Category: Heart Sisters

Bucket Lists: do heart patients need them?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 15 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

Since my heart attack in 2008, I’ve been asked on occasion by friends and family (and even people who barely know me) if I now have a “Bucket List” – that Hollywood invention of the wonderful list of important-sounding things we must do before we kick the bucket. Nothing like a medical crisis, it seems, to remind us that life is short, and to shock us into re-examining our priority lists before we head off to that great Coronary Care Unit in the sky. Continue reading “Bucket Lists: do heart patients need them?” →

#JOMO: it turns out there’s a name for my life

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 11 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

You’ve likely heard of FOMO (the “fear of missing out”). Whenever you observe a group of friends or a family out spending time together, except every one of them is staring down at their phones – that’s a symptom of FOMO.  (What if something far more important than what I’m doing now is happening out there?!?)  But until recently, I hadn’t heard of the term JOMO – the joy of missing out. There’s actually a name for how I tend to live my life now.             . Continue reading “#JOMO: it turns out there’s a name for my life” →

When heart disease isn’t your biggest problem

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 21 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters  

I did not see this coming.   I’d always thought that it would be heart disease that would do me in.  A year ago, when I noticed a deep pain at the base of each thumb, I figured I must have somehow injured (both) hands at the same time. When the pain got so bad I could no longer push-and-twist open the child-proof caps on the bottles of my cardiac meds, I asked my pharmacist to use easy-open caps for my drug prescriptions from now on. It took a while before the gnarled finger joints of both hands began to swell until mine now resemble those of the Wicked Witch of the West.

I remember looking at my outstretched fingers one morning and wondering, “Whose hands ARE these?”       .    Continue reading “When heart disease isn’t your biggest problem” →

Revisiting: “All I want for Christmas is NOT in a gift box”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 21 Comments

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 them most years not to buy 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. Bread machines. Chia pets. Exercise bikes. Candles. Aside from absolute necessities of life (like groceries or my paper crafting supplies), there are few things I now need or want.

Well, there are things I need and want, but hardly any of them come from a store or in gift boxes. I made a list of these last December. Let’s revisit that list to see if Santa was paying attention.        Continue reading “Revisiting: “All I want for Christmas is NOT in a gift box”” →