by Carolyn Thomas ♥ Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)
Even as a fairly new breast cancer patient (diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma on April 1st, 2025), I knew I’d likely choose quality of life (QoL) over length of life (LoL) after my diagnosis. Continue reading “Quality of Life vs. Length of Life? Pick One.”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)
I recently quoted an editorial in The Lancet (a medical journal that’s been publishing for over 200 years). The editors were revisiting a subject that’s been niggling at me – and apparently many other patients – namely words matter in health care – especially blame-ridden language, whichThe Lancet describes as “pervasive throughout medicine.”(1) And just this week, coincidentally, I experienced a bizarre phone conversation with a breast cancer nurse (who reminded me firsthand just how pervasive blame-the-patient attitudes can be). Continue reading “Are you “managing” your worst symptoms?”
Carolyn Thomas ♥ Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)
When I was a little girl, my Auntie Jean gave my mother (her older sister) a decorative wall plaque engraved with a lovely poem called “To My Sister”. Over the years, my own sister Catherine and I memorized that poem on the wall plaque. That’s us in the picture above (she’s the one torturing the head of her little dolly). Over time, the two of us learned to rattle off the entire poem together upon request – a fun party trick, according to our parents. And when we were older, we even recreated the original plaque using macaroni letters – because a beautiful poem about sisters deserves that extra-special artistic flare, doesn’t it? We did, however, take some liberties with spelling out our macaroni letters – because we thought the poet’s words should rhyme better. Continue reading “In praise of sisterly support”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)
“Havoc” /hævək/ Oxford Dictionary definition: “a situation in which things are seriously damaged, destroyed or confused.”
October is officially Breast Cancer Awareness Month – and this month, it’s also my first time as a person diagnosed with malignant breast cancer. So I’m feeling more aware of breast cancer than I’ve ever been. (Think: six rounds of chemotherapy, 11 more scheduled rounds of immunotherapy infusions, countless scans, blood tests, oncology consults, a port surgically implanted in my chest, plus the mastectomy booked for November 25th. Oh, joy. . .) And I’m telling you right now, enduring chemo side effects has been even more brutal and debilitating than I could have imagined, a genuine quality-of-life nightmare in action. The powerful chemo drugs that are pretty effective at killing off fast-growing cancer cells are the same drugs that are also killing off my healthy cells, wreaking havoc on my body now and perhaps for months or even years to come. Buckle up, buttercup. . .
Heart Sisters 