February is American Heart Month. Throughout the month we’ll be sharing stories of local doctors, patients, and volunteers making impact in heart health in our community.<\/p>\n
Sherry Mengel of Palmer Township has been in and out of the hospital for over the past 20 years.<\/p>\n
“From 1999 to 2002 I had two different types of cancers and I had several chemo’s and radiation and cell transplant,” said Mengel.<\/p>\n
Those harsh treatments that saved her life, nearly killed her years later. “19 years later, I ended up getting congestive heart failure as one of the side effects,” she said.<\/p>\n
Mengel said she immediately knew something was wrong. She said, “I was gasping for air. It came out of nowhere.”<\/p>\n
At first, she thought it might just be bronchitis; hearing the words congestive heart failure was not what she expected. She said “I was like, am I going to die? He said, ‘we’re going to do our best to manage it’.”<\/p>\n
Days later, she was introduced to Dr. Deborah Sundlof, Director of the Women’s Heart and Vascular program at LVHN-Jefferson.<\/p>\n
“She came to me when she was 49-years-old and she literally was in decompensation congestive heart failure,” said Dr. Sundlof.<\/p>\n
So, they came up with a treatment plan. Mengel said managing congestive heart failure is like walking a tightrope. “It’s very tricky and you have to stay on top of it and I failed miserably at it sometimes,” said Mengel.<\/p>\n
Mengel has been hospitalized several times and has done cardiac rehab. She said her diet plays a huge role, as well as medications.<\/p>\n
“Having a good patient like Sherry is wonderful because we’re almost in constant communication,” said Dr. Sundlof. “If she doesn’t feel well, she knows she needs to reach out immediately.”<\/p>\n
Mengel said Dr. Sundlof is her safety net while she walks that tightrope. Megel described their relationship, “Calm, calm, calm, no matter what the storm has thrown, calm. It’s been open, it’s been honest.”<\/p>\n
Dr. Sundlof said, “That’s why I went into this profession is because of people like Sherry and it’s so rewarding to see her flourish.”<\/p>\n
Both women said, get checked out quickly if you feel something’s off with your body. Something as simple as fatigue or shortness of breath could be something serious with your heart.<\/p>\n
“When women say, I know there’s something wrong, we always want to listen,” said Dr. Sundlof.<\/p>\n
Because listening and getting the right treatment means having congestive heart failure isn’t a death sentence. Sherry Mengel is living proof.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"February is American Heart Month. Throughout the month we’ll be sharing stories of local doctors, patients, and volunteers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,52138,9328,52128,52132,52133,40712,52129,52140,52131,52136,52135,22193,5284,52141,52127,2182,52134,52130,52137,52139],"class_list":{"0":"post-108706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-bronchitis","12":"tag-cancer","13":"tag-cancer-survivor","14":"tag-cancers","15":"tag-chemo","16":"tag-congestion","17":"tag-congestive-heart-failure","18":"tag-deborah-sundlof","19":"tag-decompensation-congestive-heart-failure","20":"tag-director-of-the-women","21":"tag-fatigue","22":"tag-heart-failure","23":"tag-jefferson","24":"tag-megel","25":"tag-organ-failure","26":"tag-palmer-township","27":"tag-radiation","28":"tag-sherry-mengel","29":"tag-shortness-of-breath","30":"tag-words-congestive-heart-failure"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}