“This work is an important contribution to the discussion about heart attack and misdiagnosis in women. Thomas’s personal story—alongside the stories of millions of other women—provides a needed reminder of recognizing one’s symptoms, avoiding denial, and seeking medical attention. This elegant book is a unique addition to women’s health books and a necessary read for women and the people who care about them.” 

Roger S. Blumenthal, MD, Director, The Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease

♥

♥

“A major risk factor for your heart health is being a woman who develops heart disease and goes to a doctor who is not familiar with heart disease in women.

“But what you can do about this problem is to buy this user-friendly book for yourself, your sister, your mom, your doctor, and your female friends. If we can’t educate every doctor today, we can educate ourselves, and Carolyn Thomas has given us the tools to do that. “

Deborah Bors, Senior Production Editor, Johns Hopkins University Press

♥

♥

“A Woman’s Guide to Living with Heart Disease is an excellent book that will not only benefit any woman living with heart disease, but also physicians and other health professionals caring for women. It gives a unique perspective on heart disease that has really not been heard until now–the patient’s perspective.

“Thomas is a woman who lives with heart disease. As a result of her personal experience, she has become the voice of many patients in the world through her blog, her writings, her public speaking, and now through this book. As a woman who experienced a heart attack, was misdiagnosed, and deals with everything that living with heart disease entails, Carolyn uses humor wrapped in practicality and common sense to help women navigate their disease and all the overwhelming emotions that come with this diagnosis. Additionally, she has provided useful information for health care teams to appreciate what patients need and expect from their practitioners. To paraphrase the above quote from Osler, the great physician will treat not just the disease but the patient. As a physician, I feel that that is also the message Carolyn sends to us. And it is an important one for the health care team to remember.

“I am so grateful to have her as someone I send my patients to connect with on the Internet. Her thoughtful comments on her experiences, combined with her interviews of others and her reflections on research, have made her the voice of the heart patient. Hers is the voice I hear when I look at my patient and realize that everything I said was not absorbed because my patient is still recoiling from the diagnosis I handed her. She is the person whispering in my ear, asking me to remember to introduce everyone in the room. She (and her blog) is the reason I insisted that the gowns in my women’s heart center open in the front and are warm and cozy.

Carolyn has given a voice to the female heart patient in a way that few others have been able to. I am grateful that she decided to write this book, because I believe it will improve the dialogue between heart patients and their physicians. She empowers women to improve their health, their life, and their ability to communicate with their doctors effectively. She also validates what many patients feel but have not been able to express. This book will allow women living with heart disease to know they are not alone and, I hope, will help them find their own voices.”

Martha Gulati, MD, FACC, Chief of Cardiology, University of Arizona and Editor-in-Chief, CardioSmart – American College of Cardiology (and author of the beautiful foreword to my book!)

♥

“This is an important book – in fact, indispensable for women and their families whose lives have been affected by heart disease. It should be required reading for student health professionals as a lesson about listening to and taking seriously the voices of female patients. Carolyn Thomas interprets research in an easy to understand language and her writing style is elegant. Significantly, much of the information is based upon many of her own experiences living with heart disease and the many comments of other women who are avid readers of her blogs.

“She writes about my journey as a survivor myself of a heart attack. For weeks and months after the crisis I followed her blogs on Heart Sisters. The support I received from the many comments and Carolyn herself was and remains invaluable.

“This is the very best book of its kind, a must read for health care professionals to better understand the challenges of women facing the trauma of living with heart disease.”

 Dr. Barbara Keddy, Professor Emerita, Dalhousie University, Halifax

♥

“Heart disease is still perceived as a ‘man’s disease,’ and men’s symptoms are taken more seriously. This gender gap in the treatment and management of heart disease and stroke translates into faster, better treatment for men than for women, even though the mortality rate for women, especially younger women, has been higher than that for men since 1984. Heart disease now kills more women every year than all forms of cancer combined, writes Carolyn Thomas in A Woman’s Guide to Living with Heart Disease.

“When she walked into the emergency room of the hospital where she worked and exhibited classic symptoms of a heart attack, Thomas was examined and told that her test results were ‘normal’, and her questions were annoying the doctor. Feeling not only worried, but embarrassed and humiliated, she was misdiagnosed and sent home with instructions to see her family physician for a prescription for antacid drugs; her question about the pain down her left arm went unanswered.

“Bringing her experience as a woman living with heart disease together with dedicated research, she explains the most common symptoms, but warns that 10 percent of women having a heart attack ‘experience no chest symptoms at all,’ though 95 percent of them had suspected a problem during the weeks or even months leading up to their heart attack.

“Shining a light on what is often an invisible illness, Thomas shares the stories of women survivors as young as twenty-six and as old as sixty-three, some who had been experiencing symptoms for as long as two years before being correctly diagnosed and treated. Her book gives women the knowledge they need to become their own advocates in a health care system that continues to be weighted against them.”

Foreword Reviews, reviewed by Kristine Morris

♥

“Carolyn Thomas, a journalist, public relations specialist and heart attack survivor, draws on her experiences, those of other women, and research to describe heart disease as experienced by women. Relating the story of her own heart attack and its aftermath throughout chapters, she outlines the signs and symptoms of a heart attack, why women delay in seeking treatment, cardiac misdiagnosis in women, male-pattern vs. female-pattern heart disease, recovery, depression and heart disease, living with an invisible illness, the doctor-patient relationship, coping, and emotional reactions to a diagnosis of heart disease.” 

©2018 Book News Review

♥

 “I just finished reading your book and I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed it – every last little bit of it! I’m no longer a practicing physician and I don’t have heart disease, but I am a person who lives with chronic illness, as well as a person who just lives. I think anyone on this earth can get a lot of out of your book. It is incredibly well written, with great humour and intense honestly. I especially love the part where you “teach” health care professionals how to relate to patients.

“And in terms of Chapter 7 – that reviewer doctor who didn’t like it clearly has never been a patient with a serious disease. It was right on, and I’m so glad it was there.

“Carolyn, you did a great thing by putting out this book. I know it cannot have been an easy thing to do, but you have left a wonderful legacy for all women as well as the medical profession. I am very happy to have read it and I wish you much success with it.”

 Dr. Ruth Simkin, retired palliative care physician, Victoria, BC

♥

Reviews on social media:

Dr. Victor Montori, Mayo Clinic, author of Why We Revolt

♥

Burt Cohen, journalist and founder of Angioplasty.org

♥

Marie Ennis-O’Connor, Digital Health Strategist, patient advocate, Ireland

♥

Dr. Kelli Roig, Cardiac Specialist, Oregon

♥

JacquelineWehmueller, former Executive Editor at Johns Hopkins University Press (who first contacted me in 2015 to ask if I’d consider writing a book with them based on my HEART SISTERS blog articles!)

♥

Review by Toronto journalist Kathleen Dore