Author: Carolyn Thomas

Let’s pretend that atypical heart attack symptoms don’t exist

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 33 Comments
by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters  

Two cardiology reports landed in my inbox on the same day this past week, in the  same issue of the same cardiology journal. The first was a Yale University study on how women, particularly women younger than age 55, fare worse after surviving a heart attack compared to male counterparts, partly because of a tendency to present with vague or atypical symptoms that can delay accurate diagnoses.(1) The second was about the future of the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women® campaign.(2)*   Both papers were published in the journal, Circulation.

The trouble was this: each report seemed to contradict the other. Continue reading “Let’s pretend that atypical heart attack symptoms don’t exist” →

Good news: your story is not yet locked in

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 16 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters 

I’ve been thinking about storytelling lately. I encounter a lot of patient stories from my Heart Sisters blog readers here, as well as from the women who raise a hand during my Heart-Smart Women public presentations. (I’ve learned that even the briefest of questions often hides a story behind it). I also tell stories – both my own, and other women’s. A heart patient’s story often kicks off with a profound this-can’t-be-happening-to-me sense of disbelief as we try to make sense out of something that makes no sense at all. Telling the story to others helps us do this at first. “How did this happen?” demand our worried family and friends while we lie there, overwhelmed – and thus our storytelling begins.

I’ve also learned that the way we tell that same story to ourselves and to others changes over time. And as NPR broadcaster Glynn Washington (of Snap Judgment) said in a recent interview, when you start changing your story, you change the storyteller:  Continue reading “Good news: your story is not yet locked in” →

Can’t wait to start reading my book? Here’s Chapter 1!

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 23 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters 

February is Heart Month, so here’s a Heart Month bonus for you! You can now read the full transcript of Chapter 1 of “A Woman’s Guide to Living with Heart Disease“  (Johns Hopkins University Press). I’m thrilled to say that my book is already in its second printing of both hardcover and paperback editions. Thank you, darling readers!  Here’s Chapter 1, and here’s how to buy your own copy to read the other nine chapters – and, of course, the gorgeous foreword written by cardiologist Dr. Martha Gulati. ♥ Continue reading “Can’t wait to start reading my book? Here’s Chapter 1!” →

Same heart attack, same misdiagnosis – but one big difference

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 37 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Our two stories are freakishly the same in so many ways:

♥ In 58-year old Nancy Bradley’s story, she went to the Emergency Department at the Royal Inland Hospital near her home in Kamloops as soon as she felt alarming symptoms she knew might be heart-related: dizziness, sweating, shortness of breath and “an elephant sitting on my chest” feeling. (In my story, I was 58 as well, and I went to Emergency at the Royal Jubilee Hospital near my home in Victoria as soon as my own alarming heart attack symptoms started).

♥ All of Nancy’s cardiac diagnostic tests seemed to be “normal”. (All of my diagnostic tests seemed to be “normal”, too).

♥ Nancy’s Emergency physician suspected heartburn, and suggested she take antacid drugs. (My Emergency physician suspected heartburn, and suggested that I take antacids).  Continue reading “Same heart attack, same misdiagnosis – but one big difference” →