by Carolyn Thomas ❤️ Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)
Asking for – and accepting – help from other people can be a challenge for those of us who generally see ourselves as the helper, not the helpee. I come from a long line of Ukrainian women who are born helpers. My late mother’s reflexive response to neighbourhood news of a new baby or a broken leg, for example, was to turn on the oven and start baking for the occasion. . Continue reading “Why patients resist asking others for help”
by Carolyn Thomas ❤️ Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)
When I recall moments of kindness I’ve encountered in my hospital experiences, two stand out. Both moments happened on May 6th, 2008 when I was finally admitted for what doctors call a “widow maker” heart attack. That was when the Emergency physician called in a cardiologist (something the Emerg doc two weeks earlier hadn’t done despite my alarming textbook symptoms of central chest pain, nausea, sweating and pain down my left arm). On that awful earlier morning, a man with the letters M.D. after his name told me clearly: “You’re in the right demographic for acid reflux!” before sending me away.
Continue reading “In medicine, the opposite of kindness is not cruelty. It’s dismissal.”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
Fun Fact: we know that people who volunteer in their community feel generally more hopeful and experience fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety compared to non-volunteers. This cheery conclusion may make you wonder, as Washington Post reporters did:
“But does volunteering make people happy, or are happy people simply more likely to volunteer?”
Heart Sisters 