by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
This recent “What’s the diagnosis?” ECG challenge on Twitter from Dr. Sam Ghali attracted many online guesses from his healthcare colleagues – including this from a critical care nurse practitioner who astutely wrote:
“In today’s healthcare system, she would probably be told ‘it’s all in your head’ or ‘maybe you should lose weight’.”
Continue reading ““I’ll give you a hint: the diagnosis is NOT heartburn or anxiety””
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
If you’ve had as many 12-lead ECG tests as I’ve had done over the years since my heart attack, you too may marvel at how swiftly the nurse or paramedic or Stress Test Clinic tech can slap those sticky electrode patches onto your chest, arms and legs. Having observed many people slapping patches on me, I often wonder: how do they know if they’re attaching those electrocardiogram patches onto the right anatomical places? .
Continue reading “Were your 12-lead ECG electrodes placed where they should be?”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
The freshly-diagnosed hospital patient often goes from the shock of being hospitalized to the shock of being sent home before we’re feeling quite ready to return there. .
Continue reading “Goodbye, hospital. Hello, home! And other scary things.”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
Barely a month ago – hey, remember a month ago? – my GP ordered a number of routine blood and urine tests following a meds review. So I booked an appointment online at my local testing lab – but within hours, I decided to cancel. All I could think about was this: “Lab waiting rooms are filled with sick people!” There was no way I was going to put myself at further risk during this COVID-19 pandemic.
It turns out that heart patients like me are not only reluctant to walk into lab waiting rooms, but cardiologists are now reporting that many of us are reluctant to seek urgent medical care – even during a heart attack. . . Continue reading “Empty beds: when heart patients are afraid to seek help”
Heart Sisters 