Can You Live Well With Heart Failure? | Heart Failure Unfiltered

Sarah-Jane was diagnosed at 28 and is a heart failure nurse now. Corinne was heading towards a transplant conversation three years ago and is stable on the same medication. So what does getting your life back actually look like?

In this final episode of a four-part series, Nick Hartshorne-Evans - founder and CEO of the Pumping Marvellous Foundation - sits down with Sarah-Jane, Katie and Corinne to ask whether you can build a good life while heart failure stays exactly where it is. Sarah-Jane calls it her reincarnation. Katie could not have children of her own, so she became the aunt whose sister has the kids packed and waiting before the sentence is finished. Corinne slowed down, misses her colleagues, and does not miss the stress.

They talk about what "stable" actually means, the abandonment people describe when they are discharged from a specialist team back to primary care, and the postcode lottery that decides whether an echocardiogram takes two weeks or six months. Nick closes on a line he wrote down beforehand. Without inquisitiveness, managing heart failure is Russian roulette.

No white coats. No jargon. Just people who've lived it.

In this episode:

00:00: Welcome and what this episode covers

01:04: Marvellous myth buster, is extreme tiredness just age?

01:21: Meet Sarah-Jane, Katie and Corinne

02:45: Can you build a good life while heart failure stays?

04:19: "I like to think of heart failure as my reincarnation"

07:56: Is this life better than the one before?

11:15: Do you still see yourself as vulnerable?

14:44: Where the hope actually comes from

16:15: What does stable really mean?

17:16: Feeling abandoned when you go back to primary care

20:07: What we've each discovered about ourselves

22:53: The postcode lottery for an echocardiogram

25:36: Can you still live well, and what that phrase should mean

28:14: Nick's ABCD theory of patients

33:05: Without inquisitiveness, it's Russian roulette

🫀 If heart failure is part of your life, you don't have to face it alone.

The Pumping Marvellous Foundation is the UK's leading heart failure charity, patient-led, trusted, and here for you.

⚡ B.E.A.T. Breathlessness, Exhaustion, Ankle swelling, Time to tell your GP or nurse. If you have a combination of these, speak to your GP surgery. Heart failure is diagnosed with a simple blood test.

🔗 Visit: www.pumpingmarvellous.org

💬 Peer support, search "Help for Hearts" on Facebook and apply to join

💛 Donate £5 today and help someone feel less alone

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