'Now, It's About Me'
Heart Program Helps Nurse Reclaim Her Health
LIKE MANY BUSY MOMS, LORI IMPASTATO WAS SO FOCUSED ON RAISING HER THREE CHILDREN
THAT SHE BARELY GAVE A SECOND THOUGHT TO HER OWN HEALTH.
W
hen her youngest daughter was married in May, the
59-year-old Freehold woman decided it was finally
time to take better care of herself.
"I remember thinking, 'Now, it's about me,'" she says.
She made an appointment with the Gloria Saker Women's
Heart Program at CentraState with the encouragement of
her longtime friend, Tricia Marceante, RN, MSN, APN-C, the
program's nurse practitioner. After just one visit and some
blood tests, Lori says she quickly had to confront reality—
she was on a downhill course toward poor health.
"I was overweight, my cholesterol was through the roof,
and my blood sugar was high and leaning toward diabetes,"
says Lori, a registered nurse in CentraState's Emergency
Department. "I was at a crossroads—if I didn't do anything,
Winter 2016 Healthy Directions 6
