Author: Carolyn Thomas

Hello pacers! A little Q&A about your pacemaker

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 180 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Here at Heart Sisters World Headquarters, I’m often contacted by readers with impertinent questions like: “Why don’t you ever write about ______?” (insert your own specific diagnosis here). One in particular was a 2015 reader question that read: “Why don’t you ever write about congenital heart defects?” On that particular morning, I was feeling tired, sick and “grumpy” (as our little Everly Rose calls every feeling she has that’s not happy). I wanted to snap back at this reader that I’m not running the Encyclopedia Britannica here. . .

But in a remarkable coincidence – and luckily before I had a chance to snap – on that very day, another reader named Aletha happened to share with me her own amazing story as an adult living with a heart condition she’d had since birth. That weekend, I ran my first ever blog post about this cardiac condition, called “When babies with congenital heart defects grow up“. 

And recently, a similar reader contact reminded me that I’ve never covered the topic of cardiac pacemakers – until now. Continue reading “Hello pacers! A little Q&A about your pacemaker” →

But what about the men?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

The irreverent Laura Haywood-Cory of North Carolina is, like me, a heart attack survivor and, also like me, a graduate of Mayo Clinic’s annual WomenHeart Science & Leadership Symposium for Women With Heart Disease in Rochester, Minnesota (where she’s also attended the Mayo Clinic Social Media Summit, too!)

Her own dramatic heart story is that of a terrifying condition usually seen in young, healthy women with few if any known cardiac risk factors: Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection or SCAD. I’m happy to say she has been making a heroic effort to beat this sucker into the ground; after surviving her heart attack at age 40, Laura completed the Chapel Hill Ramblin’ Rose Triathlon. But it’s her unique take on a surprisingly frequent response to women’s heart disease that I want to share with you today.  Laura wrote: Continue reading “But what about the men?” →

The Physician’s Pledge gets some bold new wording

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Fanfare, please. The World Medical Association has released a revised version of what’s known as The Physician’s Pledge (1) as outlined in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). It’s described as “the contemporary successor to the 2,500-year-old Hippocratic Oath”. And although only about 11% of medical schools still use the ancient “do no harm” Hippocratic version, oath-taking is still an important part of most med school training.(2)

But if you’re a patient instead of a physician, there are some surprises in this revised WMA document just for you. Continue reading “The Physician’s Pledge gets some bold new wording” →

Hair loss and heart meds

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 47 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

Did you know that most of us normally shed 50 to 100 hairs a day from our heads? According to Mayo Clinic experts, this usually doesn’t cause noticeable thinning of our scalp hair, however, because new hair is growing in at the same time. Hair loss actually occurs when this cycle of hair growth and shedding is disrupted for some reason. It’s thought to be related to one or more factors like family history, hormonal changes, medical conditions or medications.

It was this last factor that caught my attention.  I read recently about a list of medications commonly prescribed to heart patients that may also be linked to the distressing side effect of hair loss – especially since I’ve been noticing with some alarm that my own hair seems to be thinning at a scary rate! Continue reading “Hair loss and heart meds” →