"Boy, I thought I had conquered the world!"
Joe Hanf COPD Rehab Survivor
Low County Senior Center
Charleston, South Carolina
Welcome to our Senior Center, Mayor Riley, Mr. Sarns, honored guests,
staff and members of the Lowcountry Senior Center. I'd like to share
a few words on my first encounter with the NuStep. It was March of 2002,
and I had just been sent to pulmonary rehab at Roper Hospital. I really
didn't know what to expect because I had been told that I was going to
learn breath control and participate in a regular exercise program. I
could hardly walk from the parking lot to the fitness room, and when
I got there I could hardly breathe. My pulmonary therapist, however,
said we were going to do this and have fun and survive.
The first machine that I was put on was a treadmill, which didn't work
out too good for me. I lasted 15 seconds at .5 miles per hour. My therapist
said, "Mr. Hanf, I've got just the machine for you." Here I
am hardly able to catch my breath and she tells me she's got just the
machine for me! Once I got my breath back, she carried me over to this
thing that she calls the NuStep. To be honest about it, it was worth
trying because I could sit down on it. The workload was on one and I
lasted for about a minute and 5 seconds. Boy, I thought I had conquered
the world! What made it so nice was that during the one minute and 5
seconds I could breathe a little easier because the therapist told me
that if my legs got tired I could use my arms more. Then, if my arms
got tired, I could go back to using my legs more again.
This is a very
hard thing to describe because a lot of people don't understand my
problem with severe COPD. The second time I went in to rehab, my therapist
had an O2 bottle for me. I really didn't want it to be mine, but it was,
so I went to the treadmill and walked a total of 3 minutes at .5 miles
per hour. When I got on the NuStep, I was able to go 5 minutes and
my time got better with each use. By the time I came to the Center in
May of 2002, I was up to about 10 minutes. From then until now, I do
the NuStep just about every day for 30 minutes with the workload at 4
and usually 100 to 104 steps per minute.
NuStep has made a difference in my life and lifestyle. It is a machine
that you can start off real light and get heavier. It works the lungs
and it keeps the mucus and fluid broken down so that I can breathe as
best I can. I still have to use O2 when I exercise, and will for the
rest of my life, but with people around like NuStep, Inc., they'll make
it possible for people like me to do better with exercising.
I would like
to thank NuStep for their generosity and say that this machine will
be put to good use.
Thank you again,
Joe Hanf |
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