Month: January 2012

My heart attack story in Ladies Home Journal

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 19 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

I have to admit this: it was pretty exciting to be interviewed on the subject of surviving a heart attack by magazine writer Amelia Harnish for Ladies Home Journal’s special Heart Month online edition.  You can read her article called Heartburn or Heart Attack?  – see what you think! But first, an embarrassed warning: remember when your parents wagged their fingers at you and said: “Do like I say, not like I do!”  Keep that counsel in mind when you read my heart attack story. Example: do not, under any circumstances, get into your car and drive yourself anywhere while you are experiencing heart attack symptoms.   Continue reading “My heart attack story in Ladies Home Journal” →

Take your pick: carrots, eggs or coffee beans?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 4 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas

A young woman went to her grandmother to talk about life and how things were so hard for her. It seemed that as one problem was solved, a new one that was even worse cropped up. She didn’t know how she was going to make it, and wanted to give up.

She was tired of struggling.

Her grandmother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil.

In the first she placed some carrots, in the second she placed two eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them all come to a boil, without saying a word.  Continue reading “Take your pick: carrots, eggs or coffee beans?” →

Misdiagnosis: the perils of “unwarranted certainty”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Until being misdiagnosed with indigestion in mid-heart attack, I generally trusted that all people with the letters M.D. after their names knew what they were talking about when diagnosing serious medical problems. That was long before I tracked down a study(1) reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that women under the age of 55 who are experiencing a heart attack are seven times more likely to be misdiagnosed and sent home from the E.R. compared to their male counterparts presenting with identical symptoms.

And that’s why I now find Dr. Jerome Groopman’s landmark book, How Doctors Think, so illuminating.  It should be required reading for all med school students.  Continue reading “Misdiagnosis: the perils of “unwarranted certainty”” →

How to stare down that plate of chocolate chip cookies

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

What would you do if you checked into your hotel room and found there a welcoming plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies waiting for you? I know what I’d do – I’d have a cookie. And then, because it tasted so darned good, I might eat another. And then, while I unpacked my suitcase, maybe just one more. And then, particularly if I were feeling tired or stressed or hungry, I might even say to myself: “Oh, what the heck! It’s been a hard day – and I deserve this little treat!” – and there goes the rest of that plate of cookies.

But that’s not what Dr. David Kessler decided to do when this very situation presented itself to him. As a person who had battled his own weight problems for years, he knew that he could have easily eaten all of those cookies in one gulp, but he also knew with equal certainty that he did not want to do that this time. There was only one way to gain the upper hand, and he had to act quickly.   Continue reading “How to stare down that plate of chocolate chip cookies” →