Aspire

With Jeff McEachron, Lancaster

If you were to ask Jeff McEachron what his main health issue was six months ago, he would have told you about the arthritis he suffers from in his back. This condition causes extreme back pain and lack of mobility. As part of that, he assumed his shortness of breath was a factor that he just had to live with.

He had recently transferred his care to Grant Regional Community Clinic because he liked the idea of local convenience, and everything he needed was under one roof, including hospital, clinic and diagnostics. Jeff says he also liked how the hospital and clinic provided him with excellent communication for appointments and results. He really appreciated that and didn't have that same experience at other hospitals or clinics.

A new diagnosis

In December 2021, he was scheduled for another injection in his back to manage the pain, but he decided to cancel it in order to find out why he was experiencing shortness of breath and swelling in his feet and ankles. He made the decision to schedule an appointment with the new physician in town, Eli James, MD.

"I'm very impressed with Dr. James," Jeff says. "He really listened to me and didn't shrug off my symptoms by telling me I just needed to lose weight. He seemed genuinely concerned and wanted to move ahead with blood work to get to the bottom of what was really going on. After an ultrasound, it was determined that I had diastolic dysfunction. From there, he suggested a stress test."

Diastolic dysfunction is when the muscles of the heart become stiff, and they can't relax properly. This inflexibility prevents the heart's ventricles from filling completely, causing blood to back up in the organs.

Symptoms of diastolic dysfunction can include:

• Dyspnea (shortness of breath).
• Labored breathing during exercise that gets progressively worse.
• Difficulty breathing while lying down.
• Difficulty breathing while sleeping.
• A chronic cough.
• Excessive fatigue.
• Unusual weight gain.
• Edema (swelling) of the legs and ankles.

Taking the next step

Following the stress test, Dr. James wanted to look deeper into the root cause of Jeff's swelling and severe shortness of breath. The next step was to meet with a cardiologist. Dr. James and his staff had the appointment scheduled the next day.

"Meeting with the cardiologist was a blessing," Jeff says. "He conducted an extremely thorough review of my records, and we visited for over an hour. He knew more about me than I did."

As a result of the appointment, Jeff was scheduled for a cardiac catheterization. In this procedure, a thin, flexible tube (catheter) is guided through a blood vessel to the heart to diagnose or treat certain heart conditions, such as clogged arteries.

"The day of my catheterization, everything moved pretty quickly," recalls Jeff. "It was determined that I needed a stent, and they suggested we do it right then and there."

A stent is a tiny tube that helps keep arteries—the blood vessels that carry blood from your heart to other parts of your body, including the heart muscle itself—open.

Moving forward

"Looking back to that day, I was really scared," says Jeff. "It's a pretty common procedure, but it still made me very nervous. Fast forward to today, and I can't say enough about how well everything went. Following my procedure, I was encouraged to complete cardiac rehab. Luckily Grant Regional Health Center offers a wonderful program locally, so I didn't have to travel far at all. My recovery has been great, and I couldn't be happier with my care."

To read more of Jeff's story, go to grantregional.com/jeff.

Categories: Heart health