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

Constructive wallowing after a serious diagnosis

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

If you were a hippopotamus, wallowing would be comfort behaviour – “rolling about in mud or water to cool down or get relief from insect bites.”

But since you’re a human, wallowing is generally viewed by others as a negative response to coping with dark despair (like hearing a frightening new diagnosis with your name on it).  Aren’t we supposed to keep smiling and think positive and just get over it?  “NO!” advises Dr. Tina Gilbertson in her Psychology Today column called Three Good Reasons to Wallow in Despair: 
 Continue reading “Constructive wallowing after a serious diagnosis” →

Do heart patients suffer more during a cold – or does it just feel that way?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 11 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

When people like me (i.e. living with heart disease) catch a cold or flu bug, do we feel sicker longer, compared to people who don’t have heart disease – or does it just feel that way? Asking for a friend. . .

Continue reading “Do heart patients suffer more during a cold – or does it just feel that way?” →

Can “mental muscle” help us recuperate?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 1 Comment

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥    @HeartSisters

Dr. Amy Morin described her early career as a psychotherapist who“intended  to help others build mental strength”. She could never have imagined, however,  that she would soon need what she calls “mental muscle” to help herself. When Amy was just 23, her mother died of a brain aneurysm. Three years later, a heart attack killed Amy’s young husband, Lincoln – a tragedy that was followed by her father-in-law’s sudden death.

This is what she wrote about surviving the pain of those losses:

“I was a 26-year old widow with no Mom. Losing the most important people in my life sent me on a quest to learn how I could stay mentally strong.”  

Continue reading “Can “mental muscle” help us recuperate?” →

What if we call them “self-care promises” instead of resolutions?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas     ♥    @HeartSisters   

Well, we’re into the New Year now. For some of us, that’s almost enough time to notice small cracks beginning to appear in the boldly announced resolutions made in the midst of all that post-Christmas excess. I’ve already, for example, ditched the Lettuce Leaf Diet I was contemplating for 2025 after all that Christmas feasting.

During the last century, when I was one of the volunteer run leaders at our local Y Marathon Training Clinic, we’d often hear lofty New Year’s resolutions from first-timers signed  up for our 10-month training program each January – something like:

“This is the year I’m finally going to quit smoking, lose 20 pounds and run a marathon!”

“Honey,” I would say gently to them:   “Pick one!”          .  Continue reading “What if we call them “self-care promises” instead of resolutions?” →