– posts here focus on the often overlooked emotional impact of having a cardiac event
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
It was such a pleasure to be invited to do this February interview with award-winning pharmacist and brilliant science communicator Lindsay Dixon – our second Heart Month chat together for her Friendly Pharmacy 5 YouTube channel. . Continue reading “Heart Month 2024: my interview with Lindsay Dixon”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
My family tells me I’m “impossible” when it comes to picking out a gift for me. I am rarely able to offer them even a single helpful hint. Instead, I plead with Santa every year not to bring me “more stuff”. I don’t want stuff. One only has to visit the average yard sale to witness the inevitable future graveyard of all that stuff. Aside from absolute necessities of life (like groceries or my paper crafting supplies), there are few things I now need or even want.
Well, there are some things that I do need and want, but none come from a store or a gift box. I’ve been focused mainly on one such wish list item these days: feeling safe. (Are you listening, Santa?) Continue reading “What this heart patient wants for Christmas is NOT in a gift box. . .””
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
Have you ever had the same nightmare more than once about the same impossibly unlikely scenario? My own recurring nightmare: I’m walking into Mrs. Webster’s Grade 13 math class (Ontario high schools went up to Grade 13 in those days). I’m about to write my final math exam – until I suddenly remember that I’ve somehow forgotten to go to math class – ALL YEAR!
That’s the kind of dream described as “Kafka-esque”, named for the writer Franz Kafka. Dr. David Pickus explains that word:
It also struck me that this“strange interruption of everyday life” is precisely how hearing an “inexplicably bad” medical diagnosis so often feels. Continue reading “The word ‘Kafka-esque’ means nightmarish or strange – like a frightening new diagnosis”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
Many years ago, when I worked in corporate public relations, I was on a plane at least two mornings a week, flying off to Very Important Meetings with Very Important People to discuss their Very Important Projects. At the Vancouver airport bookshop one day, I picked up what I thought would be just the perfect thing for somebody as busy as I was: an audiobook of one of those ‘Ten Best Business Books Condensed’. What a great idea! I could save time cramming the Ten Best Business Books into my overstuffed brain while driving out to the airport and back!
But something hit me – a “Eureka!” moment, somewhere between Total Quality Management and Seven Habits:
Heart Sisters 