Bad News

Hi again.

The observant among you may have noticed a little note in Jo's last post about me not diving and feeling a bit unwell. What a big softie; put off by a bit of a rain and a sniffle! Well, not quite, as you'll see.

I had been doing a *lot* of diving, as much as time and work allowed. All jolly good fun as I dived and watched my logbook fill up with the details of lots of underwater excitement.

Worryingly I developed a couple of migraines after some recent dives. The first was a trivial dive (not too deep or long) and I just put it down to the fact that I have from time to time had a migraine or too. No worries, mate.

My second headache was a different kettle of fish though. Really severe visual disturbances and a hammering pain in my head to follow. Very unpleasant. I hadn't really had anything so bad since my teens, when I had used to get headaches like this a fair bit.

Of course, being the good Diving Doctor that I am, I worried about some possibilities that are not immediately apparent to the non-diving medicine specialist.

So, off I went to the cardiologist, and I had a trans-thoracic bubble contrast echocardiogram. This is an ultra-sound scan of the heart; rather like those that pregnant women have, with the added element of having a solution containing small bubbles injected in to a vein at the same time.

And, well, wouldn't you know it? I have a Patent Foramen Ovale - a flap valve in the heart, which normally closes over after birth, has not done so in my case. This means I can get bubbles to cross into my arterial circulation and am therefore at risk of strokes and the bad sorts of decompression illness if I continue to dive.

Bugger.

So no more diving for me, at least until I get home and get it plugged up. I could do it here, but it would cost me $11,000. That's not the sort of small change falling out of my pockets.

So, I’m looking for new hobbies. So far, I have won the first poker tournament that I have ever entered (sadly not for cash prizes), and am looking at learning to sail once the weather clears up. Still a bit miffed, though.

Toodle-pip,
Seán