SAN ANTONIO -- Drop by the racquetball courts at the University
of Texas-San Antonio at the end of the workday and you'll likely
find Joe DeCristoforo, assistant vice president and university
registrar, playing and beating opponents one-third his age.
Not bad for a guy who is 57 -- and underwent open heart surgery
less than two years ago.
DeCristoforo had surgery to replace his aortic valve with a
mechanical metal valve in August 2007. He recovered from the
surgery with medication and exercise.
"I feel like I'm a new person," says DeCristoforo, a
soft-spoken man. "I'm playing racquetball at a level I've never
played in my entire life. I feel better than I did in my 30s."
His journey back to health proves that there is life after heart
surgery -- and for many, it's a new, improved life.
DeCristoforo also discovered how vital cardiovascular exercise
is for patients recuperating from such operations.
"They need to get up and get going," says Dr. Gerald Siocco,
DeCristoforo's cardiologist. "If the person is adequately able to
perform daily functions, I tell them to exercise."
DeCristoforo was 5 years old when rheumatic fever sent him to
the hospital for three weeks with a 103-degree fever. The disease
damaged his small heart irrevocably.
That and his asthma kept him out of Vietnam, but otherwise he
didn't let it interfere with his life.
He loved athletics; as a student he ran track and played
basketball and tennis. In his 30s, he fell in love with the fast
pace of racquetball.
Shortly after he came to San Antonio in 2002, though, he found
that his old heart problem had caught up with him.
He couldn't jog more than 50 or 60 feet without stopping to gasp
for breath.
He quit jogging in favor of walking.
During a rainy fishing trip to the Medina River on July 4, 2007,
DeCristoforo collapsed while running to bring his wife an umbrella.
An echocardiogram revealed the scary truth: a half-century after
his bout with rheumatic fever, his aortic valve had closed almost
entirely. He needed surgery and he needed it soon.
Doctors opened DeCristoforo's heart at 11 a.m. Aug. 27 at
Christus Santa Rosa hospital.
At 6 a.m. the next day, a nurse came into his room and told him
it was time to get up.
She helped him move to a recliner next to his bed, tubes coming
out of him "like a Borg on Star Trek," he says. Those were his
first steps toward healing.
"The chair was two steps away but it seemed like it was five
miles away," he recalls.
The next day, still in intensive care, he walked into the
hallway.
The day after that he walked a little more. Then a little more.
He walked in the hospital, at his mother-in-law's home where he was
recuperating, and then at his home in Pipe Creek.
As he gradually increased the duration of his walks, he found
that the biggest adjustment was getting used to his beta blockers,
medication that slows the heart rate. He began checking his heart
rate several times a day with a wrist monitor.
"I'm used to my heart beating 65-75 beats per minutes when I
took my pulse, and suddenly it's almost 20 beats per minute less,
so I'm thinking, 'Well gee, maybe it's going to slow down so much
it's not going to work, " he says.
He stopped using the monitor when a nurse reassured him that his
lowered heart rate was normal.
Five weeks after the surgery, he was back at work, strolling
through the campus during his lunch breaks.
He was eager to play racquetball again but the courts at UTSA's
Recreation and Wellness Center were closed for renovation. So he
began working out on the center's cardio machines to build his
endurance.
When the courts reopened on Jan. 14, 2008, DeCristoforo was
there at 6:30 a.m.
At first, he was wary of stressing his heart.
"I was out of shape when I began playing and hurt when I
started to play real hard. I was wondering if this was for real,"
he says.
But soon he realized that his replacement aortic valve improved
his game.
"After three to five weeks, it dawned on me I wasn't gasping
for breath," he says.
He no longer had to rest between serves. He's now able to play
for more than three hours straight.
"It's a benefit I never thought about," he says.
A shift in thinking
Sixty or so years ago, DeCristoforo's experience would have been
much different. The medical establishment once believed heart
patients should avoid any strain from exertion. A common
prescription consisted of bed rest for six weeks after an
operation.
"Flat on your back. Talk about the worst thing. If you could
think of one thing to do that would hurt somebody (after surgery),
that would be it," says Dr. Landon Wellford, a cardiologist in
private practice and past board member of the American Heart
Association.
Today, doctors understand that patients who don't exercise risk
developing poor circulation, blood clots, blockages of the
pulmonary artery and poor muscle tone.
The more sedentary patients are, the slower their recovery, and
the more susceptible they become to other medical problems, such as
pneumonia.
In the 1950s, doctors began recommending that patients take
short, easy walks a month after a heart attack or heart surgery.
Later, they developed structured cardiac rehabilitation for
patients; sometimes the exercise program is supervised, depending
on the patient's health.
Moderate exercise lowers blood pressure and battles the
inflammation common after surgery, helping to speed healing.
Regular physical activity also produces chemicals that boost the
mood, which helps patients who may be scared of dying or depressed
by the lifestyle changes their condition requires them to make.
Exercising with other heart patients at a rehab facility
provides social support as well, which also brings psychological
benefits.
"Rehab is valuable because it gives them structure, it gets
them out of the house," Wellford says. "The big thing is this
relief, 'I'm not the only one going through this.' "
Most patients are eligible for cardiac rehab, according to
Wellford, though it may be dangerous for those with uncontrolled
hypertension, unstable angina or other conditions.
For DeCristoforo, open-heart surgery not only saved his life, it
improved the quality of it. It allowed him to return to athletics
with increased vigor.
The summer after his surgery, he took up cycling with his
daughter, Maria, taking 15-mile rides on weekends. He likes to show
off his medal from Conquer the Coast, a 25-mile bike ride in Corpus
Christi he completed in October.
In the fall semester, he became the adviser to the newly formed
UTSA racquetball club. He shows the students no mercy on the court.
"You can kind of stay back and feel sorry for yourself or you
can enjoy yourself," he says. "I'm having the time of my life."
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c.2009 San Antonio Express-News