by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
The freshly-diagnosed heart patient often staggers from the shock of being hospitalized to the shock of being discharged before we’re feeling even barely ready to return home. As I wrote in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) about my own hospital discharge after surviving a misdiagnosed heart attack:
“I couldn’t wait to go home, to sleep in my own bed, amid familiar surroundings, family and friends. But when I was sent home from the Coronary Care Unit, I was also scared that every twinge I felt surely meant another heart attack. I’d left behind the constant monitoring by professional experts for a home where nobody in my family knew anything about cardiology!”