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Sarasota News Leader December 7, 2012 Before I left Hamot, I asked Petrella whether I could go on a long-planned 10-day tour of Germany and Belgium one month after the implantation of the stents. He said, "On one condition." Page 73 System at 5880 Rand Boulevard (off Clark Road). The program is designed to help those who have experienced a cardiac event return to the highest level of functioning possible. It consists of 36 one-hour sessions, which one can attend either two or three times a week. When I asked him what that was, he said, "You The program includes individualized exercismust send me a postcard from Berlin." es (with monitoring of blood pressure, heart On Sept. 4, I left for my trip. rate and heart rhythms) and lifestyle education lectures designed to keep participants REHAB informed of important strategies to protect On my return, when I was casually looking at heart health. I am covered by Medicare and my discharge instructions for the first time, I a secondary insurer; Medicare picked up 80 saw I was supposed to take a cardiac rehab percent of the cost, and my secondary insurer course. Petrella's nurse confirmed this when picked up the remainder. I called. No one at Hamot had mentioned this One of those lectures, by Jill Edwards, a clinto me. ical exercise physiologist with a master's deI then signed up for the Cardiac Rehabilitation gree in science, was about nutrition — and it Program at the Sarasota Memorial Health Care changed my life. (From left): Exercise physiologist Meredith Cleveland (left) talks with Marilyn Bowker as Bowker and Peter Farrell work on bikes. Exercise physiologist Seth Stinson keeps an eye on Jill Edwards (in blue scrubs at the top of the photo) as she works with patients. Photo courtesy Sarasota Memorial Hospital