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

Patient privacy, modesty, and staff burnout

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas

Resume As a heart attack survivor with an accordion file of ongoing complications, I’ve become a frequent flyer with my cardiologist, my longtime family physician, related specialists, the Pain Clinic, our local hospital, and in countless diagnostic labs. Many cardiac procedures involve stripping to the waist and putting on that  flimsy paper gown. In the case of a stress echocardiogram, for example, it means having the opening at the front instead of the back to allow 12 EKG leads to be attached to your bare torso during the test.

Not a big deal for male patients, but let me assure you – this can be a very big deal for many women.  Continue reading “Patient privacy, modesty, and staff burnout” →

Why taking a shower is so exhausting for heart attack survivors

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 12 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

After being discharged from hospital following my heart attack, I was utterly gobsmacked by how exhausting even the most basic of daily activities now felt.  Taking a shower was a memorable example.  It left me feeling surprisingly weak, shaky and gasping for breath.

In fact, a routine shower usually meant a 20-minute lie down afterwards just to recover. That’s when I first read about METS*.

METS stands for “metabolic equivalents.” Different daily activities are assigned different MET levels depending on how much physical energy they take to do (see the list below).  Continue reading “Why taking a shower is so exhausting for heart attack survivors” →

Are women being left behind in cardiac research?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

I was interviewed by Catherine Morgan at Blogher after the report called Heart Device Studies Still Leave Women Out of Equation was published in the March issue of the journal, Circulation. Catherine asked a number of questions about my take on Dr. Rita Redberg’s findings in this research. For example, one of her questions was:

“How concerned should women with heart disease be about this latest report?”   Continue reading “Are women being left behind in cardiac research?” →

Cardiac nurse learns firsthand about women’s heart disease

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 4 Comments

Rose is now training for a big 10k road race on May 1st. She’s sharing this experience with thousands of runners, but few of them are likely heart patients like she is. Fewer still are longtime cardiac care nurses who have the chance to learn firsthand what being a heart patient is like.

I met Rose in person when she came into our hospital’s Patient & Family Resource Centre on the cardiology unit where I volunteer on Monday afternoons. She turned out to be a good example of how even a veteran cardiac care nurse who’s barely 44 years old can suffer from life-threatening coronary artery disease.  Continue reading “Cardiac nurse learns firsthand about women’s heart disease” →