PFO?

no, but my mom had one corrected waaaaaayyyy long time ago. No ill effects that I know of.

I've got something similar - I can't remember exactly what but when I was having arrythmias a couple years ago they could see it in the imaging. they weren't worried about it, in fact were kind of glad because they thought it would make my ablation easier, but turned out they didn't need it.

My wife had a stroke in 2005 that they ultimately attributed to a PFO. I don't remember offhand the name of the device they used to close it, but it kind of looked like a double ended umbrella. So, far so good. Better than new with no side effects or problems from the closure and nearly a full recovery from the stroke. As an added bonus she no longer gets migraines.

Any partuclsr questions?

A patent foramen ovale (PFO) is a hole in the heart that didn't close the way it should after birth. During fetal development, a small flap-like opening — the foramen ovale (foh-RAY-mun oh-VAY-lee) — is normally present in the wall between the right and left upper chambers of the heart (atria)

---

Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

not with closing, have you had a bubble study done? just curious

I know a few scuba divers that have, there is an increased risk for DCS with a PFO (bubbles pass thru the heart, stated very generally). I had a bubble study once, no PFO.

no i have not had a bubble study done. my problem is complicated by a meningioma that was discovered 2 years ago when i had my 2nd mini stroke. the doctors have been monitoring that every 6 months. one doctor thinks i had a stroke and another one thinks seizure. well whatever it is, i had another one a week ago. back on seizure medicine until the MRI. I am seeing a heart doctor in april when i go for my 6 month brain MRI. oh i have an MRI scheduled in a week to see if it was a stroke. I need to look up the bubble study to see what it is. thanks

scuba diving is out for me. kind of sucks since i live in the tropics and my husband is a marine biologist.

thanks. that is the device i was looking at as well. i have had 3 stokes now. and would love to have that added bonus. no particular questions. is your wife active?

I had a stroke at the conclusion of an Olympic distance Tri in 2010. After a few days of debate in the hospital between neurologists and cardiologists, it was ultimately and conclusively determined to be caused by a PFO. It my case, MRI studies indicated I had probably had hundreds of "strokes" from clots over my life, but this was the first in an area of the brain that was functional. The stroke was at the end of June, I had a closure procedure done by Dr. Jonathan Tobis of UCLA in late September, and less than 2 weeks later completed Kona- which I had qualified for at IM St George- with a restriction of HR not to exceed 115, and exertion not to exceed lifting of 25 lbs. I was able to stay within those limits and finish in 16:52.
At my final exam for this in December I was released with no restrictions, and have not looked back. The closure is a safe and effective procedure, that ultimately had no more restrictions than a cataract surgery.
There are typically ZERO post surgery restrictions. I would think you would be able to resume scuba (I can, and have).
Feel free to contact me directly if you want more details. Good luck

Wow, congrats on the accomplishment.

What struck me as the most interesting was the restricted HR of 115 if that's truly the case. That's lower than my Z1 rate of 119-131 and I think I go above that after 30-90 seconds of warmup. Can't even imagine I'd get enough forward momentum to swim in Z1.

---

-------------------
Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

wow, thank you so much for sharing your story. it is clear to me i need to do something about this. both the PFO and the menigoma. i think i spelled that right? at least my neurologist and cardiologist are at the same hospital. so 2017 is the year to fix stuff. and luckily everything i have can be fixed. thanks again. i am take you up on your offer to contact you directly in the future. i will know more in April.

115 is also below my typical recovery zone! I already had accomodations and airline tickets committed, not to mention the ever athlete friendly WTC refused to defer my qualification- so off to Kona I went!
After a few trials, I determined I could do a relaxed catch up stroke at under 110 HR (swim time ended up 87 min, normally 62-63), and could get up Palani hill at under 110- so off I went. It got very windy on the climb to Hawi, and I was averaging about 4 mph. This was the only stretch where I was concerned about being able to continue. It was a very strange feeling barely going forward and putting in such a low effort, but knowing if you "cheat" you could be in a hospital, or dead! That, as it turned out, was plenty of incentive to stick to the plan. My "run" consisted of 15-30 second runs with 1-3 minute walking recoveries. I would walk until my HR was 85, and run to 105. When I started walking at 105, my HR would peak at 108-110.
In 2010, Dr Tobis was considered the world's leading surgeon for this procedure, and I was lucky to have him. Besides being a great surgeon, he is athlete friendly. I highly doubt that any other cardiologist would have been willing to define "safe" limits to allow be to attempt to complete by Kona race. It allowed me to experience a whole new world of the race, one I definitely had no comprehension of. While I have always had respect for the 17 hour finishers, actually being one of them gave me a completely new perspective.

Yes. Completely. Recovering from the stroke took some time, but we ran the Kona 1/2 marathon about 8 months after. The closure itself was relatively uneventful and is not a physical limiter once the implant site has healed.

Have they linked your strokes to the PFO? If so, no reason not to get it fixed as soon as possible.

Just to let you know, according to DAN (Divers Alert Network) a PFO is not a contra-indication to recreational diving, only technical diving.

I had my PFO closed in May 2015. They found it after I had suffered two undeserved cases of decompression sickness while recreational diving. It was a pain in the butt to get the insurance to pay for it because I'm not a professional diver so the insurance claimed it was elective. My doctors pushed for it because they thought it would also relieve my migraines (it didn't). The surgery was ... fun. I was awake for the whole damn thing and could see them working on a giant tv where they had the fluoroscope images to guide them. It turns out my PFO was freaking huge. The first closure device was 23mm and was too small. They had to go back and retrieve it because they had already released it. That's where the "fun" part came in. After they removed the first device, they inserted a 32mm device (so pretty big freaking hole). The doc said that with a PFO that large, I was pretty much guaranteed a stroke.

Anyways, I was 245 pounds at the time and was told that I couldn't lift anything for 6 weeks and to take it easy for 3 months. After that period I was told I could go back to cardio activities and I started playing pick up soccer with my coworkers. I was also cleared to start diving again. I took the opportunity to get serious about my health and started riding with the local C ride. I also decided to take triathlon seriously and fix my running. I never looked back.

I've been training 8-14 hours a week since then and also dropped 100 pounds through calorie counting. There is very little information for PFO closure patients on how to handle return to activity. My doctor basically told me to just listen to my body and take any chest pain seriously. Besides some crazy heart rate fluctuations the first 3 days after surgery, nothing has ever felt off. I was on blood thinners for 6 months and baby aspirin for a year, take that seriously (even if you look like a poster child for domestic abuse).

Message me or ask here if you have any other questions.

EDIT: Oh, and I also have the device listed on my road id's just in case.

really do not like to talk about this alot but i will.

first of all 1 in 4 people have pfos but not all turn into problems. a pregnant women is at risk of clots but my cardio. said he will not do a pfo closure unless he deims her at a otherwise high risk.

i have had 3 strokes. the first was almost 5 years ago. have every blood work up known to man to look for clotting disorder{you may check with doc on that}NOTHING. they continued to look and i had another about 1 1/2 year later they began looking at other causes knowing i had a pfo but said they thought it was to small for a clot to pass thru. 1 year later another this one was actually in the eye. so they puzzeled as to why a 59year old very otherwise heathy male was haveing strokes decided to do the pfo closure.

i live in norcal and decided i would go to what most would say are the best of the best, i went to stanford and they to had no real answers as to why. they told me at stanford that they felt the pfo closure was just a shot in the dark which i think many cases are.

get blood work done eliminate clotting disorders. there are a few of them.

be checked for afib. you can have it and not know it.

check for sleep apnea. all thes are possible factors in stroke.

i had a loop recorder device implanted about 4 weeks ago to have a long term study of my hearts electricty{afib} it can be subtle and infrequent.

they have me on xerelo just for saftey measure. there is whats called transient stroke where they have no answers to and it is not fun not getting answers when you live healthy life style.

thanks for sharing your story. You mentioned a lot of things i had no idea about. I have a lot of researh ahead of me before I see the doctor. It sounds like your life is very frustrating. I hope you get some answers to your strokes. I had no idea there were so many different kinds and reasons. thanks again. your information is extremely helpful.

thanks for all the information. and congratulations on discovering triathlons! It sounds like most people are able to return to endurance sports after the procedure. thanks again I really appreciate it

I'm curious if you were able to have the PFO closed and how it went. I was just diagnosed with both a PFO and an atrial septum aneurysm, via a bubble study. My cardiologist is meeting with me Monday to discuss. Not sure if a procedure is even allowed with my insurance, but I'm trying to get as much info before the meeting as possible.