Tag: ruminating over a serious diagnosis

Waiting, worrying and medical test results. . .

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 28 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

 About a week ago, in the shower, I felt a lump in my right breast.

Coincidentally, I’d already had a similar experience decades earlier in my mid-30s (a lump – same breast, same spot – also discovered while showering). The lump was surgically removed under general anaesthesia – a procedure called at the time a quadrant resection.  I was a wreck back then. I was worried sick. I felt so frightened. I cried. A lot!  Luckily, the final pathology report at the time described that lump as a “benign mass” (meaning: non-cancerous).

All that stressful pre-op worry – over a benign mass.      Continue reading “Waiting, worrying and medical test results. . .” →

What I wish I knew back then: “New heart patients must choose their listeners carefully.”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

 by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

I once heard the late author Dr. Leo Buscaglia tell a conference audience a touching story about how he grew up equating caregiving with love. When he was a little boy, for example, his own mother was cold and distant  – except when he was sick. During those times, she would sit at his bedside, stroke his fevered brow, spoon-feed him homemade soup, fuss over each painful twinge, listen carefully to his every wimper, and become the kind of loving mother he rarely knew when he was healthy.   

But when he grew up and married, he was shocked by his new wife’s behaviour toward him whenever he got sick.      . Continue reading “What I wish I knew back then: “New heart patients must choose their listeners carefully.”” →

Choose your listeners carefully

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 19 Comments

 by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @Heartsisters

I once heard the late author Dr. Leo Buscaglia tell a conference audience his story about how he grew up equating caregiving with love. When he was a little boy, for example, his own mother seemed cold and distant  – except when he was sick. During those times, she would sit at his bedside, stroke his fevered brow, spoon-feed him homemade soup, fuss over every painful twinge, listen carefully to his every word, and become the kind of loving mother he rarely knew when he was healthy.    . Continue reading “Choose your listeners carefully” →