Two ways to portray heart failure. One of them works.

March 13, 2016December 28, 2023 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 39 Comments

Screen Shot 2016-02-10 at 4.25.29 PM — **EXAMPLE #1: Sisters and heart failure patients Shaun Rivers (left) and Kimberly Ketter**

If you were suddenly diagnosed with heart failure, you would first of all be utterly horrified by hearing those words “heart failure” – which brings me to the eternal question: when are cardiologists going to come up with a better name for this common condition in which a person’s heart has trouble pumping blood as well as it should? (See also: “When Doctors Use Words That Hurt“)

I hope that the second thing that happens after you hear those dreadful words is that somebody will immediately show you this beautiful photo (above) of twin sisters Shaun Rivers and Kim Ketter, both nurses from Richmond, Virginia. They were each diagnosed with heart failure during the same week in 2009 when the twins were just 40 years of age.

Now compare the twins’ photo (and its accompanying text from the American Heart Association) with something that I hope you will never, ever see upon hearing that frightening diagnosis:
Continue reading “Two ways to portray heart failure. One of them works.” →

Two years spent connected to her “heart lifeline”

June 4, 2013November 5, 2016 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 2 Comments

Monica McFarlan was a runner, a mother of two young boys, and a very healthy 37-year-old woman when she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, associated with viral cardiomyopathy in January 2011.

For the next 3½ months, Monica was in and out of the hospital 11 times for over 45 days. By April, she and her family were told that she needed a heart transplant, and she was put on the transplant waiting list. But because her antibodies were elevated, she had to be taken off the transplant list because of the high risk that her body would reject any donor heart that was given to her. Continue reading “Two years spent connected to her “heart lifeline”” →

When doctors use words that hurt

April 21, 2013October 19, 2021 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 23 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters

Consider hearing the scary diagnosis of “heart failure” tripping lightly from your doctor’s lips as if it were no big deal. Can there be anything more terrifying and demoralizing than hearing that your heart is “failing”? And the words don’t even accurately reflect this condition, which actually means that your heart is not pumping blood as well as it should.

So why did doctors come up with this heart failure name, and what on earth were they thinking when they decided it would be a good idea to actually say these words out loud to Real Live Patients? And is there a less hurtful term they could use instead? Continue reading “When doctors use words that hurt” →

Empathy 101: how to sound like you give a damn

February 24, 2013January 19, 2018 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 6 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters

During the first follow-up appointment with my (now former) family doctor a few weeks after surviving a heart attack, I noticed something unsettling right away. First, she seemed utterly preoccupied with her own possible part in missing some magical sign that I’d been at risk for this surprising cardiac event. She reviewed lab test after lab test while I sat there watching her claw through a thick file (no electronic charts there!) of my lipid and blood pressure results going back years. It struck me that this follow-up visit was somehow all about her – not about ME at all!