Category: Cardiology 101

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

Habituation: “Give me a pain that I’m used to!”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 7 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

When I first read about a pain study called “Give Me a Pain That I Am Used To”, it made perfect sense to me.1  Published in the journal Nature: Science Reports, this came out about the same time I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis a couple of years ago – which I did NOT see coming.  Ironically, breathtakingly painful arthritis symptoms (starting in my left knee and right hand at that time) felt far more debilitating to me than the daily chest pain of refractory angina I’d been living with since my 2008 heart attack.

This may seem counter-intuitive. We know that chest pain can be a dangerous and even deadly symptom. Knee and wrist pain is rarely if ever fatal! It occurred to me that maybe I was feeling extremely distressed by my new arthritis symptoms because I’d simply not yet become habituated to the new pain in the way I’d already become habituated to my longstanding cardiac pain. Continue reading “Habituation: “Give me a pain that I’m used to!”” →

Cardiac College for (Freshly Diagnosed) Women: “Your heart is like a house”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 11 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

I typically spend about one hour per year checking in with my wonderful cardiologist (barring setbacks that may send me back into the hospital) but like many/most heart patients, I spend 8,765 hours per year managing the day-to-day reality of cardiac symptoms, concerns and meds on my own.

I learned long ago while participating in my free Pain Self-Management classes (thank you Canada, commie-pinko land of socialized medicine!) that I needed a basic understanding of how the heart functions – not a medical-jargon-med-school-textbook-understanding, but a solid patient-friendly one.  I wish I’d had this helpful and jargon-free overview back then describing the heart-as-a-house – from the Toronto-based resource (more free stuff!) called Cardiac College for Women.  For example:     . Continue reading “Cardiac College for (Freshly Diagnosed) Women: “Your heart is like a house”” →

Cardiac research: more fun facts

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Do you have a book in your life that you keep opening just for the pure delight of reading it again? I am that obsessed with the book called The Exquisite Machine:  The New Science of the Heart, published by MIT Press. In fact, I keep this book beside my favourite red chair so it’s always handy for re-reading random chapters. I’ve been doing this ever since veteran cardiac researcher Dr. Sian Harding wrote the book in 2022, and I can also say I haven’t felt this way about other books I love.  So I can’t resist sharing with you some fun facts about our hearts and the research I’ve learned about from Dr. Harding’s work:    . Continue reading “Cardiac research: more fun facts” →

What I learned from writing my most-read ‘Heart Sisters’ articles in 2023

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 17 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters  

Five months after my heart attack, I attended the 2008 WomenHeart Science & Leadership patient advocacy training at Mayo Clinic – the first Canadian heart patient ever accepted. I learned so much from my 44 American heart sisters – ages 31 to 71 – who also attended that year, and of course from our rock-star faculty of female cardiologists from Mayo and beyond, brilliantly led by the one and only founder of the Mayo Women’s Heart Clinic, Dr. Sharonne Hayes.♥  When I returned home and started writing and speaking about what I’d just learned at Mayo, my public relations friends teased me: “This is what happens when a PR person survives a heart attack: you just keep writing, speaking and looking stuff up – because that’s all you know how to do!”  And they were so right! Here’s my annual overview of what I’ve been learning while writing some of the most-read posts this past year:         .     Continue reading “What I learned from writing my most-read ‘Heart Sisters’ articles in 2023” →