"Cardiac rehabilitation programme following aortic valve replacement"

In April 2025 I had aortic valve replacement by open heart surgery at Northern General Hospital. In hospital for 5 days after surgery I was looked after by some amazing nurses, doctors, anaethestists, surgeons and physios.

Living alone and in Doncaster it was extremely daunting coming out of hospital, feeling that I was a long way away from medical help if I needed it, especially as I didn't have much confidence in my local gp surgery. I felt anxious about everything although I was armed with a lot of information, and felt quite overwhelmed about the recovery process, and how impersonal it felt.

However, only a couple of days later I was phoned by Beth, one of the cardiac nurses from the Doncaster cardiac rehabilitation team, who then came and visited me at home and immediately I felt that I was being looked after by a fantastic rehabilitation team, which was then my experience for the next few months.

I decided to join the cardiac rehabilitation programme and take advantage of everything I was offered, and found it to be the best thing possible and really helped me with my recovery and rehabilitation.

It was so useful to attend the group sessions, not only because it was lovely to meet other people who had gone through similar events around the same time, but also and especially because I found the Cardiac rehabilitation team to be an amazing group of people.

Everyone I met was really helpful, knowledgeable, positive and they work together brilliantly as a small team.

The rehab exercise class was great fun as well as being a fantastic way to build confidence in doing exercise. Seeing the same people each week made me feel that they were seeing my progress and they were also so easy to talk to about any concerns however small. Also knowing that we could phone them too made the whole process much more personal and definitely helped me with my recovery.

I took advantage of everything offered, the exercise classes, tai chi, and also supervised gym induction sessions.

As a result of the support and positivity of everyone I met from the cardiac rehabilitation team I have felt confident enough to start swimming again after many years, registered for parkrun (to walk) and have joined a gym for the first time ever. 7 months after my surgery I am swimming 30 lengths most weeks, walking most days, have done 2 parkwalks with a time of 50 mins for 5k, and have today enjoyed my first solo gym session.

I would highly recommend the cardiac rehabilitation programme and I am very grateful for all the support I received from Beth, Claire, Liz and Anna. Thank you so much.