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From Monday through Friday, in the Medical Fitness program at Blount Memorial Hospital, you will likely run into Dennis Valenti, a 64-year-old lung transplant recipient who now embraces exercise and his second chance.

This retired general manager of a local manufacturing company was first diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis back in 2001, a condition which causes a hardening or stiffening of the membrane that transfers oxygen from the lungs to the bloodstream. It progressively grew worse, and in 2005 Valenti was placed at the top of the national donor list for a lung transplant. He had the surgery on Christmas Eve 2005 and awoke on Christmas Day with a new left lung and prospects at a normal life once again.

A resident of Maryville, Valenti received his IPF diagnosis during a biopsy at Blount Memorial. He was directed to the Pulmonary Rehab program at the hospital after being placed on medication. Those medications caused Valenti to gain weight and were responsible for his steroid-induced diabetes.

He was told by the staff in Pulmonary Rehab that an exercise program would serve him well.

"How can I exercise?" Valenti said he remembers telling Kathy Tallent, a registered nurse and assistant director of both Pulmonary Rehab and Medical Fitness. "I have lungs that can't breathe and I am 35 pounds overweight."

Valenti had ballooned up to 265 pounds.

Getting with a plan

Tallent began working with her new patient. The pulmonary rehab program lasts from six to 12 weeks, with classes held on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Medical Fitness classroom at the hospital. The exercise portion of the program lasts from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., followed by education sessions from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Each participant sits down before getting started for a one-on-one assessment of their medical condition, including a review of medications, Tallent explained. Each is also given a six minute walk test.

Valenti eventually moved to Birmingham to await a lung transplant in 2005. The surgery was done at the University of Alabama. He and his wife moved down there in September of that year.

The couple would stay in Birmingham until March 2006. Soon after, Valenti came back to BMH for additional pulmonary rehab.

There are treadmills, a walking track, recumbent bikes and other exercise equipment available to rehab patients. The staff includes nurses, exercise specialists and respiratory therapists who monitor each patient every step of the way. If a problem is detected, the physician is called, Tallent said. "We are all trained for those emergencies that come up."

Valenti was all too familiar with dire situations. At one point before his lung transplant, he was actually on 8.5 liters of oxygen per minute, requiring two machines.

"That is a lot of oxygen," he said. "You could hear it blowing. It was like a wind tunnel."

In the days and weeks before his transplant, Valenti said it took all of his strength to walk across a room. The disease started out exhibiting itself through shortness of breath, difficulty climbing stairs and progressed into continual coughing and being tired with no motivation. Today, he is not on oxygen and spends up to 90 minutes, five days a week exercising in the Medical Fitness program.

Continuing on

When Pulmonary Rehab patients have completed the program, many will sign on for Medical Fitness. Just like with the Pulmonary Rehab program, Medical Fitness personnel carefully monitor each participant. The staff is the same for both.

Exercise is important for lung patients, Tallent said, not only because of the weight factor. She said better breathing comes with the strengthening of muscles. That has helped Valenti tremendously, she said.

Most of the patients Tallent sees in Pulmonary Rehab are individuals in their 60s and 70s who were smokers and now dealing with asthma and emphysema. Some, like Valenti develop lung disease that has no known cause.

"He is one of our success stories," Tallent said. "These folks are worn down by the time we get them. They never get back to where they were before, but they get better."

Valenti is still on several medications, but keeps a positive outlook and remains a believer in the benefits of exercise. He works out at least four days a week and said he knows it has made a difference. He is no longer a diabetic, has lost weight and doesn't require oxygen tanks.

"I was not an exerciser before," he said. "This was not one of the things I did, but it's part of my life now."

Had Valenti not chosen this route after his lung transplant, Tallent said there is no doubt he would be less mobile. "He might be the couch potato at the house," she said.

That isn't likely to happen with Valenti. He said he owes deep gratitude to the health professionals who brought him this far. And he will keep doing his part to take every advantage of the extra time.