by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
The important documentary film called “A Typical Heart“ is a triumph.
It’s about the deadly disparity in diagnosis, treatment and outcomes among male and female heart patients. It packs an incredible load of unforgettable facts and quotable quotes into just 22 short minutes. . Continue reading “This documentary film pulls no punches!”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
You’ve likely heard of FOMO (the “fear of missing out”). Whenever you observe a group of friends or a family out spending time together, except every one of them is staring down at their phones – that’s a symptom of FOMO. (What if something far more important than what I’m doing now is happening out there?!?) But until recently, I hadn’t heard of the term JOMO – the joy of missing out. There’s actually a name for how I tend to live my life now. . Continue reading “#JOMO: it turns out there’s a name for my life”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
As part of our occasional “Dear Carolyn” series of personal patient perspectives shared by my readers, today I’m introducing you to Canadian heart patient, Linda Vardy, a retired high school math teacher. You might expect that Linda’s experience of undergoing triple bypass surgery at age 61 (after being told for almost a year that all of her cardiac test results were “inconclusive”) would be a dominant theme in her story – but that part is for a future post.
Ten years after her surgery, Linda was told that she now needed a pacemaker implanted. And that’s when things started going sideways. While I was reading her story, I couldn’t help wondering if Linda might have been treated differently had she been a male heart patient. Read her story and let me know what you think. . . . Continue reading “Dear Carolyn: “After 19 months of daily discomfort, my pacemaker was replaced””
I did not see this coming. I’d always thought that it would be heart disease that would do me in. A year ago, when I noticed a deep pain at the base of each thumb, I figured I must have somehow injured (both) hands at the same time. When the pain got so bad I could no longer push-and-twist open the child-proof caps on the bottles of my cardiac meds, I asked my pharmacist to use easy-open caps for my drug prescriptions from now on. It took a while before the gnarled finger joints of both hands began to swell until they now resemble those of the Wicked Witch of the West.
I remember looking at my outstretched fingers one morning and wondering, “Whose hands ARE these?” . Continue reading “When heart disease isn’t your biggest problem”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
The freshly-diagnosed hospital patient often goes from the shock of being hospitalized to the shock of being sent home before we’re feeling quite ready to return there. .
Continue reading “Goodbye, hospital. Hello, home! And other scary things.”
Looking back on what I wrote about here during 2021 was a reminder to me that, in the world of women’s heart health, I seem to be all over the map. And I rarely write about regular heart stuff like cholesterol or drugs or heart-healthy recipes (because people above my pay grade write far more efficiently elsewhere about those things!) Here, for example, are the Top 10 most-read Heart Sisters articles during this past year:
Continue reading “Top 10 most-read Heart Sisters posts from 2021”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSistersWhile binge-watching Season 4 of Grace and Frankie on Netflix the other day, I heard Frankie’s sweetheart, Jacob the Yam Man, trying to calm her down with a statement that has proven to be very true for me since my heart attack:
I think I’ll go embroider that on a pillow. . . Continue reading “You’re not always going to feel this way”
Heart Sisters 