Author: Carolyn Thomas

Stress test vs flipping a coin: which is more accurate?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 97 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

You may not have any signs or symptoms of coronary artery disease while you are just sitting there quietly reading this post. In fact, your symptoms may occur only during exertion, as narrowed arteries struggle to carry enough blood to feed a heart muscle that’s screaming for oxygen under increased demand. Enter the diagnostic stress test, used to mimic the cardiac effects of exercise to assess your risk of coronary artery disease.

During stress testing, you exercise (walk/run on a treadmill or pedal a stationary bike) to make your heart work harder and beat faster.  An EKG (also called ECG) is recorded while you exercise to monitor any abnormal changes in your heart under stress, with or without the aid of medications to enhance this effect.

But consider this blunt warning from Dr. Kevin Klauer:   Continue reading “Stress test vs flipping a coin: which is more accurate?” →

Eileen’s story: “When my surgeon opened up my heart, my artery disintegrated”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ Leave a comment

♥  It’s Heart Month!  ♥

Watch and learn, ladies: This is the Eileen Williams Story  (2:38)

from The Heart Truth: National Heart, Blood & Lung Institute

Q: What have you done to help your own heart this month?

Carolyn’s Note, Monday, April 3, 2017:

I am very sad to learn today of Eileen’s death. She attended the WomenHeart Science & Leadership Symposium at Mayo Clinic in 2005, three years before I did.  Eileen was extremely active in her community, touching an immeasurable amount of lives with her wonderful humour and spirit.

Eileen worked 32 years with the Arlington County Police Department. She was an EMS Chief and Paramedic for the Buckhall Volunteer Fire Department, and was instrumental in launching a program with three fire departments in Prince William County to provide HeartScarves to women heart patients in their ambulances. As an EMT instructor, she delivered many WomenHeart@Work heart health presentations to paramedics, 911 operators and social service representatives. In 2015, Eileen was presented the Healthcare Heroine Award by the March of Dimes for her work as a trainer with Training 911 Inc. 

Rest in peace, my dear heart sister . . . ♥

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Jennifer’s story: her heart attack at age 36 “smacked her with her own mortality”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

♥  It’s Heart Month!  ♥

Watch and learn, ladies: This is Jennifer’s Story (2:25)

from The Heart Truth: National Heart, Blood & Lung Institute

See more of Jennifer Donelan’s story here or here, about surviving Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD).

♥

Q: What are YOU doing to help your own heart this month?

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Can it be two years since my mother’s death?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 12 Comments
Two years ago today, I wrote this essay on the morning my mother died:

Rest in peace, Mom.

Joan Zaruk  ♥  May 7, 1928 – February 21, 2012

At 5 a.m. this morning, after hearing the news on the phone, I reread the chapter called When Your Mother Dies, in Rona Maynard’s wonderful book, My Mother’s Daughter:

“Baby showers herald the transition to motherhood. Roses, greeting cards and invitations to lunch celebrate mothers every May. Yet, despite our culture’s motherhood mystique, no rituals mark the psychological journey we daughters begin when our mothers die.   Continue reading “Can it be two years since my mother’s death?” →