Where are you on the Distress Thermometer?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 18 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

I’ve been sleeping poorly lately. I think I have an ice pick headache coming on. I can’t seem to concentrate. I feel utterly overwhelmed. I cried off and on for an entire day last week. I am clearly distressed. 

I recognize this distress because I’ve experienced a similar response in the past – like surviving a misdiagnosed “widow maker” heart attack back in 2008, for example. That was pretty darned distressing.  The National Institutes of Health describe distress as “emotional, social, spiritual, or physical pain, or suffering that may cause a person to feel that they are not able to manage or cope with overwhelming changes caused by normal life activities or a serious medical diagnosis.”  Those are almost exactly the words I said to a friend just this past week when I was wailing into the phone about my new breast cancer diagnosis: “I just don’t think I am able to get through this!”   (You can read more about my breast cancer experiences in these posts).

Enter the Distress Thermometer:
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Connection instead of isolation: my waiting room experiment

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

When was the last time you struck up a casual conversation with somebody you don’t know?  Psychologist Dr. Gillian Sandstrom, who teaches at the University of Essex in the U.K., studies this phenomenon, and now describes herself as a “talker-to-strangers”, adding:

“The benefit shown in my research is that chatting with strangers is good for your mood.”    .
 Continue reading “Connection instead of isolation: my waiting room experiment” →

Questions heart patients should ask before getting an MRI scan

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 19 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

Since I was diagnosed with breast cancer in April, I’ve become obsessed with my hospital’s diagnostic imaging procedures – so far, that list includes my mammogram, ultrasound, MRI, CT scan, bone scan, heart scan (MUGA) – and of course (although not a scan) – my all-important Core Biopsy procedure at the Breast Imaging Clinic.  Keeping track of appointment instructions – plus drinking water non-stop to flush stuff like contrast dye out of my kidneys – are now my full-time (unpaid) jobs.  You can read more about my breast cancer experiences so far in these posts. 
 Continue reading “Questions heart patients should ask before getting an MRI scan” →

A crown, a crowd and a standing ovation

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 12 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

Last week, I watched a heart patient from Winnipeg named Jackie Ratz* get a standing ovation at a cardiology conference.

I wasn’t at the 2-day Canadian Women’s Heart Health Summit in person, but I participated via Zoom (in my jammies, watching Jackie onstage in Ottawa over my second cup of coffee here on the beautiful west coast of Canada).  I can tell you that the impressive audience response to Jackie’s presentation rarely – if ever – would have happened to patients a decade or so ago (mostly because few patients then were invited to speak onstage to an audience of physicians). With her kind permission, I’m sharing Jackie’s script from her Canadian Women’s Heart Health Summit presentation called “I WEAR A CROWN” (and a 2024 video of this presentation at the end of this post).

Continue reading “A crown, a crowd and a standing ovation” →