It's not something I think about every day anymore. And that is so

freeing. I mean, I used to. And as many heart patients do, you

focus on your heart all the time. It's like you were thinking about what it's

doing all the time and the sensations you're having and is it a

good day and a bad day or bad minute? And it's

just so freeing to be not

so focused inward. So

I just happy to be able

to focus on other people instead of on my

stuff. Welcome back to another episode,

Open Heart Surgery with Boots. I am your host, Boots

Knighton, and I am bringing back

guests that are thriving since open heart

surgery. And I'm welcoming back today Lisa

Mayan, who is from a small town

in New England. Lisa, thank you so, so much for coming back on

the podcast. You were one of my first guests

and your story has resonated with so

many people. And I am so excited for you to

provide an update today on how well you're doing.

Thanks so much for having me back. And give

us the 50,000 foot view

again of your diagnosis. Okay,

so at 56 years old, I was

diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

It took me three, four years to get

a proper diagnosis because it wasn't an obvious case.

As a female patient seeking

help from cardiologists, I was dismissed,

told that I needed to calm down

and take tums, which is maybe why

my heart was bothering me. After I

ate and then exercised all of this. So it was, it was

quite a journey to get there. I ended up having a

myctomy at New York University, NYU

Langone. And it has absolutely

changed my life for better. I do feel

20 years younger still. And I really

feel that I continue to improve two and a half

years after the surgery, which is a surprise to me because I

think I'm doing so great. And then all of a sudden, I realize I'm doing

even better than I was six months ago or a year ago. That's

incredible. And I am so happy for you. I

mean, everyone has their own journey. And I

just want to emphasize that to listeners, like, if you

aren't feeling 20 years younger, if your journey has been more

difficult. I'm sorry, I hear you. I see you.

And we have to let go of expectations of how

we wish things would go for ourselves. But I'm

so happy to you, Lisa, that you've been willing to share your story

because it does give all of us hope. And for me, like, my

journey has been, I think, a little more difficult than yours. And what

your story has emphasized to

me is just don't stop fighting

for my health. Keep, you know, keep the

hope up, keep striving, keep the faith that

the body can heal, it will heal, and that

we all deserve to feel well and thrive.

Absolutely. So now here we are, you know, many

months after our first recording. How have things changed for you?

You said you continue to physically improve, so what does

that look like? And then I want to get into the spiritual mental

health part too. So I

notice I'm back to playing tennis four times a week.

And I hike. And I do have some limitations

from my doctors. They don't want me to hike mountains

and have my heart rate raised for, you know, three, four hours at a time.

They don't want me train for any marathons. It's all fine because I don't like

that stuff anyway. But I do go for four or five

mile walks without a problem with my friends in the hills.

I don't do the straight up mountains, but the improvement

looks like that. Now, I notice sometimes my friends will say

to me, can you slow down? Whereas I was always saying to them, can you

slow down for me? And I don't even realize that I'm walking

so fast. I. And I'm not trying to do it. I just

have the energy for it. And that always

surprises me when that happens. Yesterday I played tennis with someone who

had been injured and played with her in a year. And she said, I

can't believe you what you're getting to. And she said, I remember seeing

you like really out of breath, just like running four steps for a ball.

And now she's like, you just keep going. And I guess it's other

people commenting like that as well. Makes me realize,

yeah, you know, I think I am even better than I was

a year ago. So this is two and a half years post surgery for me

now. And certainly it was. I'm. I'm not being a polyethylene. And it

wasn't like the easiest road and it wasn't

just a miracle. After day one out of the sur. Out of

surgery, my story with you talked more in depth

about how hard that was. But since the recovery,

which really probably was three months,

I. It was steady improvement. And I, I'm

so grateful that to my surgeons and my team and

that I had such a good outcome and feels super

fortunate. You know, I'm not a very emotional person

and this one's getting me. Oh, thank you.

It's really incredible. It really is. It

does feel like a miracle. It really does. Yeah. I'm just

picturing you playing tennis and your friends are

in awe. And that just highlights the benefit of community,

that our friends can be our witnesses and remind us that

we are strong and that we can overcome,

like, the hardest of challenges. Absolutely. And I do

remember how dismissed you felt. And yeah, this is

just like the ultimate redemption. Yes.

Like, yeah, look at me. I'm now playing tennis four days a week, huh?

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. So where are you now on like the

mental, emotional, spiritual path of this

post? My. So

I feel like I'm doing extremely well. It's. There are

days. There are a couple of times that I got out of

breath, like walking down the street, New York City. Once that New York is

obviously flat. And I got out of breath and for no

reason, which was one of the symptoms that had had before the

surgery. And I pretty much had a panic attack.

I called my doctor. I'm like, oh, my God, it's back.

Like, what is this? Why is this happening?

And I think it was just a fluke because it didn't happen again

and you know, it. They. They just told me to keep an

eye on and if it keeps happening to see me. But it

didn't. But I. I realized, like, kind of I'm always close to

the edge of being scared again. I don't think I'm

over. Apparently really doesn't come back from the

surgery, but you could have some symptoms

still. And anyhow, I. I guess

I realize it's. It's not gone. Like, even though I'm

feeling so great and I'm so grateful and thankful every

day, you know, it doesn't take much to put me back in the.

Holy crap, this. You know, what. What's happening to me.

Yeah, I. I have found that too. If I get. I'm not as

reactive now, but still when there's a palpitation

or. Yeah, I'm just not quite like, fully rested and my heart's

still kind of like a question mark for the day. I too

kind of go, oh, gosh. Oh, gosh, what's happening, Mom?

And like. Yep. And just. I think it was just

yesterday I thought to myself, oh, wow,

I haven't been to the ER in almost a year.

Fancy. Yeah.

Like, that's kind of. Like, that's amazing. And that's also kind of

sad.

Exactly. How about the, like, the emotional

spiritual parts? I. I really

feel that I'm living in a space of

gratitude now, you know, for the friends and

my family, my husband, my children who got me through it

and it's not something I think about every day anymore. And that

is so freeing. I mean, I used to. And as many heart patients

do. You focus on your heart all the time. It's like you were thinking

about what it's doing all the time and the sensations you're

having and is it a good day and a bad day or bad minute or.

And it's just so freeing to

be not so focused inward.

So I just happy to

be able to focus on other people instead

of on my stuff. Gosh, I resonate with that.

And you're right. It. It just becomes like, you know, your head

is down and, like, for so many different reasons. Right. You're just trying

to get through it. You've been given this diagnosis. Now you

gotta do something to basically save your life. And

you're just looking inward, mind, body, spirit,

trying to get through this thing and navigate the medical system.

Yeah. And everything else just kind of falls away. It's true.

And you can't. It's. It's not even possible to talk

yourself out of that space and tell yourself, oh, it's going to be

okay. When you know your heart is palpitating all the time or

racing or whatever, or the chest pains or whatever your symptoms

are. It's just. It's life or death. And it's really hard

to. It's, I think, probably impossible, at least it was for me to

come to get myself out of that until I'm Got through

this, that really tough time and was relieved of the symptoms.

Reality. Right. And I just want to normalize that.

For those that are coming after you and myself, it's. It's

okay that it takes over your life. It needs to. It's your

heart. Yeah. And do what you have to do

to get to the other side. Become the CEO of your

healthcare. Ask for help. Come to Lisa. And

I listen to other episodes. Be part

of the Patreon community here. There's support groups on Facebook,

like, don't be shy about taking up space in the

world, in the heart world, and ask for what you need

and trust that your family and

your community will be there when it's time for you

to lift your head up again. I have one more question for you.

Speaking of community, did your community

shift? Like, did you notice that, like, some friends

fell away, some came in 100%?

That happened to you as well? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's.

It's. I'm. I'm still taking

note. It's been like this slow process, you

know, It's. It's Just really interesting. And that's

been an emotional, spiritual journey for sure. Yes.

Trusting that like, people are in your life at all the right times

and like letting go of needing to like white knuckle

our relationships and being grateful for those who can

be present in that moment of hardship and then

lovingly letting them go if they need to, like move on because it's too

much. For them or weren't able

to understand what. Not, not that they weren't

able to understand what we're going through because kind of nobody can, but to not

attempt. I had a friend that I lost

and I couldn't really

get past. And I think she was

disappointed that I was disappointed and think about that

friendship sometimes. And that makes me sad, but also okay

because you're also grateful for the friends

and community that were there for you. And some people

were a surprise. Some people were like, wow, you know, I didn't know

how much you cared. And it's, it's like a lovely little

gift you get. It sounds weird, but you don't get to

hear how much people love you in your

life all at once. And when you're going into open heart surgery, I

guess you're afraid and people are afraid for you and so they

express it. And it almost felt like most people have to

die to get this kind of thing where, you know, everyone

gets up and speaks about or tells stories about how much they

love you, care for you. And that was like a

very surprising and unbelievable gift that my

friends and obviously family who love you, but that they, that I was

able to experience that and hear from them, how they felt about me

and could say how much I, that meant to me and how

much I love them as well. And I don't know,

that was, that was quite a surprising little nugget of

goodness that came out of this. That's a beautiful place to end it

on. Love and gratitude and appreciating those

in our life. Yeah, absolutely. It's impossible to go through this

alone. Nobody should try. And you need, you need

people to love and support you and is the

world and just encourage everybody to

welcome whatever people are willing to give them. I love

that being willing to welcome it in. Well, be

sure to go back and listen to Lisa's story. I will put it

in the show notes. It's an incredible story and

as you've heard today, Lisa is absolutely

thriving, kicking butt on the tennis court and

walking and still feeling 20 years younger plus

some and getting better with every passing day. Lisa, thanks

again for your generosity and coming back on the program

to give all of us more to have hope in and find

faith in. You are a beautiful soul and New

England is lucky to have you. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you. And thanks

for all you're doing for everyone in this community space. Yes.

And please come back next week for another

Hope for the Holidays story. And if you

haven't yet, you know I have a big favor to ask you listeners.

Please leave a review. Please follow this show.

It is amazing how much reviews make a difference

with the heart patients finding me on Apple and Spotify.

And if you can think of someone in your life today that needs to

hear this story, share it with them. I would really appreciate

this. We are a Spirit Small podcast and don't have a huge

budget so I need all the help I can get from fellow heart buddies

to help this show continue to grow around the globe. So

thanks again. Be sure to come back next week and remember, I love

you, you matter and your heart is your best friend.