HEART FOLLOWERS

There has been such a huge response to the blogs written by me and my cardiologist, Dr. Lukas Dekker, Catharina Hospital, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

I now want to write a short piece about his own forum www.hartvolgers.org (hartvolgers means in Dutch:  Heart Followers).

This site/forum was the initiative of my cardiologist and now patients can ask questions to the doctors themselves and exchange stories with other patients.

As everyone knows the heart is the most mystical and complex organ/muscle in the body and there are many many topics ranging from a slow heart beat, a fast heart beat, fibrillation, problems with the valves, congenital defects etc.It is a vast subject and doctors have to study for many years to reach the level of knowledge that Lukas has achieved.

I promised him that I would add this into my own WordPress feed, so that any of you reading this would be able to register and join the forum.

You need to go to:

www.hartvolgers.org

Register yourself with your name and email. Once this is done, you can log in and  ask a question which will be answered by one of the expert cardiologists on the forum. Expect to get an answer directly from Lukas himself when it concerns electrophysiology; (arrthymmia)  it’s his field. He can literally repair a heart with rhythm problems.

I hope all of you who have given such a response to our blogs, and who have problems and or questions concerning your own heart will now feel free to join the forum.

Again we are very grateful for the enormous response. We will be doing a part 4 when I go back to see Lukas on the 14th August.

Thank you everyone,

Jill & Lukas

 

Image Copyright Hartvolgers.org

TURN BACK TIME

A short story by Jill Kramer 2018 ©

Part One

Avebury, England 2027

It was one of those perfect summer days, bright blues skies, fluffy white clouds like cotton wool balls and hardly any wind. Lily parked her car in the car park and walked over to the entrance of the famous stone circle in Avebury. This was the first trip she had planned on her own since her husband passed away. After months of feeling sad and being at home, the idea of making a trip down memory lane, in the UK, had suddenly grabbed her imagination and here she was. Having done the driving herself, been through the Channel Tunnel and the drive down to Avebury, which she had done many times in the past.

It was more of a sentimental journey as opposed to a sensible one. She did not want to be sensible; she just wanted to feel what it was like to come back to her roots. Lily had been born and raised in the UK but left in her early twenties and moved to France to work. There she had met her husband and had a lovely happy life with him and their children, but now she was on her own, it seemed right to come back to England, albeit for a holiday.

THE PERFUMED GARDEN

A short story for summer Jill Kramer 2018 ©

As she left the motorway having driven down from Amsterdam in her new car, onto the island, suddenly everywhere seemed familiar. Having had a few busy days since she arrived at Schiphol Airport she was now on the way to a house that had been her home for many years.

The island looked the same, even though it was 7 years since she had left. The same road, only two lanes had never been widened despite the accidents that regularly used to occur there. At the next traffic lights she turned off right onto the sub-road, which lead to the village. Passing the windmill, which looks exactly as it did all those years ago. It looked tinier than she remembered and then on through the tiny hamlet. Certainly there were new houses, the old supermarket had been converted into a house and some of the small cottages joined to one another to make larger homes. As she approached the harbour gates and saw the view across the water, which had been put there in 1953 after the worst flooding ever in that region, she turned off and took the small road that lead to her house along the shores of the lake. Well they called it a lake but it was really the sea, especially now as the sluices to the open sea were regularly open and for the first time in more than 70-odd years, there were tides once more.

REACTIONS TO MY HEART BLOGS – A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE WRITTEN!

Today, the 3rd July 2018 and a very hot summer’s day, I have worked my way through more than 400 reactions (just from the last couple of days) from you all to my blog. In total there have literally been thousands! The personal blog about my heart, which I wrote with my cardiologist, Dr. Lukas Dekker, seems to have gone viral! On his behalf too, I am extremely pleased and would take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of you for your feedback and comments. Most appreciated. I have tried to reply to each and every one, sorry if any have been missed. The subject matter has definitely touched everyone’s heart!

A lot of you have asked, if there is more? Yes, parts two and three which are on the feed as well. So hopefully you can go and read them too.

Glad to say that all is well, my heart still in a perfect sinus rhythm and when I go back for my check up on 14th August I will see if we are going to write another blog. I remember that Lukas once remarked to me that once operations have taken place, he does not hear much more from patients, because in the main they are cured. That was the reason why we decided to do these blogs together and also produce them in Dutch, as we are both based in The Netherlands and onto the platform www.hartvolgers.org. which he started a few years back.

Hartvolgers (Heart Followers) is a platform where people can ask questions and advice from cardiologist about their hearts. It was his idea and it had been and still is a huge success. Often people feel intimated about asking their doctors or overwhelmed by the subject matter and it is wonderful that you can subscribe as ask what you want and get a reply even if you have another cardiologist. A lot of them are all on site, so you will get a reply for sure.

In the meantime, I am writing this little message to say a huge thank you for all your positive remarks and feedbacks and also for subscribing to my feed. Some of you are also receiving notifications when new blogs appear and this morning I have had a new idea so there will be something appearing in the next few days. A simple remark from a friend has also given me an idea for a new book. That is the way is happens with writing.

Again many many thanks for all your reactions.