Category: Health care

Are you one of the “Top Grateful Patients” at your hospital?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 18 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

Those heartbreaking fundraising ads with tiny cancer patients or neglected puppies beg us to send in our $19 per month donations right away. Each ad tugs at our hearts and wallets. Donors tend to fund what we love (puppies) or what we fear (cancer).

And in healthcare settings, hospitals are competing for scarce donor dollars. Many hospital fundraisers have learned that one way to get help with the heavy lifting of a major campaign involves identifying specific people who are known as the hospital’s Top Grateful Patients.   Yes. Seriously. . . Continue reading “Are you one of the “Top Grateful Patients” at your hospital?” →

Dear Valued Patient: “Bye-Bye!”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 15 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥    @HeartSisters

“Dear Valued Patient. . .” 

I opened the envelope, unfolded the letter inside – and stopped breathing. I’ve known this day would come ever since my family doctor had to start working part-time a few years ago for family reasons. But still, I could barely comprehend the blur of words on the page: 

“Dear Valued Patient. . .retiring from active practice. . .my last day will be . . .”

It had finally happened to me. Just like that, I’d joined the endless line-up of almost one million people here in British Columbia who do not have a family doctor.       Continue reading “Dear Valued Patient: “Bye-Bye!”” →

“What? So what? Now what?” Self-reflection for the new heart patient

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 13 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters  

For weeks following hospital discharge after my “widow maker” heart attack, I kept forcing a “Fine, just fine!” smile when around others each day, desperately trying to make sense out of a cardiac diagnosis so shocking that it made no sense to me. What I later learned was that sense-making turns out to be a remarkably common early response to a serious medical crisis.     Continue reading ““What? So what? Now what?” Self-reflection for the new heart patient” →

Say what? Heart disease and hearing loss

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 22 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

During a recent appointment for my first ever hearing test, I was asked (among many other tests) to repeat the words I heard the audiologist saying through my earphones, one after another.  I heard “ache” when the word was actually “ate”,  “lull” instead of “low”, “if” instead of “it”. My answers revealed what audiologists call a “loss of consonant clarity”.  Too bad so many words have consonants in them.

The audiologist also mentioned a link between hearing loss and heart disease. In fact, researchers have confirmed that the risk of age-related hearing loss generally increases as a person’s cardiac risk load increases.  Continue reading “Say what? Heart disease and hearing loss” →