Hi all,
I'm looking for a bit of advice on this from any divers who may have experienced the same type of operation (albeit due to various circumstances) and how it's affected your life of diving. I'll keep this as simple as possible!
So I had a rare virus when I was a child called Kawasaki Syndrome which was pretty unheard of in the 80's, they had no idea what I had and so treatment was quite slow, slow enough to be left with scarred arteries from the swelling. Fast Forward 29 years and the scars are so large that 1 of my arteries has blocked completely while 3 others are about to close within a few years. So I need a quadruple heart bypass at 30 years old - not the greatest news in the world but it could have been far worse.
The Cardiologist who's been doing all the testing is a Rescue Diver so I've had some good conversations with him, but I didn't have time to see him for long during the last visit and his last words on the subject were "don't even think about diving". I was also preparing to be a Special Constable as well which has now been shelved so a load of cr*p news all at once!
The issue at the moment is there's no case for surgery because of this condition, so no one can give me any information on my future prospects including diving. I'm a non smoker, drink very lightly, weight and cholesterol are right in the middle and I exercise 3-5 times a week - so even the information leaflets aren't catered for me (which are aimed at over 60's and/or smokers etc.) So I wanted to ask fellow divers who've had the surgery what life has been like since, including diving and going for medical's etc.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all,
Martin
I'm looking for a bit of advice on this from any divers who may have experienced the same type of operation (albeit due to various circumstances) and how it's affected your life of diving. I'll keep this as simple as possible!
So I had a rare virus when I was a child called Kawasaki Syndrome which was pretty unheard of in the 80's, they had no idea what I had and so treatment was quite slow, slow enough to be left with scarred arteries from the swelling. Fast Forward 29 years and the scars are so large that 1 of my arteries has blocked completely while 3 others are about to close within a few years. So I need a quadruple heart bypass at 30 years old - not the greatest news in the world but it could have been far worse.
The Cardiologist who's been doing all the testing is a Rescue Diver so I've had some good conversations with him, but I didn't have time to see him for long during the last visit and his last words on the subject were "don't even think about diving". I was also preparing to be a Special Constable as well which has now been shelved so a load of cr*p news all at once!
The issue at the moment is there's no case for surgery because of this condition, so no one can give me any information on my future prospects including diving. I'm a non smoker, drink very lightly, weight and cholesterol are right in the middle and I exercise 3-5 times a week - so even the information leaflets aren't catered for me (which are aimed at over 60's and/or smokers etc.) So I wanted to ask fellow divers who've had the surgery what life has been like since, including diving and going for medical's etc.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all,
Martin