by Carolyn Thomas ♥ Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)
Crying is a natural and effective way to relieve stress by releasing stress hormones like cortisol, triggering feel-good endorphins and oxytocin, activating the body’s calming parasympathetic nervous system, and helping to restore emotional balance, leading to a sense of relief and improved mood. It acts as a safety valve for overwhelming emotions, helping you process difficult feelings rather than bottling them up, which can be detrimental to your health. (Cleveland Clinic Health Library)
I was relieved to learn about all those health benefits of crying, because I’d just spent an entire appointment at the Urgent Care Clinic, silently weeping uncontrollably.
But I wasn’t crying that evening because I was scared or in pain. – continue to page 2 (below):
Heart Sisters 
Dear Carolyn,
what terrible pains you have to bear. I am so sorry for you. I have never heard of such side efects after chemo therapy. You must be a very strong person.
In the hospital they usually do not like crying patients. After my triple bypass 1983 I was sent to rehabilitation. Having been there one week (I should stay there 6 weeks) I got yellow eyes (hepatitis C from the blood transfusion) and was brought into the nearest hospital, where they wanted to keep me in an isolation room for several weeks. After one week, I cried to get to a hospital near our home. The doctor of the ward did not want to do that. To my luck, the doctor was changed after a week. He accepted my demand. It was the only situation where I have cried in the hospital.
But I must cry, too, if a nurse or doctor is kind to me. It is so seldom.
All the best for you.
Mirjami
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Carolyn,
I’m sorry that you are suffering so much through cancer treatment. There seems to be an unlimited amount of suffering involved with aging. Happy to hear that you had a caring, empathetic doctor as that can have such a positive impact on how one deals with things psychologically.
Sandy S.
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Hello Sandy – you are so right: meeting that caring empathetic doctor at the Urgent Care Clinic helped immensely to restore my faith and trust in the medical profession – ironically while I was comparing his communication skills to many of the doctors and nurses I’d already encountered. Some were great, of course, but I was stunned by the behaviour of so many others. I had started to believe that ALL doctors these days are dismissive or uncaring – which I know now is not true because I have personal evidence of that one amazing person. One of my Nuclear Medicine Heart Scan techs excused the rudeness of her colleague’s dismissive communication with me by saying “Oh, maybe he was having a bad day?” It’s easier for her to dismiss my story than his. I responded to her: “Do you know who’s having a bad day? HIS PATIENTS!”
Thanks for your perspective on positive impacts in medicine. . . ❤️
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Oh Honey, cry away! You deserve a little release after all this crap. It sounds like you’re handling the horror a lot better than many would. The family support sounds stellar too. Delighted to have the emailed blog back.
Thank you for doing it in the midst of all this.
Now go and have a good cry!
Big cyber hug…
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Good morning Deborah – thanks so much for your kind words. This emailed blog today might be my last – I found it mostly finished in my ‘draft’ folder and decided to see if WordPress (my blog host that has “updated” its editing feature in a way that’s impossible to navigate now) would allow me to publish this. It seems to have allowed half of the post. . I may be starting a new blog that isn’t WordPress this summer. Stay tuned… Arrrrgh. I hope you are doing well and enjoying this spring weather!❤️
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Dear Carolyn,
I am so sad to hear about these terrible side effects you are suffering. And so sorry that an act of kindness made you cry, the world must seem so unfair right now.
Go ahead and cry as much as you want to, and good for you.
I practice crying therapy regularly 🙂 and then I can get up and put one foot in front of the other again.
I will keep you in my thoughts.
Lauren Williams
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Oh, Carolyn! I’m so sorry you have to go through that. You deserve all the comfort you can get, be it from crying, hugs, or chocolate.
Wishing all these passes soon.
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Hello Margarita and thanks for your kindness. I’m looking forward to hugs, chocolate and yes, crying when it’s the only thing left to do!
hugs to you,
Carolyn ❤️
PS – To my Heart Sisters readers: Learn more about Margarita’s amazing heart transplant story, described in poetry here.
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