2023 posts
JANUARY 2023
Too fit and healthy to worry about heart disease?
New Year’s resolutions for those who hate resolutions
Med School is for doctors, but there is no ‘Patient School’ for us
Sharing our health struggles: too much, or not enough?
Were your 12-lead ECG electrodes placed where they should be?
FEBRUARY 2023
How helping others can help you, too
Struggle care: a new way to look at housework
Could you wait 10 years for a cardiac diagnosis?
MARCH 2023
Sweating: the neglected cardiac symptom
How Daylight Saving Time is hurting your heart
Happy 15th Heart-iversary to me. . .♥
Will asking good questions in med school help doctors ask good questions of patients?
Financial toxicity: can you afford to have a heart attack?
Do Emergency physicians diagnose? Or not?
JUNE 2023
Did you learn about CPR from TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy?
Women’s heart disease: is it time to hang up the Red Dress?
Patient partners share what can go wrong with patient engagement
What I wish I knew back then: “Am I having a heart attack?” Part 1 in a new summer series revisiting common questions from new patients
JULY 2023
What I wish I knew back then: “What happens to heart muscle during a heart attack?” – Part 2
What I wish I knew back then: “6 reasons women delay deeking help during a heart attack – Part 3
Cardiac arrest: when it happens in the bathroom
What I wish I knew back then: “Twisted thinking vs. the new heart patient” – Part 5
AUGUST 2023
What I wish I knew back then: “When new heart patients are discharged from the hospital” – Part 7
What I wish I knew back then: “New heart patients must choose their listeners carefully” – Part 8
What I wish I knew back then: “Stop apologizing for needing help!” – Part 9
What I wish I knew back then: “How heart patients can make peace with an errant organ” – Part 10 – Last of a new summer series revisiting common questions from new patients
SEPTEMBER 2023
Will this $840,000 grant make a dent in women’s cardiac care?
Nine lessons about women’s heart disease that future doctors will learn in med school
Note to self: tell med students about women’s unique cardiac risk factors!
In praise of slow in a speeded-up life
OCTOBER 2023
Dear Carolyn: “Two sisters, one ‘heart-charged’ cardiac diagnosis”
Pre-hospital care: can paramedics influence your cardiac future?
Is heart “FAILURE” out? And heart “FUNCTION” in?
Congenital Heart Disease: the poor cousin of childhood diagnoses?
How blame-ridden language betrays patient-centred health care
NOVEMBER 2023
Adding more years to life vs. more life to years
Doing a good job when breaking bad news to patients
Falling in love – with a tiny heart muscle cell
In 2000, only 2 studies published on this mystery heart attack; 10 years later: 300+
DECEMBER 2023
The word ‘Kafka-esque’ means nightmarish or strange – like a frightening new diagnosis
The Grinch’s Guide to Women’s Heart Attacks (with apologies to Dr. Seuss)
What this heart patient wants for Christmas is NOT in a gift box
“Heart Failure: it’s time to finally change the F-word”: my Editorial in BMJ Open Heart
What I learned from writing my most-read ‘Heart Sisters’ articles in 2023
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See the archives of 900+ HEART SISTERS posts from 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 or 2024
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NOTE FROM CAROLYN: My book, A Woman’s Guide to Living with Heart Disease (Johns Hopkins University Press) reads like the “Best Of. . .” over 900 Heart Sisters blog posts since 2009. You can find it (paperback, hardcover or e-book) at your local library or favourite bookshop (please support your independent neighbourhood booksellers!) or at Amazon. If you order it directly from Johns Hopkins University Press, you can save 30% off the list price by using their code HTWN.
And for something completely different, visit the archives of my 2022 summer blog posts on growing balcony roses!
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Heart Sisters 