Heart Sisters featured in Heart Month interviews

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥   @HeartSisters

Every month, the U.S. government’s ‘Office On Women’s Health’ newsletter Healthy Women Today features a column called Spotlight on Women’s Health.  This monthly column includes interviews with medical professionals or people living with a variety of medical conditions.

“We ask the questions we know you’re interested in, so that we may provide an inside look at women’s health,” their editor explains.

February is Heart Month – and to mark this important awareness initiative for women, the Healthy Women Today editor interviewed me for their February issue about being misdiagnosed and sent home from the E.R. during my heart attack.

NOTE: This interview is no longer available.

Can’t sleep? Feeling blue? Seven things women must avoid doing at 2 a.m!

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 14 Comments

 

And now for a bit of wise humour, courtesy of the always creative Christine Miserandino at one of my favourite websites, But You Don’t Look Sick?  

“We all have been there. It is 2 a.m, you can’t sleep, you have a lot on your mind – and let’s face facts, you are depressed. After doing all of the wrong things to combat depression, I thought I would pass on some of my knowledge to you. Hopefully you can find better things to do with your time at 2 a.m. than I did. Why only seven things? I fell asleep, and I was too depressed to think of 10…   Continue reading “Can’t sleep? Feeling blue? Seven things women must avoid doing at 2 a.m!” →

The ’18 Second Rule’: why your doctor missed your heart disease diagnosis*

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 15 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

The trouble with Dr. Jerome Groopman‘s book, How Doctors Think, is that the docs who really need it won’t read it.  But patients will, thanks to word-of-mouth buzz since it was published in 2007.

As a patient who has experienced a life-threatening misdiagnosis while having a heart attack, my own favourite part of the book is Dr. Groopman’s review of physicians who take cognitive shortcuts during patient visits.

This means that doctors can jump to conclusions about diagnosis or treatment options, and then can’t budge even when contradictory evidence subsequently emerges. “Blame the 18 Second Rule!” advises Dr. Groopman, professor of medicine at Harvard.

”  That’s the average time it takes a doctor to interrupt you as you’re describing your symptoms. By that point, he/she has in mind what the answer is, and that answer is probably right about 80% of the time.”     Continue reading “The ’18 Second Rule’: why your doctor missed your heart disease diagnosis*” →

Médecins Sans Frontières at work around the world

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 14 Comments

 

“We were forced to buy a saw in the market to continue amputations. We don’t have any more morphine to manage pain for our patients. It is like working in a war situation.”         Dr. Rosa Crestani, MSF medical coordinator for Choscal Hospital, Port-au-Prince

Médecins Sans Frontières (also known as Doctors Without Borders) is the world’s leading independent international medical relief organization. MSF is now recruiting medical professionals for their stand-by roster of international volunteers for future deployment.

Médecins Sans Frontières was established in 1971 by a small group of French doctors who had worked in Biafra. When they returned home, they were determined to find a way to provide rapid and effective medical help for those caught in armed conflicts, disease epidemics, famine, and natural disasters – all with complete independence from political, economic and religious influences.

Before you apply to work in the field as a paid intern, a volunteer or a full-time employee of MSF, complete this MSF Self-Assessment Checklist to determine if international disaster response work is right for you.

Read this article from the Public Library of Science Medicine about MSF’s work in Haiti. 

Finally, please consider making a generous donation today to help this amazing Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization in its vital work.

♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥

NEWS UPDATE: February 9, 2010:  MSF Now Plans For Management of Communicable Diseases in Haiti.

NEWS UPDATE: February 27, 2010 – Médecins Sans Frontières  (Doctors Without Borders) medical teams have already arrived in Chile following the catastrophic earthquake that struck the country this past weekend.  Find out more.

NEWS UPDATE: August 13, 2010 – Médecins Sans Frontières  (Doctors Without Borders) is bringing in 200,000 litres of clean water every day to Pakistan‘s Swat Valley following massive flooding this month that has disrupted power to water treatment plants, meaning no access to safe, clean drinking water and increased dangers of waterborne disease to flood victims. “We have identified a water spring and in agreement with the local community, we are able to extract, filter, chlorinate and distribute the water,” said Azzura Dinca who is in charge of water and sanitation for MSF in Swat. Find out more.

NEWS UPDATE: May 10, 2011 – Médecins Sans Frontières  (Doctors Without Borders) continues its work in northern Japan following the devastating earthquake and tsunami two months ago. As the local medical infrastructure stabilizes, MSF is shifting the focus of its intervention towards providing psychological assistance to particularly vulnerable survivors of the disaster, including elderly evacuees, single parents, and those with physical disabilities and chronic diseases. Find out more.