by Carolyn Thomas ♥ Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)
After reading my recent Heart Sisters post called Finally – Some Good News, my longtime reader Kathleen left this reassuring response for me:
“I am so happy for you! Not out of the woods, but many, many more clearings and the light is brighter every day.”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel is a bio-ethicist, an oncologist, a health policy expert and a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He’s also the author of many books – including one particular title launching this week that I’ve been waiting for all my life.
It’s called: “Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules For a Long and Healthy Life“
But in a professional field like medicine, whose members repeatedly warn their patients against consuming unhealthy processed foods including (of course!) ice cream, I had to wonder:“What’s the catch?” Continue reading “Doctor’s orders I love: “Eat your ice cream!””
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)
A few years after I survived a misdiagnosed heart attack in 2008, I read a U.K. study focused on what researchers at the Institute of Social Psychology at the London School of Economics call Patient Neglect.(1) This healthcare phenomenon includes both Procedural Neglect (“failing to achieve the objective standards of patient care”) and Caring Neglect (“behaviours that lead patients and observers to believe that staff have uncaring attitudes.”) Continue reading “Caring neglect: behaviours that lead us to believe our healthcare professionals don’t care”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)
The late Yale University professor Dr. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema once described how freshly-diagnosed patients try to make sense of a medical crisis that makes no sense – in these two typical ways:
I’ve been rotating through each scenario non-stop ever since being diagnosed with the breast cancer called invasive ductal carcinoma on April 1, 2025. My treatment plan (and its brutal side effects) included chemotherapy, immunotherapy and last month’s mastectomy.
It wasn’t until this past week that my cancer doctors showed me my 3-page post-op pathology report, a blur of medical-ese jargon – except for these words:
“No residual invasive or in situ carcinoma is seen. Sentinel lymph nodes all negative for carcinoma.”
I’m not officially done at the Cancer Clinic quite yet, but I feel like I can finally take a breath now.
It was my misdiagnosed “widow-maker” heart attack back in 2008 that kick-started this Heart Sisters site, and I’ve been speaking and writing about the ongoing cardiology gender gap between male and female heart patients ever since – until April 1st of this year when I suddenly had this scary new diagnosis to worry about.
So many kind people have offered encouragement, hugs and practical help over the past eight months, including my wonderful family, friends, neighbours – and Heart Sisters readers I’ve never even met. I’m so grateful for every kindness.
Happy Christmas to all. . . ♥
.
NOTE FROM CAROLYN: I wrote much more about becoming a patient – no matter the diagnosis – in my book, “A Woman’s Guide to Living with Heart Disease”. You can ask for it at your local library or favourite bookshop, or order it online (paperback, hardcover or e-book) at Amazon – or order it directly from my publisher, Johns Hopkins University Press (use their code HTWN to save 30% off the list price).
Heart Sisters 