Category: Heart Sisters

– posts here focus on general topics about women and heart disease

Year in review: top 10 Heart Sisters posts for 2011

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 5 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas

It’s that time again, when navel-gazing pundits everywhere compile their Best Of or Top 10 lists for the year that’s just about to slip away.  Same here at Heart Sisters!  So let’s take a nostalgic look backwards today at what I like to describe as this “cardiac rehab for my brain” – and why almost 280,000 people like you have visited this site since its launch.

I wish a very Happy New Year to my readers, especially to those of you who choose to share what you like here with your colleagues, families or your health care professionals, to my loyal subscribers, to those of you who have generously shared your heartfelt, inspiring and sometimes very entertaining personal comments here, and particularly to all women living with heart disease. You are not alone.

Now here’s our Top 10 list of the most widely-read Heart Sisters posts of 2011:    Continue reading “Year in review: top 10 Heart Sisters posts for 2011” →

The lost art of common courtesy in medicine

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 15 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

So I showed up for a scheduled medical test at the hospital the other day. It was one of those particularly distasteful tests that involve a full day’s prep at home choking down a range of hideous chemical cocktails, consumption of which is designed to induce explosive liquid diarrhea that requires staying very, very close to a toilet all day long. The procedure itself  on the following morning was right up there on the Creepy Disgusting Embarrassing Cringe Scale of medical experiences.

Hospital procedures like this feel invasive, uncomfortable, distressing, and revoltingly undignified for most patients. All the more reason that medical staff who administer such procedures need to start treating us like we’re more than just the nameless, faceless 10 o’clock patient in Bed 8, what I’ve previously described here as “the obstacle between them and their next coffee break, just a piece of meat on a slab – but worse, an invisible piece of meat.”

Call me crazy, but I might even go so far as to insist that patients deserve to be treated with common courtesy, and let’s start with the simple basics of saying something like:

“Hello. My name is _____ and I’ll be doing your ______  today.” Continue reading “The lost art of common courtesy in medicine” →

Why are hospital staff wearing uniforms, scrubs and white coats in public?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 14 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas

One of our big hospitals is around the corner from my local grocery store. This location is handy for hospital staff, who can pop in for groceries on their way home from a long shift. And it also makes it über-creepy for those of us who watch them leaning over the produce bins while still wearing the same bacteria-laden scrubs, white coats or uniforms they’ve been wearing at work.

Here’s why I get the heebie-jeebies at this sight.  John Gever, Senior Editor at MedPage Today, has reported recently on a study* suggesting that more than 60% of physicians’ coats and nurses’ uniforms sampled tested positive for disease-causing bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.  Continue reading “Why are hospital staff wearing uniforms, scrubs and white coats in public?” →

When a pet dies: another definition of broken heart

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 10 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

My cat Lily died in my arms last Monday evening. We were sitting around watching the hockey playoffs on TV, Lily curled up in her little wicker bed on the floor beside me. Suddenly, I heard an unusual, low-pitched “meeeooow” like I’d never heard before, a small cough, two deep sighs, and then nothing. The vet believes that “her heart just gave out” due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the most common form of heart disease in cats. Sometimes there are no signs and sudden death is the first, and last, hint of any problem. That trip to the vet was a blur. My daughter Larissa (that’s her on the left showing off Lily’s frog costume last Halloween) and my son-in-law Randy were right there with me.

Later, after a weepy final visit with my Lily in the vet’s office, we were back at home over rhubarb crisp and tea. They quietly removed Lily’s toys, food  and assorted cat stuff so I wouldn’t have to deal with them the next morning.

Let me tell you a little about my Lily. After my heart attack, I found out that owning a pet happens to be very good for heart patients.  In fact, being a cat owner could actually reduce your risk of another heart attack by nearly one-third, according to a 10-year study by researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Stroke Institute. And even having a purring cat on your lap can lower your blood pressure.

So off we headed to the local animal shelter, where we adopted the world’s cutest cat.  Continue reading “When a pet dies: another definition of broken heart” →