Rosemary was referred to CP+R to help to manage her persistent Atrial Fibrillation (AF). Rosemary would become breathless upon exertion and she’d had a pacemaker implanted to help control her heart rate. Rosemary is a keen traveller and wanted to ensure she could continue to enjoy her freedom and trips abroad without her health impeding.

Our action plan

At Rosemary’s clinical assessment, her cardiovascular fitness was notably low and her blood pressure readings varied. In addition, Rosemary was suffering from knee pain due to osteoarthritis, which was affecting her mobility. Based on these considerations, we devised a long-term plan with Rosemary that had two key aims; firstly to improve fitness and general cardiovascular health to optimise management of Rosemary’s pacemaker and arrhythmia, secondly to improve knee mobility and function.

Rosemary’s results

For our first aim, Rosemary’s commitment and dedication led to an improvement in blood pressure with readings changing from 134/88 to 120/82 mmHg between her first and second assessment. In addition, there have been improvements in her walking speed and the number of steps she can achieve per day.

After consultation with our orthopaedic colleagues, Rosemary opted to pursue a knee replacement which shifted our plans somewhat. We were able to support Rosemary to get as strong as possible prior to the procedure, and then supported her from a few days post-surgery to now where she has returned to her prior walking abilities now without pain, and has been able to maintain her fitness along the way. Now recovered from surgery, Rosemary has her sights set on improving her strength and fitness further, and of course, on continuing to travel.