Category: Cardiology 101

posts here focus on a variety of topics all about the heart and how it works

Yes, doctor. Cold can make angina symptoms worse.

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 13 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky) 

On November 25th (the morning of my mastectomy), I was lying on a hospital gurney in a wide sunlit corridor, waiting to be wheeled into Operating Room #4 for surgery.  I eavesdropped on small talk from hospital staff coming and going around me who were pausing to chat with waiting patients. I was surprised when one of the random surgeons stopped alongside my gurney to say hello. I can’t recall how that brief conversation with a surgeon I did not know somehow morphed into the topic of angina symptoms, but here’s how it went. Continue reading “Yes, doctor. Cold can make angina symptoms worse.” →

Clinical “noise” in medicine: it’s not what you think

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

Noise is getting in the way of good medical practice and better patient outcomes, according to Dr. Kamran Abbasi, Editor-In-Chief of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in a recent column he called What is Clinical Noise? – and How to Silence It. But he wasn’t referring to annoying loud noises in our environment, but to unwanted distractions in medicine.
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 Dr. Abbasi illustrates that noise by picturing a dart board with darts sprayed all around the bullseye, distracting players from focusing on what matters to dart players: hitting the bullseye.  .

Continue reading “Clinical “noise” in medicine: it’s not what you think” →

Is numbness our new normal?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 5 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

“We don’t need bigger lives – we need to feel more present in the ones we already have.”

That’s how Los Angeles physician and author Dr. Alona Pulde opened her column last month in Psychology Today.

I could immediately relate while reading these words:

“We move through our routines. We do what’s expected. We check the boxes. We keep going. But over time, something inside starts to ache. It’s faint at first. Easy to ignore. We call it ‘normal’.
 Continue reading “Is numbness our new normal?” →

Words that hurt: which ones should be deleted from medicine – and why?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

I love this list. When Johns Hopkins University asked healthcare professionals to weigh in with their own lists of hurtful words that should no longer be used in patient care or medical charting, the responses were brilliant and thoughtful. Dr. Colleen Christmas, who teaches at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has this to say on why words matter so much to the patients hearing them.

“”Our medical language is filled with negativity and dehumanization.”

Here are some of my favourite examples of widely-used words that healthcare professionals themselves wish would go away – along with the thoughtful reasons these words can hurt patients (with thanks to the JHU Lifelong Learning in Clinical Excellence program):      .
Continue reading “Words that hurt: which ones should be deleted from medicine – and why?” →