Category: Heart Sisters

Small kindness – big impact

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 4 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky) 

A study published by Swiss researchers suggests that a culture of kindness in health care has a positive impact on healthcare organizations, healthcare staff, and – best of all! –  patients.(1)  If we’re very lucky, many of us already know those benefits because of our lived experience with kind healthcare professionals. One of my own favourite examples of a small kindness that left a huge impression was the cardiac nurse who trotted alongside my hospital gurney – from the Emergency Department to the elevator taking us up to the cardiac cath lab during my 2008 heart attack – with her hand gently resting on my shoulder all the way. She assured me: “You’re in the right place now. We’re going to take good care of you.”  If only every hospital patient was greeted that way. Continue reading “Small kindness – big impact” →

Everything happens for a reason – or does it?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 7 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas     ♥    Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky) 

I’m inhaling a terrific book this week, page by page, line by line – and I’m enthusiastically recommending this funny, heartbreaking, important book to anybody who has ever faced a serious diagnosis (no matter the medical condition).  The author is Kate Bowler and this book is called “Everything Happens for a Reason – And Other Lies I’ve Loved.”   

Kate turns out to be the perfect person to write a book with that kind of in-your-face title. At the time, she was a professor at Duke University’s Divinity School, specializing in the study of what’s known as the Prosperity Gospel. This is a creed that sees our good fortune as a blessing from God, but sees misfortune as a mark of God’s disapproval. Kate now calls this creed “a branch of Christianity that promises a cure for tragedy.”     .
Continue reading “Everything happens for a reason – or does it?” →

In praise of sisterly support

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 1 Comment


Carolyn Thomas     ♥    Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky) 

 

When I was a little girl, my Auntie Jean gave my mother (her older sister) a decorative wall plaque engraved with a lovely poem called “To My Sister”.  Over the years, my own sister Catherine and I memorized that poem on the wall plaque. That’s us in the picture above (she’s the one torturing the head of her little dolly). Over time, the two of us learned to rattle off the entire poem together upon request – a fun party trick, according to our parents. And when we were older, we even recreated the original plaque using macaroni letters – because a beautiful poem about sisters deserves that extra-special artistic flare, doesn’t it? We did, however, take some liberties with spelling out our macaroni letters – because we thought the poet’s words should rhyme better.    Continue reading “In praise of sisterly support” →

Why you should not yell at cancer patients

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 13 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas     ♥    Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

I know this sounds horrible, but there are some people working in health care who need to be told this basic communication rule: “Don’t yell at cancer patients!”  I first learned the importance of that rule when my phone rang one sunny morning in May and the anonymous caller told me to show up tomorrow morning in the Chemo Room at our Cancer Clinic for my first chemotherapy appointment. I didn’t know much about chemo at that time, but what I did know were these three must-do steps I had not done yet: Continue reading “Why you should not yell at cancer patients” →