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

What you need to know about your heart medications

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 15 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

One of the most surprising additions to the daily morning routine since my heart attack has been the fistful of pills that I now take every day.

It can be a confusing mix of medications, each for a different purpose, and each with different benefits and side effects.  Here’s just a sampling of some of the more common cardiac meds that doctors prescribe for heart patients. (Content updated January 4, 2023). Continue reading “What you need to know about your heart medications” →

After your heart attack: what now?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 2 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

Post-heart attack, when my shocked and stunned Victoria Hospice co-workers came to visit me in the Coronary Intensive Care Unit of the hospital where we all worked, I promised them that, although I probably couldn’t come to work the next day, I would certainly be back at my desk by the day after that.  Little did I know at that crazily optimistic and possibly drug-addled moment that there was absolutely zero chance of me actually being able to keep that promise.

In fact, recovery from a cardiac event can take a surprisingly long time, both physically and emotionally – much more than I could have ever predicted.        .         . Continue reading “After your heart attack: what now?” →

40 profound life lessons that a heart attack can teach you

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 2 Comments

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by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Some heart attack survivors I’ve met will readily describe, surprisingly, how their heart disease diagnosis has actually been a “gift”, which sounds positively goofy to me.  Continue reading “40 profound life lessons that a heart attack can teach you” →

Ten medication mistakes that can kill

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 2 Comments

pills sinkby Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters  

Anything you put into your mouth has an effect on your body, but ingesting a drug, either prescribed by your doctor or an over-the-counter (OTC) drug like simple headache pills from your local grocery store can be downright dangerous if you are not careful.  Here are 10 common – and potentially fatal – medication errors, courtesy of Caring.com:

1. Confusing two medications with similar names – up to 25% of all reported errors are with meds that sound the same. Examples of commonly confused pairings include Adderall (a stimulant used for ADHD) versus Inderal (a beta-blocker used for high blood pressure).

2.  Taking two or more drugs that magnify each others’ effects – be careful if you’ve been prescribed the blood-thinner Coumadin (warfarin), “the king of drug interactions”. You need just the right amount of Coumadin in your system for it to work properly; too much or too little and you could have serious heart problems such as arrhythmias or a stroke. Because so many other drugs interfere with its action, extreme caution is a must.

3. Overdosing by combining more than one medication with similar properties  – you might have one medication prescribed to treat pain, another for anxiety, and another given as a sleeping pill, but they’re all sedatives, and the combined effect is toxic.  Find out about the other seven mistakes