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

Women’s heart disease and chronic stress

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 6 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

Cardiology researchers have recently begun calling on doctors to include the diagnosis and treatment of stress in the routine care for patients with heart disease.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, led by researchers at Université Laval in Quebec City, found that first-time heart attack survivors who returned to chronically stressful jobs within 18 months of their heart attacks were twice as likely to have a second heart attack as patients whose occupations were less stressful, and also had a markedly higher risk of death than their less-stressed peers.   click to continue reading

Are you a priority in your own life?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 23 Comments

red shoes collage

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Five months after surviving a misdiagnosed “widow maker” heart attack, I attended the WomenHeart Science & Leadership Symposium for Women With Heart Disease at Mayo Clinic.  Cardiologist Dr. Sharonne Hayes (founder of the Mayo Women’s Heart Clinic) told us about a study on women’s life priorities called Hierarchy of Female Concerns that asked its female participants this one question:

“What is most important to you?”

Now, when I do presentations about women’s heart health, I like to ask my audiences to guess in advance the correct order of this study’s top six answers, just for fun.

These rankings are surprising, in an amusing-yet-oddly-pathetic way.  The order of our reported priorities may also help to explain why, even when women are experiencing dangerous cardiac symptoms, they are significantly more likely than our male counterparts to delay seeking treatment if something ‘more important’ crops up.

‘More important?‘ What could possibly be more important when you’re having a heart attack? Check out the terrific 3-minute Elizabeth Banks film “Just a Little Heart Attack” for a brilliant example of this classic  treatment-seeking delay behaviour.

And then see if this list of women’s reported priorities matches the answers that you might give, too: keep reading…

“You look great!” – and other things you should never say to heart patients

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 23 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

“Wow!  You look great!  You look just the same!”

In the early days, that was a fairly typical greeting from those who had not seen me for a while.  While some might assume that this is a thoughtful and flattering comment to offer a freshly-diagnosed heart attack survivor, many times it didn’t feel that way.

Surprised? Many people, especially in the early days, weeks and months while still reeling emotionally and physically from their life-altering cardiac train wreck, tell me that they often feel like replying to such greetings with:

“I am NOT the same!”

Instead of  the well-meant but oddly niggling “You look great!” – what might be more helpful to the freshly-diagnosed heart patient?   click to continue reading