Hi there everyone, this is Mark Maloney, host of the Mark Mo Show podcast available on YouTube
and all podcast platforms with new episodes every Saturday. Special thanks goes out to
the producer Greg Kovac and Eden Maloney, and thanks to each and every listener. I hope
you enjoy and please like, share, and subscribe. Our newest segment on the Mark Mo Show is
Fireside Chats, where I have a casual chat with interesting and informative community members.
This week on Fireside Chats is Christy Cleveland. She's a registered nurse from St. Mary's and with
Valpo YMCA and also joining us from the YMCA, Raffiella Petting. Hi everybody, how are you?
Great. Hello. That is good. That's great. I'm very excited to have you guys in here. We've had YMCA
on I believe three times now, so this is pretty exciting stuff. There's always things going on
and being that we have this outreach to the community, it's kind of the perfect vehicle. So I
love having you guys in and we're just going to get started. Christy, why don't you tell me a little
bit about yourself and how you got started in healthcare? I would say I was probably like 15
or 16. I've always wanted to be able to help take care of people. I was the one that if there was an
animal that was sick, I'm going to take care of that and I kind of switched. I think I like to
talk to people. There's a little more response coming back than the animals, although I've always
had animals in our family and I enjoy that. So then you get the best of both worlds. Most
definitely. So you are based out of St. Mary's. Now this is the St. Mary's in Hobart, is that
correct? Yes. Yes. Okay. And how long have you been there? You know what, I've been with them
right about nine years. I was with Franz Siskin, one of our competitors, I guess I'll say, but
great memories. I worked with them for 30 years. So now we're aging myself. Downtown Hammond. So I
felt like I kind of grew up there, cool place to work, kind of sad that they had to close their
doors. It's kind of a, I think they'd been there for more than 100 years. So that's kind of sad.
But this has been a really good switch. Coming to it was community healthcare system. Now we are
Powers Health. So look for that out there. But it's been a great switch. The physicians are so
responsive when I ask for help doing a program, doing presentations, they're ready to get out there
and meet the public and you know, help in any ways they can. It's been a really good move. A lot
of cool people. I'm always meeting new people at the Y especially now. Yeah, that we have a medical
partnership with the Y. So that's kind of cool. I have an office there. So I kind of have an
open door policy. People come in with every kind of health question. It might be my foot hurts. Can
you look at my foot? Take off your shoe, your sock. Oh, okay. You know, maybe we could go in and see
Brian in our physical therapy. Right. And he's always welcoming and gives good suggestions. He
might even offer exercises for them to do that might help them. And if that doesn't work, he said,
we can talk to your doctor and maybe talk about getting an order, you know, for some physical
therapy exercises and work with them. So it's always a good fit. We have personal training in the
Y. So there's that option. If it's something about exercise, if it's cardiac exercise, I usually even
walk people around the areas where they can do different kinds of exercise. I talk about safe
exercise with using age predicted. If they don't have heart disease, we go with age predicted.
Otherwise, they probably have something with their physician. If they've had a stress test,
then it's calculated special based on that. So it's more individualized. We do a lot of blood
pressure screening at the Y. We actually have a Higgy machine, which is right outside my office. So
when I'm not there, it's kind of nice because people are still able to get their blood pressure
checked. I always try to tell people don't do it more than once a day because they're going to drive
theirself crazy because there's so many things that can affect our blood pressure. But then we
also do AFib screening. And that's a way to even catch some kinds of serious arrhythmias. It can
put you at risk for having a stroke or a heart attack. Sleep apnea, surprisingly, is one of those
things that puts you at a higher risk of going into AFib. Generally, it's more as we're older,
probably like 60, 65 when you're going to be at a higher risk for AFib. But it's an irregular
heart rhythm. And so teaching people even knowing what your norm is, if something changes and you
feel your pulse, hmm, it's really, really fast. I can't count it. That's a bad sign that we need
to get some help. If it's irregular, and that's what puts us at risk for throwing a blood clot. So
if we have a throw a blood clot, you know, that's where it depends on where it's going to travel. If
it goes to your brain, or if it goes to the heart, you know, depends on if it's going to be a stroke
or a heart attack. So the sooner that we can get that documented and, you know, get to a cardiologist,
you know, that we can convert them. So there's different options that they can do as far as
converting them, whether it's medication, or if we have to do some kind of a special procedure
that we would need to do in the hospital. And we've got some great cardiologists that are always
able to take on new patients. So I can even text some of the physicians, which is kind of cool,
say, you know, hey, we've got this going on. This person really needs to be seen pretty fast. This
is what their blood pressure is, you know, that we did the Cardia mobile, which is the little
device that you see on the TV that talks about, do you know what your heart rhythm is? And I think
they're less than $100, then you just put your two fingers on there, and it gives you a regular
cardiac rhythm that will go either on your iPad or on your phone. You could send it to your physician,
which I'm sure the physicians probably don't want to get everybody's EKG that they're taking all
day long. But if you were having some problems, it's nice to be able to share that directly to
the physician. And I've actually shared that from my office for people in the Y. And that brings up
one of the AFib screenings that we had done. I want to say it was last year, one of the members
had been there. And I always do a lot of education with each person when I'm doing the AFib screening
so that they understand what their pulse feels like, what it's doing that it's regular, so that
they recognize that something has changed, that's when we need to notify somebody or get help. And
this one person said that, you know, he went through the whole thing and he's a regular person at
the Y. He exercises all the time. He plays different games out in the gym. And he was there, and I
believe it was on a weekend. And he noticed that his heart rate was really fast and it was irregular
and he got really nervous. And so he had actually after that AFib screening gone and bought his
own device. So he went home and checked it. And it said, I think you're in AFib. So he went ahead
and went to the hospital and actually he was in AFib and they cardioverted him and he's been in
normal sinus rhythm on medication. And he feels like he's had his life saved that, you know,
if he wouldn't have known about that, he didn't know what was going to happen. Because your heart
rate can go 130, 140, very irregular. And of course, depending on if you have a stroke with it or a
heart attack, we don't know how we can, you know, the outcomes with that. So that was kind of cool.
We have a lot of people that come through different reasons. You know, we kind of have our own
emergency setup at the Y, which is kind of neat when I started there. I don't know if I should tell
you what it's called because everybody in the building knows George Williams. So we know that
everybody goes immediately to where it's at. And we have some different points in the building where
they have like an alarm system. So it's really cool. And it just does such a good job of getting
help to that person as quickly as possible, because everybody runs and whatever's needed. We
have AEDs in the building, which is so critical. Because if somebody does need to have their heart
shock to get out of some very serious arrhythmia, it's so much quicker than waiting for the ambulance
to get there. Because if we take time to assess a person and find out what's going on, and then we
have to wait for an AED to get there, you know, that's time is very valuable. Being that this is
heart month, you know, we talk about time is so valuable, saving that heart muscle. So it's real
critical for people just even to learn about risk factors of heart disease. If you know what your
risk factors are, then you know, okay, from there, that's those lifestyle changes that I want to
start working on, so that I can be healthy as I'm aging. So we have a lot of different ages
population in the Y. And so we try to give, you know, education geared towards all those
different ages. But of course, the senior people are the ones that are going to have more health
issues, of course, than the young ones. So giving that information for them to make those lifestyle
changes is really beneficial. I do a lot of lifestyle coaching. We do metabolic testing
there also, which is cool for people if they're trying to lose weight. If they're wondering even,
I'm just not sure about how many calories I should keep it at. I'm trying to maintain where I'm at.
I just want to be healthy. So it's a way that they can tell exactly at rest how many calories am I
burning. So it's a respiratory test. So you put your mouth on a mouthpiece, and then your nose is
clamped off, and you're sitting kind of in a reclined position. You want to do it before, before
any exercise that day, before any kind of a health, probably a heavy meal, four to five hours before
you would eat. And then of course, no caffeine before, because that's going to speed things up. So
usually I just tell people that easiest would be first thing in the morning. So we do that, and then
that can give you a set suggested range to keep your calories in if you want to lose weight, keep it
in this range. If you want to maintain, if you're being supervised medically, they'll let you go a
little bit lower. But I always worry about slowing somebody's metabolism down if you don't take in
enough calories. And that's probably one of the mistakes a lot of people make when they're trying
to lose weight, that they don't take in enough calories. And then I just talked to them a little
bit about macros, three things, you know, trying to think of nutrition in general, if you break it up
to protein, healthy fats, and your carbohydrates. And the carbohydrates, I always say we got to have
complex carbohydrates, the more fiber, the longer that it'll burn for you. So it's a better fuel. So
you try to put those three things together and then keep it under certain a number of calories. And
then if you add in the right exercise, so it's trying to get all those pieces put together to
make a healthy lifestyle for someone. So I enjoyed going over all of that and helping people try and
make those changes. Along with the risk factors of heart disease specific to if people knowing that
it's again, I'm going to go back to heart month, knowing the signs and symptoms of a heart attack
is really important. You know, if you've got chest pressure, and I had somebody in my office this
morning that said, you know, it was just kind of a feeling I've never had before. It's just kind of
heavy. And I've heard people describe it that it was like crushing on their chest. Some people have
been very vague and it was, you know, my jaw was just hurting and it just, I just wasn't sure, did I
need to go to the dentist? I've had patients that they pulled a tooth because they thought, wow,
that tooth must have been pretty loose. Now this was downtown Hammond on state lines. So we had a
variety of different patients that came in. But I thought, wow, I don't know that'd be going that
far. But I'm thinking of those classic symptoms, you know, chest pressure, chest pain, tightness,
you know, and to be able to describe it to your physician can help also. It might be just, you
know, your left arm pain, it could be in the center of your back. You might just feel like,
yeah, I'm just not feeling so good. I'm kind of sick to my stomach. Maybe if I go to the bathroom,
maybe I'll feel better. And sometimes it's you go in the bathroom and they might be having those
symptoms and they might have a bowel movement. You know, thinking about that, the nausea, the
vomiting, those are all symptoms that are really classic that, you know, you should have investigated.
And remember when we know that if it's cardiac related, if it's any of those symptoms, you're
better to get it checked out than to not do anything because time is so valuable. If we can do a
procedure at the hospital, maybe just do an angiogram and see if those coronary arteries,
what they're looking like, we could save that heart muscle and open it up where there is not
going to be any permanent damage. If somebody waits a day or two and they come in, they already
have the damages already done. So just for people to learn about those signs and symptoms and what
to do, you call 911. Don't drive yourself. What if you can't stay alert while you're driving and
you run into a telephone pole, you're going to hurt yourself. What if you run into somebody else?
The ambulance can come and those people are healthcare professionals. They know they're
going to get an IV started. They're going to give you medication to take care of that pain.
They're going to give you oxygen because you're going to be short of breath. So they're going to
be able to take care of all those symptoms that much quicker and relate to the hospital. Hey,
we're bringing somebody in that it looks like and they'll send an EKG. And so all about time
saving and saving that heart muscle. So that was something that we did in addition that we just
opened up a new emergency room out on our it's off of 49 and Burlington Beach Road or 500. We've
got a clinic out there and we had an immediate care and we actually enlarged it and changed it
into an emergency room. So people have more options of getting emergency care immediately
right away. We also have an immediate care still that's on 30 and we enlarge the size of that so
that we could take on the extra people that might be coming there. So it's good to know when should
I go to the emergency room? When should I go to the immediate care? It usually costs a little bit
more going to the emergency room. But if it's respiratory, if it's cardiac, we need to go to
the emergency room. I'd recently had a fall and I hit my head so I thought oh boy, I know I need to
go get a CT so I need to go to the emergency room. So that kind of cinched that. I was like well,
I don't like being the patient. I'd much rather be the nurse. But I've got a great hand out if
anybody is ever wanting one of those and I always tell people put it on your refrigerator. It really
takes the guesswork out of when should I go to the emergency room? When should I go to the immediate
care and be able to be seen quickly and always keep the cost down. I'm always trying to help
people think about okay cost-wise. If it can be covered at the immediate care and you can get in
and out, that's the way to go. Our emergency room has an ambulance there. I know we don't have a
hospital right there but we have a huge clinic and we have all the capabilities of testing that we
already have at the hospital so it's pretty cool. We've got MRI, CT, labs, ultrasound, oh my goodness,
everything that we have at the hospital. So if they determine that you need to be hospitalized,
they will take you by ambulance that is there on site directly to the hospital and have you
admitted and you'd be direct admitted. So all about saving time again because of we're here in
Valparaiso and we want to be able to be taken care of as quickly as possible. So I can tell you
about some other situations that have come up at the Y. It's kind of cool. The teamwork that we
have there, we had a situation, this one was another one I think it was a couple of weeks ago,
someone was in the pool and our lifeguard recognized and I was so impressed with her. I told
her man you did awesome. She recognized that this person was swimming in the pool and you
know you think about it she was in the deep end just doing laps back and forth and then she had one
of those kickboards and she was swimming back and forth and then all of a sudden she realized that
she was struggling and so she ran over to the side and tried to pull her out and had one of the
other guys came in the two of them pulled her out and had her right there on the edge of the pool
and they called George Williams and immediately we have help within a minute and when I got there
usually you know you want to try to assess that person. I realized she already had garbled speech,
the classic signs that go with stroke and that that acronym is fast if anybody doesn't know
that one. So you think in your mind okay if my family member was doing something strange and
think through is are those points hit on and so she had the facial drooping, she had the garbled
speech, I tried to have her raise both her hands, the one wouldn't go up at all so you raise those
arms and then time, time is so valuable again we're talking about the brain and we had already
called 911 so I was able to tell them on the phone directly the symptoms that she was having
what her blood pressure was was very elevated and so they were able to send out the right ambulance
that has the paramedics that has all of the extra equipment and then transport them as quickly as
possible to the hospital so we have a stroke, a certification I think and I don't remember the
exact terminology but Community Hospital in Munster is where they actually had to eventually
transport her to for this area so they're a stroke center as with cardiac we always think
about okay I want to go somewhere where I know that time is measured and so we're a certified
chest pain center that's with st. Mary so that's important because we know it's they call it door
to balloon time is within so many minutes and again it's talking about saving the heart muscles
so it's very critical that you want to be able to go where you know that they're going to be
able to act you know immediately I had a lady today it was kind of interesting I get a phone
call and I'm telling you you get all kinds and this lady sounded you know elderly later on in
the conversation she told me I'm 91 I said oh it's wonderful she goes I just wanted to call
and ask your opinion because I saw your name in this book and we have a take care book that
goes out I think quarterly and it has all of our different health screenings and classes that we
offer through the different hospital programs so that anybody is welcome to sign up for and she
said that she goes you know I've got swelling in my feet and my ankles and I don't know what kind
of a doctor I should go to what do you think I was well do you have a doctor she said well I'm
in the process of changing and then later on in the conversation I found out okay you have a
cardiologist because you know when you don't know the person's history you know you want to be able
to help them quickly direct them but she had a cardiologist so she's going to check with her
cardiologist so that they could maybe do some labs and you know see if maybe her heart function
has changed and that's why all of a sudden it could be congestive heart failure which is a symptom
where you have fluid that you know can collect in your lower legs and your feet and you know we
talk about anybody that has congestive heart failure we always want to help them manage it the best
if somebody is 90 or 90 years old they've made it this far I am not going to tell them they have
to change their whole life I'm going to tell you honey you've been doing great one thing that you
could do to help yourself so you can breathe better because it can also affect our breathing is low
sodium and we really talk about that a lot in our classes with managing blood pressure low sodium
they recommend to know more than 1500 milligrams for the whole day so if you're familiar with
reading labels at all you'll find that how quickly it can add up and one that's a typical one is the
soups that are there's two servings and a can of soup you don't it's not condensed you don't have to
add any fluid so it might be between 800 and 900 milligrams of sodium per serving you have to double
that because I always tell people I know you're not going to put half of that in the refrigerator I
think you're going to eat it all so you're already over your limit for the day and then that's where
that extra salt is going to have a problem with you retaining the extra fluids your heart has to
work harder so then of course that raises your blood pressure so helping people manage their
blood pressure with diet and then also thinking about exercise stress management is part of one
of those and again those are all risk factors of heart disease so helping people look at those
risk factors I always think man more people should think about those and and I meet with people all
the time and talk about those so anybody is always welcome to meet with me that's kind of one of my
probably favorite things to go over with somebody I was a cardiac rehab nurse for oh geez I'll just
say 20 plus years so going over risk factors that was one of the things that everybody gets before
they go home if they've had a heart attack if you've had bypass surgery if you've had congestive
heart failure you're going to get risk factors of heart disease because you need to change your
lifestyle and let's move you in a healthy direction so that's one thing you guys can meet with me
anytime what now what a tremendous asset you are to Valpo YMCA what are your hours there you know
what it kind of varies because I do the metabolic testing I like to you know be available to go in
early if someone needs that early time if they can get it in before work on average because
there's more people coming in the evening I probably come in around between eight and nine
but I keep a calendar on my outside my door unfortunately I have to go to meetings sometimes
and they might be off-site so I try to communicate with the staff there you know with what changes
and on my business card it has my cell number so everybody has Christie's number it's kind of
interesting I take calls on the weekend my husband will say are you gonna take that somebody
needs me kind of it's you know whatever it doesn't matter to me you know there's some that call
pretty regular and I've gotten to know their names of course and then somebody else might call and
just say hey I've got a quick question could you help me with or something I've had people that I
help them call their physician immediately because it was something much more urgent or I might tell
them you know where the immediate care is and remind them about that and of course our new
emergency room depending on what the symptoms are so yeah I'm usually pretty available but 8 to
4 30 ish you know but I stay later if somebody can't come if they're coming only I say I work
money through Friday I can only get there at 5 o'clock then I'll be there at 5 o'clock until
you know whenever they need me so I try to be pretty flexible I don't have young children so it
works out pretty well oh that's great now when you were talking a little bit about obviously
heart health and diet and exercise and things of that nature does your I was gonna say advice
but counseling is probably a better term for it so does your counseling really depend on age and
weight and I guess maybe their goals and things that they're doing there just from the standpoint
of I have a daughter she's an athletic trainer and a life coach out in Seattle so when I was out
there I got the fold you know she's like this is how you do it and this and that so one thing that
they focus on a lot is muscle building muscle building and toning and things like that along
with stretching to which I don't think people do enough in terms of stretching but that the diet
is an important component and cardio is an important component so does it really depend on
who visits you on a given day as to like what their goals are and what they're trying to do
goodness yeah absolutely you know my little risk factor sheet that I've used for many many years
top three are the ones that we can't do anything about age is the one sure of course as we age
our risks are going to increase then you add in family history well you can't do anything about
that mom and dad grandma and grandpa otherwise you know you think okay so if age is the one then I've
got to do any lifestyle changes of the ones that I do have so that we can make a difference as far
as muscle I emphasize this with our even our elderly population staying strong keeping your
legs strong so that you're less risk for falls is so important how else are we going to keep those
muscles strong is putting in the right fuel so we've got to get in enough protein and there's
actually and I don't know if this was with the CDC but they said that the our aging population
they've done the different research that they don't metabolize that protein as well so they want
them to take in 1.2 grams per kilogram of weight so then you've got to help them calculate their
weight into kilograms because I do that in the classes all the time so it's it's making sure they're
getting in enough protein a lot of elderly people I think maybe they've lost a spouse they live by
their self you know I don't feel like cooking oh I'm just gonna have a snack what do they have
some chips and oh you know I had a something you know maybe they'll have a yogurt hopefully
something with protein but they end up not taking in enough calories or enough protein throughout
the day and they lose weight they get weaker as they age so being at the Y I think it's a very
positive environment they have some great classes for the seniors that are so fun I walk by some of
those classes and I think man the music is so upbeat I want to go in there and there's a
course they invite me in you know sure well sure you know but you know I have to work there might be somebody else that needs me so but no it's
very positive for the people whether you're a single person or just you and your husband now you know and
sometimes people get a little bit down just because okay I'm 90 you know how much longer am I gonna be
around but there's so much good that you can do for other people younger people hearing about your
stories and you know they've got the new gathering area out there so I've seen a lot of the folks sitting
out there and you know being able to interact with others and the younger people are coming it's it's just a
really good positive environment the I would say regular adults and before we become seniors we need to make sure
that we're getting in enough protein and you know the recommended I think from the American Dietetic
Association is 0.8 grams per kilogram so you know there is a little bit of a difference and keeping our
muscles strong so getting a balance with a little bit of cardio a little bit of weight training they have
everything there at the Y and you know people that can help them get set up it's kind of nice that they can
learn basic equipment and keep it simple because I've taken them around to even if you could just use a
recumbent bike they can sit in the seat they've got the back support so that they're not going to be
unsteady if they're steady enough and they can do the treadmill that's great there's other equipment so I
mean there's something there for everybody sure cool that is cool when you do your your seminars
or your presentations things like that you ever find that you have even a younger audience so maybe you
know kids teens things like that to be able to help them form positive habits when they're younger so
they can kind of continue that absolutely and talking about even I've had mothers say you know my kids
are picky eaters what do you think about that I mean I've always tried to okay we're not going to make
separate meals for everybody so hey if the kids can be part of that cooking thing they're actually
making the food they'll be more ready to try the different things help have them make a plan with okay
what do we want to make for this week for groceries we're going to make a grocery list what do you
feel like eating this week let's make a plan so our afternoon classes we were trying to get more
towards families we didn't have it we probably didn't have as good a turnout as we hoped because I
think the kids are so involved in so many activities that I think it was hard to pin them down for it
but having the kids involved in the food and food preparation and even meal planning and I told parents
you know let each of your kids there was one family that came with that had three kids let them each
plan the whole meal you know and think about those food groups and so you know my play using that as
a basis and thinking about and then we even talked about the macros keeping that simple I think
everybody if we can think about those macros those three things it's pretty simple then that I could
have that in each of my meals if I'm pre-diabetic if I'm diabetic if you eat just simple carbs of
course your blood sugar is going to spike if you eat it with different kind of food combinations and
add a healthy fat with it you aren't going to see the big spike so thinking about having a good
balanced meal is going to make a big difference where you're not going to have those big spikes and
then we'll keep our blood sugar on an even keel we're going to feel better everything's going to
work sure inside too you know yeah that definitely makes sense when I was on the website and looking
at your page a little bit there was an acronym and I don't believe we covered it yet dash dash
yes that one is dietary I always have and this is why they call it dash because who would call a
diet dietary approach to stop hypertension so it's like really and it's actually been around for a
long time but they've made some modifications so it's 1500 milligrams or less and they want you to
increase how many fruits and vegetables that you add into that diet the top diet that's been chosen
overall for everyone for long-term health for controlling blood pressure for even helping
with controlling your blood sugars so diabetes overall health cholesterol is the Mediterranean
diet so they kind of combine the Mediterranean diet and then they look at the dash diet and those
were kind of the top two and so with the Mediterranean diet they want you to eat some kind of a fatty
fish at least two days a week and then increasing fruits and vegetables cooking with olive oil
avocado oil adding in nuts and seeds that kind of thing so you're getting those and then that diet
is really easy to look at and think about the macros so putting those pieces together is kind of fun
and making it work and then gosh it was probably about a year ago I had read a study that was put
out by Rush and they were looking at for the elderly population what would be the healthiest diet
and they came up with the name mind diet so we're trying to keep the brain healthy and as we're
aging that we're not as forgetful and you know long term so it's really kind of in a nutshell
it's the combination of the dash diet with the Mediterranean diet so I've done some talks on
that and it was very interesting and people seem to be very motivated they wanted to learn details
about it so what do I do how do I eat that way and and I think it made people be a little more
aware of meal times meal prep if you do planning you'll do so much better meal prepping you could
do it on the weekend and you could prep three four meals and then you've got Monday Tuesday
Wednesday Thursday covered well Friday night can be pizza night right sure oh yeah and there's all
kinds of healthy ways to have pizza and especially if you have young kids oh my gosh they get to make
their own you could have all your toppings set out they get to make whatever kind they want you
know have the different crusts or maybe they're old enough that they could even make their crusts
themselves you know we try to get away from using the packaged goods packaged foods because of
course they're going to be a lot more preservatives and of course they're coming out with more things
like red dye now they finally realized oh it is bad glad that that was but I think it's not going to
be technically taken out of the foods until next year or something yeah it's kind of like wow but at
least we are aware so that we can make those changes but again it's all about reading your labels
you know thinking about you know what's in the food what ingredients if you've got a list of
ingredients that's this long it's probably not great pretty packaged up and and probably not going
to be the best choice teaching kids how to do food prep and getting them a cookbook with simple
ingredients so that they learn I think about like kids that go away to college I'd love to have
classes that's geared towards okay I'm getting ready to go to college mom and dad aren't going to be
there I got to go to the cafeteria and I got to get food but I don't want to have that 15 pound
gain that you know they always talk about or 20 or yeah the freshman 15 or 20 unfortunately that's
right that's what happened to a lot of us during COVID you know we didn't go anywhere right that's
right so of course if you're sitting in your dorm room and then that's when they first learn about
going to parties and you know there's a lot of things that change from what it was at home so
you know thinking about making the best choice of what's available and maybe having some healthy
snacks in your dorm room versus all you know though I wouldn't say garbage but chips and cheesy
poofs and all that stuff yeah you know snacky foods right you know having a little refrigerator
with some veggies and you know navigating that cafeteria to what healthy options would they
have you know I'm sure they have some healthy options there so to kind of close it out if I'm
at the why and I want to see you is it through appointment or can I stop down to your office
how does it work you know what I have people that drop by all the time if I have time available I
don't have any meeting scheduled or there's not somebody waiting for something they drop in all
the time if somebody's coming from home and they want to make sure that I'm available then give me
a call you can send me an email you could text me and we can set up a time of whatever's convenient
for that person oh fantastic well that's really great rafiella as I alluded to at the beginning
of our interview here yeah we always like to finish up with you to tell us all the new and
interesting things going on at the Valpa why oh there's so many but I know we mentioned that
February is you know heart health awareness month but even though we draw attention to it in
February you have to be heart smart year-round you know so we are nurses are an integral part of
our community and the YMCA so we are so lucky to have nurse Christy here we love her so much
she's definitely it's one of the amazing benefits that we have is as a member of the YMCA you know
as we were saying if you have any questions she's an open door policy if it's something you've been
afraid to ask your doctor or you didn't want to make an appointment or you know just anything she's
very easy to talk to and like I said an incredible resource for the Y and for our community so you
really appreciate her and part of a part of a showing our appreciation for our nurses you know
some of the hardest working people that we have out here the YMCA is offering a 10% discount for
off-memberships for all nurses who live and work inside the Valparaiso community oh that's
fantastic just come call our front desk or come down and see us and well even if you want to tour
of our new facility we're happy to give you a tour yeah yeah well yeah you guys were closed to
making some updates and things like that I believe you have some sort of new cafe or something
when you were talking about figuring out what to do in your dorm that reminded me of the story
that Gabe was telling me our so we have a bright love cafe in our facility and he was talking about
how him and his roommate that's how they came up they were making their own coffee in the dorm and
everyone can't smell it so come by the YMCA get a tour if you haven't been a member before get a
membership preferably we've got so much going on and stop by and see nurse Christie get a coffee from
Gabe absolutely absolutely yeah well it's always great having you guys here nurse Christie thank
you so much for visiting us today some really fantastic information and if you're if you're at
the Y and maybe you need some counseling especially as it pertains maybe heart health and diet and
things of that nature visit nurse Christie her door is open and she's there and Rafael thanks
once again for joining us and mentioning all the wonderful things going on at the Valpa Y
thank you and thank you nurse Christie definitely definitely I always like to meet new people
well this has been the Mark Moe show we are a podcast you can hear us on all podcast platforms
as well as YouTube and you'll hear this show several times during the next week here on the
WVLP airwaves here in Valparaiso one of 3.1 FM so thank you so much for joining us today and have a
great day you