Best holiday gift ideas for heart patients

gingerbread-man-3000526_1280 copy by Carolyn Thomas ♥ Heart Sisters on Blue Sky

Just 24 more days to go before Santa slides down our chimneys! If you need some inspiration for a special heart patient on your gift list – for Christmas or any other occasion – this is for you. Personally, I’m not hoping for any more “stuff” this season (except maybe a new electric heating pad from Santa, hint, hint). So I decided to turn to my always generous-of-spirit heart sisters to ask other women living with heart disease: “What’s on your own Christmas wish list this year?” Here are some of their creative responses (please add your own wish list favourite in the Comments section at the end!) – and thanks to all of you who offered these great ideas:

♥ I’d love a gift certificate for a relaxing massage.

♥ A good quality blood pressure monitor for tracking blood pressure at home

♥ A gift card to a local pharmacy

♥ A monogrammed pillbox in a favourite colour

♥ The ever-popular nitro pill necklace – I always wanted to bedazzle one to make it pretty!

♥ Bonnie Stern’s Best of HeartSmart Cooking – or (Carolyn’s pick!) Cheryl Strachan’s beautiful 30-Minute Heart Healthy Cookbook

♥ I always ask for workout clothes. I can do anything better if I have new clothes to do it in! Also, new athletic shoes.

♥ Some nice blank notecards with a heart motif so I can hand out thank you notes for all the nice gifts I’ll be getting after Santa sees this wish list!

♥ A Medic Alert bracelet/necklace gift certificate, or (Carolyn’s pick!) the colourful silicone wrist bands from Road ID – (on mine, I have my name, heart condition and In-Case-Of-Emergency names/contact info engraved). See also: Why Aren’t You Wearing Your Medical I.D.?

♥ I have actually asked my folks to help me pay for my cardiac rehabilitation classes; this is a real need for me right now, so I’m asking that any money for Christmas gifts go toward my rehab fund instead. (Years ago I never would have asked for something like this!!!)

♥ Cooking classes – another great idea to help us make great heart-healthy food.

♥ A zipper so they can stop cutting!!! (an in-joke among repeat open heart surgery patients in the “Zipper Club”)

♥ Post-it notes so I can write down ideas, tasks & messages and leave them around our apartment for when my mind evicts them, so I can figure out where I’m supposed to be or what I’m supposed to be doing!

♥ How about a pretty red dress or red blouse or red scarf to help me celebrate Heart Month in February?

♥ I just found the dreamiest silky soft pashmina scarf: creamy white, light weight and feels so warm and cozy. too. Pashminas can be dressed up or down, worn loosely or folded in half before draping. As a heart girl with cold weather angina, I love lightly covering my chest with the protection of a scarf “that doesn’t make me look sick”.

♥ A cleaning lady who cleans and helps with decorating (mine put the tree up for me)

♥ Taxi vouchers so I don’t have to drive in winter weather!

♥ Lunch out with all the family during the holiday so no one has to cook or clean, just enjoy our time together before they have to go back to their corners of the world

♥ A new family photo (with a professional photographer!)

♥ What I would like this Christmas is time with my family, a hug and kiss from each of them. To me these things are priceless and don’t cost a thing. Health and happiness have no price tag. Take time to tell your family and friends that you love them. Maybe peace on earth would be a good thing too.

♥ Finally (a shameless promotion!): My book A Woman’s Guide to Living with Heart Disease (published by Johns Hopkins University Press). It reads like the Best Of my 900+ Heart Sisters articles. You can ask for it at your favourite bookshop (please support your local independent booksellers!) or find it online (paperback, hardcover or e-book) at Amazon, or order it directly from my publisher (use their code HTWN to save 30% off the list price).

♥

BONUS TIP: Looking for a low-stress heart-healthy holiday brunch recipe for your family over the holidays? Try this high-protein/low sodium/so delicious Blueberry Almond Overnight French Toast from Eating Well that you can whip up the night before.

ANOTHER BONUS TIP: If you or somebody you know has been recently diagnosed with heart disease, visit the WomenHeart Connect online support community (it’s free, open 24/7, has thousands of female members worldwide living with a a wide range of cardiac diagnoses – and was a lifesaver for me, especially in the early days and weeks after my own heart attack.