Category: Living with heart disease

posts here focus on the “new normal” you’ll discover once you get home from hospital and the reality starts to sink in

Are you the quarterback of your own heart health team?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 7 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas

Karla Marburger is a self-described “Type A computer geek”, a Nebraska woman who is also a survivor of both congestive heart failure and acute renal failure at the age of 43.

I first met Karla along with 45 of our heart sister companions when we attended the 2008 WomenHeart Science & Leadership Symposium for Women with Heart Disease at the world-famous Mayo Clinic. Exactly one year after that amazing training experience, she announced:

“Today, I’m going to a bridal shower — my bridal shower. Two weeks from today, I am getting married to John!“

When she first met John, she reported that she was concerned about how he would feel about dating someone with heart problems, someone with dietary restrictions that make it hard to go out to eat, someone who sleeps with oxygen every night, someone who is stubborn about protecting her workout time – and someone who was still healing emotionally from this experience.

“After 2-3 dates of watching me order my meals and scheduling our dates around my workouts, John started commenting on my healthy lifestyle. Not yet ready to trust him with the whole picture, I alluded to a ‘major lifestyle change’, but left it at that.”

But as their relationship turned serious, Karla knew that she had to talk to him about the full picture of her heart condition. She explained:

“He handled the conversation very positively. For John, my heart disease is not a blot on my future. Instead, he treats it as part of my life that has shaped the woman that I am today. And, we help each other by cooking and eating right.”

Karla has become a true expert in cooking and eating right, by the way.  Since her hospitalization in 2007, she has lost over 100 pounds as part of her heart-healthy lifestyle makeover.   Continue reading “Are you the quarterback of your own heart health team?” →

Ten helpful things to say to a sick friend

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 5 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

After my heart attack, I appreciated kind-hearted friends and family who said: “Just call me if there’s anything at all that I can do for you!”

But I knew in my heart of hearts that I was not going to call them to ask:

“Can you come over and change the kitty litter?” 

That was just never going to happen.    Continue reading “Ten helpful things to say to a sick friend” →

Your health care decisions: don’t worry your pretty little head over them

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 6 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

My mother, like many women of her generation, would never dream of telling her doctor that she wants a second medical opinion, even if she suspected that her doctor’s treatment or advice was lacking. This means that, if he were negligent or incompetent or even downright dangerous – which he’s not, by the way –  my mother would rather die than get a second opinion. To ask for one would be rude and insulting to her physician, and that just would never happen.  Whatever her doctor says  goes unquestioned. He is the boss of her health care.

She’s not alone. Many patients choose to simply defer to their physicians, even when that physician is not providing comprehensive information about diagnosis or treatment options. As orthopedic surgeon Dr. Howard Luks described some of his colleagues:

“Time is short for doctors, they often have biases, and many assume patients don’t want the burden of overwhelming information.”

Before my own heart attack, I could have been one of those patients, too. When my doctor ordered lab tests for me, for example, I figured that if the results were bad, I would be phoned.  When I was prescribed drugs or procedures, I figured these were necessary – or my all-knowing physician wouldn’t have mentioned them to me. Otherwise, I was much too busy to think much about my medical decisions.

And now when I ask the women in my heart health audiences to raise their hands if they know their blood pressure numbers, it’s common to see at least 1/3 of the group who have absolutely no clue.  And when I ask them if they know their cholesterol numbers, the awareness level is even worse.

A survey of women over 40 done by The Federation of Medical Women of Canada (called the LIPSTICK Survey) reported that women spend more time thinking about their weight than they do about their hearts. Only 10 per cent of women surveyed, for example, knew their personal cardiac risk factors, versus 64 per cent who know how much they weighed in high school. Continue reading “Your health care decisions: don’t worry your pretty little head over them” →

Why aren’t female heart attack survivors showing up for cardiac rehab?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 24 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

After a cardiac event, a 2-6 month program called cardiac rehabilitation can help survivors gradually improve their physical fitness, learn about nutrition, meet other heart patients, and get support to quit smoking,  lose weight or make other heart-healthy lifestyle changes to improve heart health. Cardiac rehab can reduce mortality by 25-40%, reduces angina symptoms, increases functional capacity, improves lipid (cholesterol) levels, reduces smoking by 25%, enhances psychological well-being, and improves exercise tolerance for all – including the elderly, frail or people with congestive heart failure.

Cardiac rehabilitation really works!  We know that completing a program of cardiac rehab can be very effective in reinforcing improved habits.  A 2001 University of Calgary research team lead by Dr. Kathryn King found that six months after finishing cardiac rehab, participants demonstrated higher health maintenance expectations and overall behaviour performance scores – and these indicators continued to improve over time.

But when I did a 4-month stint at cardiac rehabilitation after my own heart attack, I was vastly outnumbered by male participants, and was also one of the youngest in the group by at least two decades. Where did all the women go?  Continue reading “Why aren’t female heart attack survivors showing up for cardiac rehab?” →