Finding the courage and passion to live with heart failure

Sharing your story and building a community along the way is impactful. Your journey can be filled with excitement, empathy, resilience, and joy. Every time you make a new connection, you’ll realize that you never know who your story will resonate with. Our talk today is about finding the courage and passion to live with heart failure.

Welcome to Living with Heart Disease. Listen to the patients, support systems, and care providers who have resolved to become healthier. Join host Somaneh Bouba as we share challenges and triumphs. Discover what it means to survive and thrive with heart conditions.

Today’s main guest is Aiste Staraite who hails from the Northern European country of Lithuania. Aiste travels often having visited over 40 countries including living in Toronto, London, and Dubai. She claims that her passion for traveling opened her vision and shaped her understanding of different people and their cultures. It makes sense why she can be such a relatable storyteller.

Aiste believes her mission is to help others.

Still as active as she can be, Aiste remains positive and educational for others as she shares her journey of living with heart disease on social media. The LVAD was her first operation in her entire life, so it was a bit scary for her. She didn’t know what to expect. Since she remembers that feeling, she tries to be a representation for others.

During this live discussion, we share what our lives look like these days. We also hear from each other about why it’s important to listen to your body and we get tips on rebuilding our emotional health when life is heavy. You’ll also hear a special appearance of our previous episode’s guest Mel Field as a live audience member.

Aiste says, “I had to find the positivity and strength to come back to life and want something.” Listen as we talk about sharing our stories and building community. Enjoy this conversation that proves we are all examples of what it’s like to live with heart disease.

Timestamps:

[02:27] - Aiste Staraite describes her eclectic life of traveling, and what it was like to adjust her life for managing her heart disease.

[06:31] - Aiste thinks about how miraculous her journey is every time she thinks back to the moment she got her LVAD.

[13:30] - What happens when you address the symptoms, but not the problem?

[21:22] - Aiste explains how her dad helped her to have a more positive mindset during the earlier parts of her heart disease journey.

[27:02] - Aiste recalls when she was in the hospital at the same time as her father. How did it impact her health journey?

[36:52] - When did Aiste begin feeling better? She describes the need to remain active when you are living with heart disease.

[47:20] - After an unexpected health complication of a ruptured cyst, Aiste says her quality of life and emotional health went down.

[52:07] - Aiste says that the ability to listen to her body is what helped her the most in her recent journey. Listen to her describe her eating habits and the diets she experimented with.

[54:25] - Sharing your story and making community along the way is impactful. You never know who your story will resonate with.

[01:03:27] - How does Aiste keep the friendly relationships she develops while connecting with the heart disease community all over the world?

[01:09:25] - When you share your story, even medical professionals become more educated about what it means to live with heart disease.

[01:16:11] - There are no mistakes in life. Only perception.

[01:19:09] - What inspiring and interesting books are we reading lately?

[01:28:41] - Take care of your health, physical and emotional.

Links/ Resources:

Aiste Staraite (@aistestaraite)

Heart of a Giant

Heart of a Giant Foundation (HGF)

Heart of a Giant on Heart-Failure.Net