping Marvellous”; a dedicated heart failure patient and carer website which is so unique it has attracted attracte attention across the country. Nick campaigns tirelessly in aid of heart failure patients and their carers and is also currenlty helping to raise funds for the new 3D echo scanner at the Royal Blackburn Hospital called the “Heart of Blackburn” appeal”

Nick picking up Burnley Health Champion award

3D EchoCardiogram demonstration at the Royal Blackburn Hospital

The official launch of the “Heart of Blackburn” appeal happened 0n 19th May 2011 at the cardiology department of the Royal Blackburn Hospital. The appeal needs to raise £128,000 to purchase this new machine.

So why does East Lancashire need this machine?

EchoCardiographs are a specialised test which look at the strucutre of the patient‘s heart. A probe is placed on the chest and a pulse of high frequency sound is passed through the skin. The echoes reflected by the pulse show as a picture on the screen. The images provide extremley accurate and detailed information about the structure, valves and pumping action of the heart, helping Doctors make more informed and speedier diagnoses. Dr Emily Ho says “The new machine will enable patients to be seen more quickly, to expedite their treatment and this ultimatley saves lives.

Cardiac Physiologists at the Royal Blackburn

New 3D Echo Appeal for the Royal Blackburn Cardiology Department

The BHF are supporting and fund raising for a new 3D Echo Cardiogram machine that will enable cardiac consultants to further help heart failure patients in the East Lancs area via the Royal Blackburn Hospital. Pumping Marvellous will be adding that local touch to the campaign and assisting the BHF with it’s target. When we have further details we will do a more concise piece on it but here are some of the photos taken that will be used in the media campaign to build awareness of the cause.

Pumping Marvellous supporting the BHF at the Royal Blackburn Hospital

Let’s hit the target

As I drove into the Royal Blackburn Hospital and parked up I thought that Pumping Marvellous needed Anti-Coagulation support as I know alot of you out there are on some form of Anti-Coagulation and would probably like to know more about it.

Anyway after hitting my INR of 2.8 which generated a yipeee down the corridor as I really put effort into being within range I have asked Sister Maggs who is actually become a good friend, to help support the patients and pumping marvellous. She has agreed to recieving emails of which she will answer questions on anti-coagulation and especially warfarin management. We will be adding a link to the site to help you communicate with Maggs.

We will also try and bring the Pharmacy into the fold so you can ask questions about your prescribed drugs.

As always we are trying to stay innovative and focussed on bringing targetted patient care to Heart Failure patients.

So what is an Echocardiogram – usually referred to as Echo

We have tried to keep this simple and easy reading so you can digest it at you own pace. It sounds invasive even frightening but it isn’t. I have had to already, its a bit like ultrasound on your chest and the jelly is a little cold.

The echocardiogram test decides for sure whether or not you have heart failure. An echocardiogram is painless. A pulse of harmless, high-frequency sound waves is passed through the chest wall, and these bounce back from the structures in the heart.
For the test, you will be asked to lie on your left side with your left arm behind your head. Lubricating jelly is put on your chest, and the ultrasound probe (recorder) is placed at various points on the chest between the ribs. The probe picks up echoes from the heart and shows them on the screen as a detailed picture (echocardiogram) of the structures of the heart.
The test allows the operator to find out a lot of information about the heart, including:
• How well the valves are working, and whether any of them are damaged.
• How well the heart is working as a pump (i.e. systolic function when the beat or contraction of your heart forces blood to circulate around the body).
• How well the heart relaxes after pumping (i.e. diastolic function when the heart relaxes after each beat or contraction, allowing it to fill with blood).
• Whether there are holes in the walls between the chambers of the heart, disrupting the one-way system of blood flow and allowing blood to flow from one side to the other (intracardiac shunts).

The most important finding from an echocardiograph is usually a measurement of how well one of the chambers of your heart the left ventricle is pumping. The left ventricle pumps the blood around the body. The wall of the left ventricle is normally much thicker than the wall of the right ventricle, because the right ventricle only pumps blood to the lungs and back.
This measurement, called the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), is an estimate of how much of the blood that enters the left ventricle is pumped out when the heart muscle beats (contracts). In a healthy heart, about 60% of the blood entering the left ventricle gets pumped out when the heart muscle contracts. So a normal LVEF would be around 60%. A value of less than 40% would indicate that the heart is not pumping well.

Sometimes different types of echocardiogram are performed. These include:

Stress echocardiogram

This is an echocardiogram that is carried out to see how the heart functions when it has to work extra hard. It is performed by increasing the persons heart rate, either by exercise on a treadmill or exercise bike, or by special medication.

Transoesophageal echocardiography

This test is carried out when doctors need to look at your heart valves in more detail. Pictures of your heart are taken from inside your body, by passing a small probe mounted at the end of a thin flexible tube down your oesophagus (the tube that connects your mouth to your stomach). Before the test, you may be given a mild sedative to help you relax, and an anaesthetic will be sprayed on the back of your throat to make you more comfortable. While the probe is in your oesophagus, pictures of your heart are taken. The probe is then gently withdrawn.

As you may or may not know if you have Heart Failure it is very important to manage your fluid intake. Generally 2 litres of water is the recommended intake but as the summer kicks in and the heat starts effecting your desire for more fluid stop right there. I am just about to go through my first summer with Heart Failure and believe me it is a challenge to keep the fluid intake to 2 litres per day. I dragged my family or they dragged me around New York at the start of June where the temeratures were 85 – 90 degrees and this was a test of my ability to manage my fluid intake. In the heat you also need to be aware that you will probably be on some form of diuretic which is taking fluid out as well but also with the added increased perspiration due to the heat.

So my little emergency kit consists of the following to help me deal with the heat. I have an emergency kit in each of the cars, in the office and in the house. When I went to New York I had a travelling kit as well – luckily I got through customs without being attacked by a Spaniel:-

Stay in the shade
Boiled sweets are great – old school style – my favourite sweetie website
Lolly ices
Fresh Strawberries

Obviously these sweets are full of sugar so go easy on them and if you are diabetic you can get some great sweets from here.

Welcome to Pumping Marvellous.

This is a site run by patients for patients.

The site is designed to help inform and educate those who have Heart Failure, their Carers and anybody who would like a non medical viewpoint of what it is like to live with and manage Heart Failure.

As patients of the East Lancashire Primary Care Trust in the UK we are backed up by a world class group of clinicians ranging from Consultant Cardiologists whose specialism is Heart Failure, experienced nurses who work on the cardiac wards at the Royal Blackburn Hospital, dietitians and physiotherapist who specialise in diet and exercise and finally Angela Graves who is the Heart Failure Nurse Manager and her team of experienced Heart Failure nurses.

You will find our approach and discussions both formal and chatty and we would be really happy to answer any questions you may have. We can’t not help get technical sometimes but there is no other way to describe what we need to communicate to you.

Enjoy the site and start to learn about Heart failure from a different perspective.

Thanks

Nick Hartshorne-Evans