Category: COVID-19

When this is over, will it be “over”?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 11 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

I really appreciated reading Charles Yu’s compelling piece in The Atlantic.  I wasn’t happy about what he said, but I sure appreciated his perspective. He wrote:

  “Human civilization – thanks to advancements in science, medicine, social and governmental structures – exists inside a bubble, protected from the kind of cataclysmic event we are currently experiencing.”

Yu makes a solid point about this “bubble”, particularly for those of us living with a chronic and progressive illness like heart disease, which made us particularly vulnerable to the “cataclysmic event” called COVID-19.         .  Continue reading “When this is over, will it be “over”?” →

Empty beds: when heart patients are afraid to seek help

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 22 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Barely a month ago – hey, remember a month ago? – my GP ordered a number of routine blood and urine tests following a meds review. So I booked an appointment online at my local testing lab – but within hours, I decided to cancel. All I could think about was this: “Lab waiting rooms are filled with sick people!”  There was no way I was going to put myself at further risk during this COVID-19 pandemic.

It turns out that heart patients like me are not only reluctant to walk into lab waiting rooms, but cardiologists are now reporting that many of us are reluctant to seek urgent medical care – even during a heart attack.       .       . Continue reading “Empty beds: when heart patients are afraid to seek help” →

It’s okay not to feel “normal”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 18 Comments

 by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

What is “normal” around here anyway? What the world is experiencing now during the COVID-19* crisis is unprecedented –  meaning nothing like this has happened before. A global viral pandemic is just not “normal”.  At least, to us.

We long to somehow translate each new development or warning or news report into what our brains can recognize as a return to normality. But there’s nothing about unprecedented events that should feel “normal” to any of us.    . Continue reading “It’s okay not to feel “normal”” →

Scary times: living with (but not IN) fear 

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 16 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

This is my 863rd blog post here on Heart Sisters. That’s a lot of articles.  Almost all of them so far are about women’s heart disease, or translating emerging cardiac research into plain language, or what it’s like for women when we suddenly become heart patients, or when we’re mistakenly told that our heart disease is not heart disease.

Never in the 11 years that I’ve been writing this blog have I felt like I’d run out of All Things Cardiac to write about.  Until today.          .     . Continue reading “Scary times: living with (but not IN) fear “ →