Hello and welcome to living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, and I'm Grover Silcox.

So in this episode, we'll meet a woman who overcame enormous health obstacles she never saw coming.

Hers is a story of courage and inspiration.

That's right.

Plus, creating art as a way of coping.

That's what a local mental health facility is encouraging their clients to do, and the results are breathtaking.

For this particular show, I wanted them to dig deeper then heart healthy recipes are easier than you think.

We head into the kitchen with a nurse practitioner who has made it her mission to share healthy, easy meals.

The whole family will enjoy.

That's right.

Can't wait to try those out.

Oh yeah.

We start today with a story that finds a Lehigh Valley woman in an unexpected race against a cascade of unexpected, life threatening health issues and how she overcame them.

Yeah, an incredible story.

The saying life can turn on a dime is more than a figure of speech for one Macungie woman.

Three short years ago, her life went into an unexpected tailspin.

She went from a happy, active freshman in college to an 18 year old struggling with survival.

You know, Brittany, I produced hundreds of stories in my career, but this one stood out as a jaw dropping account of a young woman's battle to survive a tidal wave of health problems rising up out of the blue.

This is Caroline Lubbock's story.

You know you don't do anything for a 21 year old.

Caroline Lauber uses a robotic exoskeleton to stand upright and walk.

All right.

Begley, Pogue, with some assistance from her physical therapist at good Shepherd Rehabilitation in Allentown.

Works a bunch of different muscle groups, but at the same time, it also helps you regulate your blood pressure and prevents osteoporosis.

Because our bones are not meant to be sitting all the time in chairs.

Caroline, I never thought in a million years that she'd ever need a wheelchair to get around.

I was a very typical college kid.

I was very active.

I was involved with competitive horseback riding.

I skateboarded for many years.

I was very into yoga.

I tried to live a very active and healthy lifestyle.

But in January of 2022, Caroline's life turned abruptly upside down.

It started out with some breathing problems.

I felt like I couldn't take a deep breath, and when I would be working out or doing activities, I was noticing that I was gettin It kind of transformed into having body aches and fatigue that just wouldn't go away.

And eventually it just got worse and worse, to the point where I was coughing all the time but couldn't cough anything up.

I was having to sit down on benches on my way to class because I couldn't catch my breath.

Events cascaded from that point on.

She went to an urgent care and was diagnosed with walking pneumonia.

It wasn't pneumonia and the symptoms grew more dire.

We tried to treat the walking pneumonia for about two weeks.

I would get better for a couple of days and then get worse.

Exponentially.

I couldn't keep down food.

I was crawling to the bathroom on my hands and knees.

She went to the E.R.

at Lehigh Valley Health Network.

They gave her some shocking news.

They ran a bunch of tests and found that I was actually in congestive heart failure.

Liver and kidney failure.

Doctors in the E.R.

told her she needed an emergency surgery to install a small pump in her heart to help it beat.

It's kind of funny.

I was texting my friends as I was waiting for the test results in the hospital saying, this is going to be such a funny story in two weeks, you know?

She was diagnosed with 11 tricolor non compaction cardiomyopathy, a congenital heart condition in which the heart can keep up with the rest of the body.

Neither her nor her family had any idea, as symptoms were never apparent until that January.

So the emergency room told my mom that they were not well equipped enough to deal with the severity of my illness at the time.

So she was given a couple of choices of hospitals she could transfer me to, and she chose Penn Medicine.

I was medically evacuated there within 24 hours of being at the emergency room.

And doctors quickly determined she needed a heart transplant while waiting for a heart.

They had removed the pump and placed her on an MMO machine to oxygenate her blood.

A donor heart came, but doctors rejected it because it didn't look right.

Another came, but at that point Caroline suffered a spinal stroke from the elbow, paralyzing her from the waist down.

When we were at that point, my family was told to make death plans for me if I did not get a heart in the next couple of days.

Finally, a third heart came and met all the criteria.

The third heart came through on the 21st of March 2022.

The transplant was successful, but fate wasn't quite done.

5 or 6 months after my transplant, I woke up one morning and my left tonsil was red and swollen.

And in the couple of weeks following that, it got worse and worse and worse.

Turned out to be a type of lymphoma transplant patients can get from the immunosuppressants.

She was treated and it worked.

It worked for the first couple of months, and I was considered in remission by that January.

So that February I started feeling really sick again.

But this time I was in a lot more pain constantly.

And that's when we took more scans and found that the cancer had actually grown around my small intestine.

Surgeons removed a bit of her small intestine, her colon, and appendix to excised the tumor so I never have to worry about appendicitis, which is great news.

I wish I could always looking on the bright side.

Caroline's been in remission for two years.

After her transplant operation, she began inpatient rehab at good Shepherd in Philly and eventually transitioned to outpatient in the Lehigh Valley.

That's exactly the typical I'm a good shepherd two days a week now.

We kind of circulate through a couple of different things.

I actually just learned how to put myself on the ground and back into my chair by myself, which you would think wouldn't be so hard, but is very difficult.

I've learned how to use several different types of exoskeletons, so it feels close to what I remember, like natural light and feeling like she's been in multiple different exoskeletons and each exoskeleton has kind of a different purpose.

Or we use it to help meet different goals.

So the one that she was in today, we really like for her because it helps get, gait training and she gets a lot of steps.

She's able to look at people at eye level, and then one of the other features is it's able to do an active balance mode.

So even when we're working on upper body strength or her cardiovascular endurance, we can do it in a little bit of a different way than, say, somebody who uses wheeled mobility or uses a wheelchair.

She has to try and activate her core to stay a lot more upright.

I can add resistance or assist her.

I'm going to have you lean forward, but it's going to walk backwards, okay?

Okay, okay.

I feel like a lot.

I mean, the robotics too.

There's so many secondary benefits, right?

You talked about skin.

There's benefits for bowel and bladder for your heart.

Cognition also just quality of life.

How she's perceiving herself to be independent.

Just getting upright and being able to look at people at eye level.

I'm so used to looking up at people.

So it's nice to see somebody identify.

Caroline now attends Cedar Crest College and hopes one day to serve as a nutritionist for transplant patients.

She has lots of hopes and dreams, and especially gratitude.

I feel like there was so much light that was gifted to me.

I want to pay it forward and gift it to other people, and I want to figure out how to help people live their best life and embrace these crazy changes that we all go through.

So how do you want to lie about advocacy for organ donation and the gift of life?

The friendship she developed with her good Shepherd physical therapist Nicole Brennan, and her future plans to become a nutritionist.

For heart transplant patients are all notable.

Wow.

She's had an incredible journey.

Really kind of bumpy road there for a while to say the least.

Well, it's good to hear that she's on the up and she's doing well.

She is.

She goes for physical therapy, a good shepherd twice a week with her therapist, Nicole Brennan, and she is at Cedar Crest College, hoping to be a nutritionist or physical therapist or both to help others who need it.

Sure.

Wonderful.

Well, best of luck to her, Grover.

Thank you for sharing her story.

Onto the next story.

Lehigh Valley Health Center is using art as a way of healing pictures and paintings on the wall of Haven House in Allentown are being used to emphasize the therapeutic benefits of art, particularly for those who struggle with verbal communication.

That's right, the exhibition aims to reduce stigma by encouraging participants to discuss their diagnoses.

It's a very it's a few punches mixed into like hairy yellow whatever, you know.

It's all blend in together like I love fruit punch.

They say art is in the eye of the beholder.

You know, I go by what I think and I express it out on a canvas in my paintings.

But what if the artist is visually impaired yet?

Because I have vision impairment doesn't mean, oh, you can't, you got that?

You can't do what?

No.

Yes, I can.

Oh yes I can.

I don't give up, I like hey despite this I still can paint.

I'm still expressing myself through my paintings.

But the way I did it before you were looking at two people.

Ronnie Colbert of Allentown doesn't let an impairment stop him from creating.

It is some of the art that makes me feel really good.

Whether that impairment is visual or psychological.

I struggle with severe depression.

I suffer from severe PTSD mood swings.

They come and go unexpectedly.

Panic attacks.

When I have parents, that wakes me up and I cannot go to sleep.

Colbert work is among others who are turning their mental anguish into art.

When I do my painting, my paintings represent my feelings, what I feel.

It's all part of a mental health art show at Haven House, a nonprofit offering mental health services in Allentown.

We're teaching individuals how to be more independent and how to coexist with a mental health disorder.

So we want them to feel more confident within themselves and able to thrive out in the community independently.

Laura Sterling is the director of psychiatric rehabilitation Services.

Art can be useful in any way possible, but for the most part, when it comes to mental health, it allows them to feel comfortable within themselves.

It allows them to be creative and express themselves in ways that they might not be able to verbally or physically do.

While some of the art hangs on the walls.

Ronnie go Ronnie, go Ronnie!

The many other forms were presented at the opening of the show, like a puppet show and poetry reading.

My brain was out of focus.

Couldn't concentrate doing math in class, couldn't get the numbers straight.

It heals when you can't put things into words and you have like, especially when people have trouble communicating it in a verbal way, doing it through art, whichever medium they choose painting, sculpture, photography it gives them different outlets to express themselves.

And then you can use that in like a therapeutic session.

Cynthia Rodriguez is an art therapist at Haven House and the curator of the art show titled the Art of coping.

I had the members create pieces having to do with their own diagnoses.

I wanted to take it a step further than just talking about stigma, stigma, stigma, which a lot of times, people do, which is great, you know, because there still is a lot of stigma surrounding mental health issues.

But for this particular show, I wanted them to dig deeper and like, almost be a little more vulnerable about it and really get personal and, and talk about exactly what they're dealing with.

I got PTSD, major depression with explosive stuff like that.

Anxiety.

I like the colors and the horses because it has to do about autism.

The piece I did was based on autism because my son's autistic, nonverbal, and I just seen the horses and it just drew me to make them different colors and then do the background with different colors.

It's what he sees in his world.

I feel like in mental health, a lot of people feel alone with their diagnosis, and when they put this out there and then they see other pieces, you know, other versions of like what people are going through about that particular issue and they're like, wow, I'm not alone.

And they're dealing there.

They feel the same way I do.

This is what makes puppetry so special, right?

For me.

That right.

It kind of calms me down, especially when I'm having a bad day.

It helps me out.

That's really good.

I like that one.

The show displayed throughout the halls of Haven House, features nearly 20 artists, including staff, addressing various mental health issues through diverse art forms.

Art is a coping skill with me, but I try different mediums like I have watercolor pictures, I do self-portraits, landscapes, you name it, I've done it, and we work on a lot of socialization coping skills.

We also offer things like anger management and emotional wellness.

We do a lot of art, music, food, service related activities, so anything and everything they would need to be independent out in the community.

And being at adult for the art show, I came up with a couple pictures that I thought were very interesting.

One is the symbolism depression is a dragon symbolism.

Like I said, I'm a knight.

The sword is coping skills.

Coping skills on display for everyone to see in a facility serving upwards of 5000 people.

Sounds scary, but the artists say it's healing.

I don't only started art when I when I started here, I used to do a little bit of art, but now I do a lot of art.

I decide to make them artistic.

It feels awesome to have everybody be able to look at it and see that they understand it and look at it and see what they get for it.

Really be really.

The art show is private for now, but organizers say the Allentown Art Museum is interested in letting Haven House showcase their art there, possibly in their community room sometime next year.

And next up, we head into the kitchen to check out some delicious and nutritious recipes that can keep our cardiovascular health in check.

That's right, this month we are heading into the home of nurse practitioner Jessica Day-Lewis, who is certified in culinary medicine to make a heart healthy meal.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women, and has been for a few years now.

Joining us with some heart healthy recipes is the Wellness Kitchen.

Mr. Jessica de Lui, it's great to have you.

Yes, thank you for having me.

And welcome over to my kitchen.

Thank you for inviting us into your home.

Now, Jessica, you have a background in culinary medicine.

You're certified in culinary medicine, and you also are a physician's assistant.

So you have both sides of the aisle here.

You're cooking and you're treating people I want to you, which I think is more fun.

Okay, I think we can get, but we have some heart healthy recipes today.

When it's not Heart Health Month, a lot of people aren't thinking, you know, making sure that they're incorporating those heart healthy ingredients into their cooking every day.

So so what are some ways we can do so yeah.

Absolutely.

Right.

So February is heart Health Awareness month.

But year round we really should be thinking about this.

And we should incorporate the American heart and set lights essential aid.

So these are key measures that improve cardiovascular health and reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.

So let me tell you about those.

Sure.

So what are the essential eight.

Right.

So these are key measures.

Things like better sleep right.

Exercise tobacco cessation or smoking cessation and of course healthful diet.

So that's what we're going to talk about today.

And we're bringing along the star ingredient which is the avocado.

Wonderful.

So enter the avocado under the avocado.

Right.

And I wanted to focus on the avocado today because it has those good fats for cardiovascular health.

So those monounsaturated fats are a good source.

It also has fiber.

So more than 90% of men and women do not get the recommendation for fiber every day.

And it also is a good source of potassium.

So the three things that can really contribute to heart health fat fiber potassium you got it.

All right.

And this has a really special kind of fiber.

If I can get a little granular with you.

It's called soluble fiber.

So the avocado is about 35% of the fiber.

And avocado is called a soluble fiber.

And that helps blood cholesterol.

So it actually reduces the absorption of cholesterol in the gut.

So that way it impacts our cholesterol levels in our blood.

So really great source of soluble fiber.

Great I love avocados.

They're so good.

The kids even love them because they're kind of mild tasting.

But it's not always easy to cut these things.

Yes okay.

Let me walk you through.

But you're right.

It has a great mouthfeel.

Right.

And it's a mild flavor.

So it's like a gateway fruit okay.

Right here.

Like and I think this diet is 80% of people don't get the recommendation for fruit either.

So this is getting that fruit intake.

And it has a lovely mild flavor.

No one's going to even know it's in the recipes.

Right.

All right.

So how am I cutting okay.

So safety first right.

We have our cutting board underneath our cutting board.

We have a damp towel.

Paper towel is fine.

What does that give me.

Immediate slip resistance okay I love that.

Yeah.

When this slide around your countertop you're going to lose your balance.

You're going to cut yourself.

So we're going to put our avocado down I'm let you do the okay okay.

Avocado.

Yep.

Avocado.

So grab your knife.

All right.

Got my knife.

And I love look at that grip.

Well I, I cheated a little bit I watched you grab it earlier.

Perfect grip here.

Choke on the blade.

You have full control of the knife.

And your, top hand is going.

You're going to keep these other fingers right out of the way, okay?

Okay.

A firm pressure down on the cutting board, and then we're going to angle your knife, if I may, horizontally.

And you're just going to slide it around the avocado.

What happens when you come at it.

This way you might get your fingertips right okay.

Not part of your ingredient list.

No no okay.

All right.

So I'm going to lay not let's try this okay.

Does it matter if it's from the back or the front.

Does not matter if you slide it around.

Or are you guiding it around here.

You're doing this.

Avocado is nice and right.

So that's right.

Slides so easily.

And then are we just kind of.

So then you just twist each side okay.

All right.

So so here's what I always do.

What's probably not the right thing to do I kind of hack my knife in there to grab out the pen.

But how.

So how do we do that without making it dangerous for here.

Right.

So that's fine.

And I've done that myself, so no worries there.

But yeah, not the safest practice.

What you're going to do is take two thumbs on the back of the avocado.

And you could just pop.

That's so much safer than my method.

I love that I never thought about doing it from the outside.

Right.

So we're going to make a chimichurri.

Okay.

I love a chimichurri.

Avocado is not traditional and chimichurri, but I think it adds such a wonderful, unctuous, fatty, sure creamy mouthfeel.

So this is great for the summer because you can marinate chicken with this.

Put it over steak.

Okay, whatever.

Love that.

Really versatile.

Very urban.

So why don't you scoop out that avocado into I need to cut it at all or just open it right out?

Okay.

We're going to blend everything up okay.

So we don't need to chop it up at all okay.

Pop it in there.

Okay.

And I really like so this has per serving of an avocado, we have about 6% of our daily value of potassium okay.

So potassium we talked about can offset some of those sodium effects and really impact our blood pressure in a positive way.

So I love that here.

Awesome.

And I'm going to start to squeeze in some lime.

So lime has really lovely zip.

Lovely tang will pop that too.

Okay.

All right I'm trying to get all the goods here, all the meat out of that.

There you go.

All right.

Perfect.

So we'll do one lime.

And this will also help if you make this, chimichurri ahead of time, the lime will help it from browning.

Okay.

That's wonderful.

And I because these turned pretty quickly.

Yeah, they do, they do.

All right.

And then we have some other ingredients here.

I'm gonna I'm going to ask for your help with this.

Wonderful.

Okay.

Some olive oil.

All right.

I'm just going to move this right over here.

Up here.

So okay.

So olive oil I appreciate that.

And that's something we often think about you know, heart health right.

Right.

We think olive oil not always avocado.

Exactly.

Right.

And I think they're both great sauces.

Right.

But of course you're getting the fruit component and the fiber with the avocado as well.

This is red wine vinegar okay.

You can also swap in apple cider vinegar if you prefer.

Okay.

Water.

This is just a little bit more liquid to make everything go and come together really nicely.

All right.

Okay.

Garlic.

Ooh a good ingredient.

I mean they're all good.

But I love a little garlic in there.

Okay okay.

Salt and pepper.

All right.

Here's our pepper and salt.

Little salt.

All right okay.

So what are we throwing in here.

Right.

In addition to our olive oil our avocado a little bit of salt pepper vinegar water.

What do we need?

Parsley and cilantro okay.

Yeah.

So I like we throw in the stems in into you know what you can.

Oh absolutely.

So I was just about to say I like to take a whole big handful.

Yeah.

So this recipe calls for about a quarter cup or so.

Okay.

This comes directly from Lebanon today.

The avocados loved one today website okay.

And cilantro.

Wonderful.

Some people are in partial partial to cilantro.

You could do mint if you wanted.

Okay.

All parsley or to make it a little bit different tastier.

So it's wonderful I know some people have that taste for the cilantro.

Tastes like soap.

Yeah.

That's right.

Yeah.

So so swap in parsley.

There you go.

Good.

Perfect.

Okay.

All right.

So we're going to grind it all up.

How long.

What consistency do we want it.

You really want this to be smooth because you want it to be able to be spread you know on your proteins or you want a dip, which I'll show you in a moment.

Okay.

Truth.

And we're just throwing this into a regular blender.

Yeah, a regular blender food processor is fine.

I'm using this one from our place because it's so powerful.

But anything that you have at home is great to grab, right?

So there's going to have a little bit of, of chunky herbs in that.

Absolutely.

Chunky herbs.

Yep.

And that's why, you know, you could do this by hand if you wanted to, but I like the blender food processor because it really processes up the earth so much faster.

Who has time to chop, chop, chop everything all at once, right?

When you can throw it in a blender.

All right, so our chimichurri.

I'm really excited to try this.

Yeah.

So what are we putting it on today?

Right.

So I have a plate a dinner plate, standard dinner plate.

Right.

We like to to fill half our plate with fruits and vegetables.

We have a quarter of our plate with whole grains.

And then a nice high quality protein fish is really aligned with okay.

Oh this salmon looks delicious.

So I have the salmon that I roasted with some lemon.

What a great summery dinner that looks like.

Yeah I'm coming to dinner here.

You should come on over.

Stay over.

Okay.

So this really aligns with the life essential from the American heart we talked about, but also the USDA.

My plate, which talks about the proper portions of your plate and building that balance.

Sure.

So then we can just put this over, and I like to take it and honestly get a little on my rice.

Oh, great.

Get a little.

So this is really versatile.

Oh yeah.

On my salmon.

And you can even use it as a salad dressing if you want I love that.

Yeah.

And then take this base or you know, find another recipe, use avocado to add some fat, fiber and potassium, as well as other antioxidant and phytochemicals for your kids for a dinner.

Right?

Who doesn't love a dish?

Of course.

And of course, with our veggies, we're getting more fiber.

Right.

And our antioxidants like beta carotene.

And then we have a whole grain pita here with this dip too.

Delicious.

And then more fiber right now, Jessica, I have to ask you, what's the trick to picking the perfect avocado?

And in this particular recipe, does it have to be perfectly ripe?

You know, everyone has their own little nuances, I think.

Perfect, but I think if you.

So we grab an avocado here.

If you pop your thumb in and you have a little bit of firmness, but you can also indent your thumb a little bit, that is a good sign that it's ripe.

Great.

You could also look here at the stem okay.

If that stem is starting to get a little bit more yellow than green, then you're pretty much at the peak of ripeness.

If it's brown, you might be over the peak of right too, right?

That's correct.

Okay.

But you know what I feel like there.

That's right.

And they are trying to sell frozen avocado okay.

So that is a little bit more versatile a little bit more easy to incorporate a little more longevity correct.

Yeah.

Because you have a short window sometimes.

Yeah.

From this family social media that if you wait too long it's two.

Right.

So yeah I get frozen and you know, frozen fruits and veggies.

Also a really great way to incorporate into your diet because remember those are frozen at the peak of ripeness.

So a lot of people, are confused about it.

And they think they might not be getting all of the nutrition that they would from fresh.

It's actually a fallacy.

You are.

And they're really cost effective.

Wonderful.

Yes.

There look like some have really healthy, heart healthy snacks we have over here.

Or an appetizer and a full dish all with this avocado chimichurri.

If folks want to check out some more healthy recipes, how can they find them from you?

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, of course the Wellness Kitchen is on all the social platforms or the Wellness kitchen.com.

This recipe and more avocado recipes at the Loveland TODAY.com.

And of course, for heart healthy tips and guidance like Life's a gentle Eat, you can go to the American Heart association.com.

Some really great tips here Jessica De Louis The Wellness Kitchen Easter thank you so much for sharing these.

Thank you for having me on the show.

Thanks for having us in your home.

That looked scrumptious.

It made me hungry.

Everything tasted delicious.

Who would have known it was extra healthy?

Extra healthy?

Well, that will do it for this episode of Living in the Lehigh Valley for PBS 39.

I'm Grover Silcox and I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Hoping you stay happy and healthy.