Category: Heart Sisters

My video interview with Connie Jorsvik: The “Patient Pathways” workshop

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  Heart Sisters on Blue Sky

I love how former cardiac nurse-turned-independent Patient Navigator Connie Jorsvik introduced our recent online conversation about women, heart disease and serious illness that was broadcast on her Patient Pathways website. Connie began with this profoundly true observation:

“When I was a cardiac nurse, it always seemed like more women than men were admitted after Christmas. Often, these women had been experiencing cardiac symptoms for days – and even weeks. Women tend to put off seeking treatment because we so often put ourselves last on our priority list – and there is no  bigger time for everyone else’s priorities than the holidays!”

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Best holiday gift ideas for heart patients

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 1 Comment

gingerbread-man-3000526_1280 copyby Carolyn Thomas   ♥  Heart Sisters on Blue Sky

Just 24 more days to go before Santa slides down our chimneys!  If you need some inspiration for a special heart patient on your gift list – for Christmas or any other occasion – this is for you. Personally, I’m not hoping for any more “stuff” this season (except maybe a new electric heating pad from Santa, hint, hint).  So I decided to turn to my always generous-of-spirit heart sisters to ask other women living with heart disease:  “What’s on your own Christmas wish list this year?”  Here are some of their creative responses (please add your own wish list favourite in the Comments section at the end!) – and thanks to all of you who offered these great ideas:
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A tonic for tumultuous times: an interview with “Reasons To Be Cheerful”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments
I felt honoured and humbled to be interviewed recently by Dr. Michaela Haas, contributing editor at Reasons To Be Cheerful, a unique solutions-focused non-profit described as “part magazine, part therapy session, part blueprint for a better world.”   
 
RTBC was founded in 2018 by artist and musician David Byrne (yes, that David Byrne of Talking Heads fame!) who has called this project “a tonic for tumultuous times”.  And if the times we’re living in aren’t tumultuous, I don’t know what is.

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“Throws are far more important than catches”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 19 Comments

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by Carolyn Thomas    ♥    @HeartSisters

Earlier this year, I was asked by my book publisher (Johns Hopkins University Press, the oldest academic publisher in North America) if I would write an updated 2nd edition of my book, A Woman’s Guide to Living with Heart Disease. At first, I said NO,  and then I said MAYBE – and then when JHUP’s Senior Acquisitions Editor told me we could change the title of a 2nd edition, I immediately said: “Well, YES!!   Continue reading ““Throws are far more important than catches”” →