by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
I’ve come to learn that a common reaction to a heart attack is others’ utter shock that this could happen to “YOU, OF ALL PEOPLE!” Women in particular report reactions like this because, generally speaking, we’re used to being the strong glue that holds our family life and relationships together.
How dare we get sick. . . . . . Continue reading “How could YOU – of all people! – have a heart attack?”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
“ I wasn’t short of breath, or dripping with sweat. I had chest pain WITHOUT left shoulder/jaw/arm symptoms or any other signs of illness. I attributed my chest pain to stress.”
This recent Twitter comment from a nurse about her own heart attack raises an important concern: have we done such a good job of warning women about freakishly weird non-chest pain heart attack symptoms that we no longer believe it’s really a heart attack unless we also have vague symptoms in a dozen other body parts? . . Continue reading “Heart attack symptoms: what women expect vs. what we get”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
Shortly after I was freshly diagnosed with coronary microvascular disease (MVD), one of my readers told me that, for the past 12 years, she too had been living with MVD after surviving her own “widow maker heart attack”, just as I had. Immediately picturing the future prospect of somehow coping with ongoing bouts of exhaustion, shortness of breath and debilitating chest pain, my surprising gut reaction was:
“12 years!? TWELVE YEARS?!?!?! I can’t do this!”
Well, Happy Heart-iversary to me: on May 6th this week, exactly 13 years have passed since my initially misdiagnosed heart attack was finally correctly diagnosed and appropriately treated, but even more amazing to me, I’ve now lived with MVD for 12 of those 13 years. . . Continue reading “When we expect to die, but don’t”
Heart Sisters 