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--------------71B1B323E0CF7AC7240D3E4A Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On Sat, 2 May 98 21:04:36 -0400 Bill Wolk <billwolk@ea*.ne*> is said to have written (snip) > To truly rule > out a PFO, you have to get an endotrachial bubble echocardiogram in which > a miniturized echo device is actually lowered down your throat to produce > an internal picture of blood flow through the heart. I didn't look into > the cost of this procedure, but since it involves intubation and > anesthesia, I think it's safe to say that it won't be simple or cheap. Do > you know of anyone who's taken it this far? > In October two years ago I contracted some nasty little bug in my bloodstream which had the potential of doing serious (fatal actually) damage to my heart. This necessitated my hospitalisation for six weeks (the first time since I was born more years ago than I care to remember) because I had to be heavily dosed with penicillin intravenously every 4 hours on the 4 hours and something else every 12 hours on the 12 hours. It also meant that I had one of these procedures at the beginning as well as the end of my stay in hospital. It was not a particularly pleasant experience but they wanted a _before_ and _after_ picture to assess any heart damage during the period of treatment. The good news for me was that the bug was well and truly caught before it could do anything nasty to me and the good Doctors assured me that I was not suffering from a PFO. I did have the presence of mind to ask even at the first procedure, at which time I wasn't exactly full of beans. I suppose that the whole thing took some 30 minutes from being prepped to finito la musica. I don't know about hospitals elsewhere in the world but I rather doubt that the local hospitals (which have the equipment to do the procedure) would be too keen on the odd horde of divers coming to ask to be scanned on the odd chance that they might have a PFO. As well, I am sure that the procedure would be *quite* expensive. Cheers, HTH, Christian --------------71B1B323E0CF7AC7240D3E4A Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <HTML> On Sat, 2 May 98 21:04:36 -0400 Bill Wolk <billwolk@ea*.ne*> <BR>is said to have written <BR> <BR>(snip) <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE> <PRE>To truly rule out a PFO, you have to get an endotrachial bubble echocardiogram in which a miniturized echo device is actually lowered down your throat to produce an internal picture of blood flow through the heart. I didn't look into the cost of this procedure, but since it involves intubation and anesthesia, I think it's safe to say that it won't be simple or cheap. Do you know of anyone who's taken it this far?</PRE> </BLOCKQUOTE> In October two years ago I contracted some nasty little bug in my bloodstream which had the potential of doing serious (fatal actually) damage to my heart. This necessitated my hospitalisation for six weeks (the first time since I was born more years ago than I care to remember) because I had to be heavily dosed with penicillin intravenously every 4 hours on the 4 hours and something else every 12 hours on the 12 hours. <P>It also meant that I had one of these procedures at the beginning as well as the end of my stay in hospital. It was not a particularly pleasant experience but they wanted a _before_ and _after_ picture to assess any heart damage during the period of treatment. <P>The good news for me was that the bug was well and truly caught before it could do anything nasty to me and the good Doctors assured me that I was not suffering from a PFO. I did have the presence of mind to ask even at the first procedure, at which time I wasn't exactly full of beans. <P>I suppose that the whole thing took some 30 minutes from being prepped to finito la musica. I don't know about hospitals elsewhere in the world but I rather doubt that the local hospitals (which have the equipment to do the procedure) would be too keen on the odd horde of divers coming to ask to be scanned on the odd chance that they might have a PFO. As well, I am sure that the procedure would be *quite* expensive. <P>Cheers, HTH, <P>Christian </HTML> --------------71B1B323E0CF7AC7240D3E4A-- -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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