by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
Before surviving a heart attack in 2008, I never gave my heart more than a passing thought (except maybe when slogging up that brutal Quadra Street hill with my running group on our way back to the Y). But after my heart attack and accompanying shock, disbelief, grief and anger, I became just a wee bit obsessed. I threw myself into boning up on women’s symptoms, risk factors, diagnostics, treatments and emerging cardiac research as if I were cramming for some kind of imminent cardiology midterm.
I applied to attend the annual WomenHeart Science & Leadership Symposium for Women With Heart Disease at Mayo Clinic – and then became the first Canadian ever accepted. I subscribed to daily cardiology bulletins and physicians’ news feeds. I launched this blog, Heart Sisters, and have written 380+ articles here so far. I’ve given presentations about women’s heart health to thousands of people. And I even applied for media accreditation so I could interview cardiac researchers attending the 64th annual Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Vancouver last fall. I find this subject irresistibly compelling, and am almost insufferably preoccupied with All Things Cardiac.
Just recently, I came across a term that seems to capture the kind of person I’ve become, post-heart attack: an “information flâneur”. Or, more appropriately, a flâneuse, the female version of this affliction. Continue reading
Jennifer Donelan
Not since I was a teenager having my wisdom teeth surgically removed with the aid of that luscious nitrous oxide laughing gas have I floated home from a dental appointment feeling so exhilarated. Because yesterday, I took a personal stand against rudeness and disrespect in the delivery of my own health care.
When I was sent home from the Emergency Department with a misdiagnosis of acid reflux, I felt 
I’ve heard it said that some people experience a loss of appetite during stressful times like a death in the family. These people are not my relatives. Indeed, in our Ukrainian family tradition, we eat when we’re happy, we eat when we’re upset, and we eat during all possible emotions in between.
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