hearty tales

sharing stories of chronic heart disease

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Author: Laura

I'm an English Literature/Medical Humanities PhD student at the University of Glasgow, looking at written representations of chronic heart disease, 1980-present. Here I'll be blogging informally about my project's progress, sharing my responses to what I've been reading and doing and thinking. I've been living with heart failure since 2011, so I'll probably write now and again about what that's like. Eventually I hope some of the blog's readers will share their stories here too!
September 22, 2021September 22, 2021 Laura

Some pictures paint…641 words?

September 9, 2021 Laura

Issue 9 of the zine is here!

August 31, 2021 Laura

Zine delayed by (ironically) family commitments!

August 30, 2021 Laura

Mums – hearts of gold?

August 29, 2021 Laura

An anniversary ❤️

August 25, 2021August 24, 2021 Laura

That’s when good neighbours become…good friends?

August 23, 2021August 30, 2021 Laura

Pregnancy and early motherhood with heart failure – it’s complicated…

August 20, 2021August 17, 2021 Laura

The Wild Way Home: young siblings, tough topics.

August 19, 2021 Laura

BFFs

August 17, 2021August 18, 2021 Laura

Friends, Family…Fishing

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Issue 9 of collaborative patient-produced zine Heart Haiku is available for free download now! Head to the blog (link in bio) and click on Creative Resources to get yourself a copy. There’s even instructions to print out and fold into a booklet zine from the comfort of your own home. Thanks to everyone who contributed their writing on their heart conditions and Friends&Family. The zine is a bit late this month because my daughter caught covid at school and passed it on to both of us parents 🤦🏻‍♀️ We’re all on the mend now, thankfully, but a bit behind on everything and EXHAUSTED! So no new zine theme this month, but a great topic lined up for October.
A couple of blog posts I failed to share on Instagram. Today’s post was about adult CHD patients and how their fascinating perspective of what it means to live with a heart condition from birth to adulthood is being well represented on social media but not (so far) in fiction. I think writers are missing a trick there. CHD patient and advocate @goldheartedclub kindly let me share her recent thoughts about how her mum has been with her through various surgeries over the last 39 years. Yesterday’s post was all about the part my dodgy heart played in my decision to get married six years ago…and I’m not talking about love! If you haven’t visited the blog lately, please do go and check it out. I’ve posted so much stuff lately! #CHD #ACHD #heart
What's your relationship with your neighbours like? Do they know about your heart condition? Do you support one another or keep yourselves to yourselves? I wrote this piece of creative non-fiction in 2020, all about my neighbours finding out about my heart failure after 8+ years of keeping my diagnosis quiet. I've shared it on the blog once before, but thought it would be nice to share again in light of this month's zine theme. Link to blog in bio - post title is “That’s when good neighbours become…good friends?” (ID: A tenement building in Glasgow with a rainbow, possibly made from Lego, prominently displayed in a window)
CW: pregnancy/illness in pregnancy/ premature birth/motherhood. I’ve never been so nervous about a blog post. Tying in with this month’s zine theme of Friends & Family, I’m sharing a very personal piece of writing about my experience (or about a snippet of my experience) of being unexpectedly diagnosed with heart failure at 31 weeks pregnant. I wrote this piece around 18 months ago and have read it aloud at a couple of events but didn’t feel right publishing it. However, I’ve always been a passionate believer in the importance of visibility and representation. If I’d had any inkling while pregnant that this could be coming, it would have been a lot easier to accept and cope with. And I might have felt a lot less lost and scared as a new mother if I’d known there were others going through similar challenges. That’s why I’m putting the story out there in the public domain now, trying to have faith in the relationship I have built with my daughter and to believe that sharing this would never affect that. Visit the blog later today to read the post (link to blog in bio and post has this same picture) and let me know what you think or if you have had a similar experience - heart issues during pregnancy and/or parenting while living with a serious heart condition. 😰😬😳 ID: an early pregnancy sonograph with a black and white photo of a wasp nest superimposed where you would expect to see the embryo.

Hearty Blogs and Resources

  • The Shape Of My Heart
  • The Heart of the Journey
  • Optimistic Heart
  • Me and my CHD
  • Sarah Is Old At Heart
  • Heart Sisters
  • Heart of a Giant
  • Sudden Cardiac Arrest UK
  • International Heart Spasms Alliance

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anatomy cardiac devices cardiology collaboration communication craft creative writing creativity family haiku have your say heart me/personal medication patient experience poetry symptoms visual art women zine
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