SVMC cardiology

 

 

STRIVING TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE ONE BEAT AT A TIME

You get one life and you get one heart. The board-certified cardiologists and associated practitioners at SVMC Cardiology are committed to helping you make the most of both.

Our patient-centered approach to care and personalized care plans maximize your quality of life while delivering the treatment you need when you need it.

Creating the appropriate treatment plan for your condition begins with a cardiac consultation. Your consultation is a chance for you to share your health history and current concerns with your cardiologist. All necessary exams and tests are conducted on-site by your cardiac care team. The results are shared and discussed directly with you so that you fully understand your condition, treatment options, associated risks, and potential lifestyle changes.

After a heart episode or surgery, there’s nothing our cardiac team and you want more than for you to just get back on your feet and live the life you want. That’s why we begin your rehabilitation program before you even leave the hospital. Through a combination of education and exercise, your personalized program will help you build strength and reduce your risk factors. Using the full range of cardio equipment in our Cardiac Rehab Center and under the watchful eye of our rehab team, you’ll improve your heart’s strength and capacity and get closer to resuming a full and active lifestyle. For more information about Cardiac Rehabilitation, click here.

In order to understand how well your heart is or isn’t functioning, an echocardiogram may be performed. This non-invasive procedure uses sound waves to produce images of your heart. Both of SVMC’s cardiologists are board certified in echocardiography and able to observe how your heart is pumping and identify any abnormalities in the heart muscle or valves. An echocardiogram allows our team to make the most informed and appropriate recommendations for the next steps in your care.

If a standard echocardiogram does not provide a clear image of your heart, your SVMC care team may recommend a transesophageal echocardiogram or TEE. Performed at the hospital, this procedure involves inserting a flexible tube containing a transducer down your throat and into your esophagus. From this closer vantage point, the transducer then uses sound waves to create more detailed images of your heart and allows for better diagnosis.

Before we treat your heart, we need understand how it’s performing. At SVMC we offer a number of non-invasive stress tests that can quickly and easily reveal a number of things including: how well your heart works during increasing levels of activity; how certain medications are impacting blood flow; the effectiveness of procedures done to improve heart performance; and more.

If you have risk factors for heart disease, calcium scoring may may help you learn more about whether you are actually at risk. The non-invasive test uses high-speed CT imaging technology to measure the hardening of the heart’s arteries, a leading indicator of heart disease and heart attacks. Visit the calcium scoring page for complete details. 

A pacemaker is one of the most effective ways to ensure a heart maintains a steady, healthy beat. The SVMC cardiac team is exceptionally skilled and experienced at both pacemaker implantation and monitoring. Considered a minor surgery, implantation takes place at the hospital with most patients returning to normal activity (and a more steadily beating heart) within a few days. Like all medical equipment, pacemakers need a little TLC every now and then. At SVMC our cardiac team can perform routine monitoring, both remotely and in the office, and reprogramming as needed.

One of the most common cardiac diagnostic tools, an EKG is a painless way to check for problems with the electrical activity of your heart. The EKG translates and records your heart’s electrical activity over a period of time and translates it into waves. Your SVMC care provider can use printouts of the waves to detect any patterns that might point to a specific condition and put together a treatment plan that meets your specific needs.

Should your SVMC cardiac care provider want to monitor your heart over a longer period of time than is practical for a standard EKG, you may be given a Holter or event monitor. Worn outside the body and completely painless, monitors are helpful in detecting abnormalities that only happen occasionally and can help your doctor link any abnormalities to specific activities or events in your day.

Carotid ultrasound
At SVMC our goal is to treat your health issues before they become problems. Using our sophisticated carotid ultrasound test, your cardiac care provider can detect blockages in your neck arteries that could lead to a stroke or indicate problems in other parts or your circulatory system.

Education
Because understanding what causes heart problems is essential to resolving them, we offer a variety of educational resources to patients and their families.  Workshops are offered on an ongoing basis throughout the Dartmouth-Hitchcock network, and condition-specific literature is available in our offices. 

SVMC Cardiac Rehab

SVMC Pulmonology

American Heart Association 

Go Red for Women 

American College of Cardiology 

140 Hospital Drive, Suite 211, Bennington, VT 05201
Phone: (802) 442-0800
Fax: (833) 343-1597

Hours:
Monday – Friday:  8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Directions: 
For directions to SVMC Cardiology, click here. 

Parking:
For appointments at SVMC Cardiology, park in parking area P3 or P5.

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    Coping with Pain
    Anonym
    / Categories: WELLNESS, 2022

    Coping with Pain

    The Journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain estimates as many as 18 million Americans suffer from chronic pain on most days. It can be caused by headache, surgery, cancer, trauma, arthritis, nerve damage, and neck or back injury. Sometimes the cause is unknown or continues long after the initial cause of the pain has healed. The pain can go on for months or years and can lead to anxiety, depression, fatigue, insomnia, mood swings, irritability, and other difficult psychological conditions.

    Once you have worked with your primary care provider and specialists to identify and treat the cause of the pain, you can try these options for coping with the pain in any order that makes the best sense to you and your provider.

    Medical Approaches

    Each of the many medications used to help with pain come with side effects. 

    • Acetaminophen can harm the liver if used excessively or improperly.
    • Ibuprofen and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can cause kidney damage in certain patients.
    • Muscle relaxers can provide relief in some cases, but they may cause drowsiness, dizziness, headache, and other side effects.
    • It’s best to develop a system that includes these medications when needed.
    • Antidepressants are being prescribed for those with chronic pain. Often, the benefits outweigh the side effects.

    SPECIAL NOTE:

    A few of the drugs often turned to for pain come with major concerns and should only be used with careful supervision from a medical provider.

    • Opioids come with a great risk of addiction, tolerance, dependence, and a paradoxical increase in pain. This factor alone makes them undesirable for many patients, even for short-term use.
    • Cannabis is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It is associated with acute adverse effects including anxiety, nausea, panic, disorientation, impaired attention, short-term memory, and driving performance.

    Physical and occupational therapy can be a great drug-free way to cope with chronic pain. Movement can help restore strength and confidence. Often, the symptoms of chronic pain are reduced. Therapy is a safe, even fun, way to navigate pain.

    Similarly, mental health counseling can help patients think more positively, process past events, and implement helpful changes. Through talk therapy people often come to understand how unconscious forces contribute to their pain.

    Pain Management Programs combine imaging and anesthesiology technologies to target the source of pain and relieve it.  Services offered include joint injections, nerve blocks, spinal cord stimulation, and others.

    Do-it-Yourself Ideas

    Many people find that concentrating on improving their overall health is a great way to make progress against chronic pain.

    Many people find it beneficial to focus on relaxation.

    • Don’t try to do too much. Create a daily schedule that includes a few priorities and time for rest and self-care.
    • Create the conditions for good sleep.
    • Learn stress management techniques that work for you, including deep breathing, yoga, meditation, listening to music, walking in nature, playing with kids or pets, and others.
    • Getting interested in a new hobby can also be beneficial. More than a distraction, hobbies and interests get us thinking positively about the future.
    • Strong relationships help us cope with pain too. Meet up with friends and family or join a pain management support group.

    Complementary Medicine

    Complementary medicine can be as simple as treating the site of your pain with heat or cold or enjoying a cup of restorative tea. If you are receptive, you can also try massage, reiki, acupuncture, biofeedback, guided imagery, or hypnosis. Each has been shown to be an all-natural method for achieving pain relief.

    It is unlikely that any one of the tips above will resolve your pain entirely. A personalized system of pain-management habits you do on a routine basis will be most powerful in helping you live a healthy and fulfilling life.

    Joshua Tobe, MD, is an anesthesiologist and interventional pain management specialist at SVMC Anesthesiology, part of Southwestern Vermont Medical Center and Southwestern Vermont Health Care in Bennington.

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