2015 posts

vintage women writing

Heart Sisters posts from the past

JANUARY 2015

The Sitting-Rising Test: what’s your score?

Should you bring that list of questions to your doctor?

85% of hospital admissions for chest pain are NOT heart attack

When we judge the poor the way we judge the chronically ill

FEBRUARY 2015

Heart disease is a sitting disease (excerpt from Dr. James Beckerman’s book Heart to Start)

Were you “born to walk”? (a second excerpt from this book)

“It’s no hobby. It is a vital service.”

“I rang the bell again. No one came.”

MARCH 2015

Patient bloggers at health conferences:  ‘real’ journalists?

Do we need to change the name of cardiac rehab?

Post-Traumatic Growth: how a crisis makes life better – or not

Yet another cardiac risk calculator? My response in the British Medical Journal

When you have a family history of heart disease

Are you a heart attack waiting to happen?

APRIL 2015

The surprising reasons heart patients don’t go to cardiac rehab

Living with heart disease – and your whole family

My guest column in Stanford School of Medicine’s ‘Scope’

Slow-onset heart attack: the trickster that fools us

“I’m just not a pill person” – and other annoying excuses

MAY 2015

“It’s not your heart. It’s just _____”  (insert misdiagnosis)

“It’s a girl!!”

Do you fear change? Then don’t have a heart attack

When babies with congenital heart defects grow up

Heart attack explained in 10 easy minutes

When you know more than your doctors about your diagnosis

JUNE 2015

Your Heart, Your Health: two hours in one fantastic picture

Kindness in health care: missing in action?

Non-inspirational advice for heart patients

As if fear of dying weren’t bad enough . . .

JULY 2015

Deprescribing: fewer drugs, better health outcomes?

When you’re the adult child of a heart patient

Do you want the truth, or do you want “Fine, thank you”?

A blogging challenge: 15 random facts about me

AUGUST 2015

The loss of ‘self’ in chronic illness is what really hurts

Which patients does the “patient voice” represent?

When a serious diagnosis makes you feel mad as hell

A letter to my pre-heart attack self

No, really – patient education that’s actually useful!

I don’t want to talk about it…

SEPTEMBER 2015

Oneupmanship: you think YOU have pain?

Exhaustion: the ‘leaky emotion’ of chronic illness

Most common heart attack signs in men and women

Mandatory reporting of diagnostic errors: “Not the right time?”

Invisible Illness Week – seeing what others can’t see

OCTOBER 2015

Want the truth about what we eat? Ask our girlfriends…

What kind of heart attacks do young women have?

How Minimally Disruptive Medicine is happily disrupting health care

Do you think you’re a “somebody”?

NOVEMBER 2015

The “emotional labour” of living with heart disease

Six personality coping patterns that influence how you handle heart disease

Carolyn’s Top 10 Tips on How To Treat Your Patients

Heart palpitations: a serious problem or no big deal?

Fighting, battling, and beating: combat metaphors in medicine are just wrong

DECEMBER 2015

My unofficial (but oddly true) Hierarchy of Heart Disease

When you fear being labelled a “difficult” patient

6 reasons women delay seeking medical help – even in mid-heart attack

The Christmas Truce, 1914 

How soon are heart patients safely fit to fly?

A year in review: Top 10 Heart Sisters posts in 2015

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See the archives of all HEART SISTERS posts from 2009,    2010,   2011,   2012,   2013,   2014,   2016,   2017,   2018,   2019,    2020,    2021 2022,    2023    or    2024

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NOTE FROM CAROLYN:   My book A Woman’s Guide to Living with Heart Disease (Johns Hopkins University Press) is based on many of  the highlights of my 900+ Heart Sisters blog articles. You can ask for this book at your local library or favourite bookshop, or order it online (paperback, hardcover or e-book) at Amazon. If you order it directly from Johns Hopkins University Press (use their code HTWN), you can save 30% off the list price.

While you’re here, why not read the fascinating Heart Sisters disclaimer page?

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