Category: Health care

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?” →

This is much more than a hospital waiting room

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 15 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

I wrote last week about the overwhelming experience I’d just had in the Breast Imaging Clinic at our local hospital. I was there for a mammogram because I’d recently found a lump in my right breast. Something suspicious was spotted on that mammogram, so an ultrasound was immediately next in line. Then something even more suspicious was spotted on the ultrasound, which prompted the radiologist who reviewed my tests to announce that I needed a biopsy to rule out breast cancer. (FYI: I’ll likely learn my pathology results on Tuesday).  UPDATE:  The “not wonderful” new diagnosis I didn’t see coming

But what I didn’t mention last week was something I’ve been thinking about since that day – which was my shocked reaction to spending time in the Breast Imaging Clinic waiting room – but not for the reasons you might expect:   Continue reading “This is much more than a hospital waiting room” →

Waiting, worrying and medical test results. . .

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 28 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

 About a week ago, in the shower, I felt a lump in my right breast.

Coincidentally, I’d already had a similar experience decades earlier in my mid-30s (a lump – same breast, same spot – also discovered while showering). The lump was surgically removed under general anaesthesia – a procedure called at the time a quadrant resection.  I was a wreck back then. I was worried sick. I felt so frightened. I cried. A lot!  Luckily, the final pathology report at the time described that lump as a “benign mass” (meaning: non-cancerous).

All that stressful pre-op worry – over a benign mass.      Continue reading “Waiting, worrying and medical test results. . .” →

Do heart patients suffer more during a cold – or does it just feel that way?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 11 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

When people like me (i.e. living with heart disease) catch a cold or flu bug, do we feel sicker longer, compared to people who don’t have heart disease – or does it just feel that way? Asking for a friend. . .

Continue reading “Do heart patients suffer more during a cold – or does it just feel that way?” →