Heart Stopping News

I have good news and I have bad news. Let's start with the bad news. On Thursday morning I had a doctor's appointment so I could get approved to get SCUBA certified. I went to Uni-Health Medical Center, had my examination and was told I cannot complete my certification. Why? Well it seems that I have an irregular heart beat: a murmur. Hmmm. You can imagine I was rather surprised to find this out as I had never been told this by any doctor in the past. The woman even gave me and ECG and the results showed that my heart was in fact irregular in nature. She sent me off with a referral to a cardiologist and a considerably lighter wallet. Thank you Australian health-care system, thank you.

I was sort of mopey the rest of the day; not so much that I had a screwy heart but because I wouldn't be able to go diving in the Great Barrier Reef. After some internal conflict and some thinking I thought hey, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade, no? That afternoon I booked a two day live-aboard snorkel trip in Cairns for the Saturday and Sunday of Easter. The story gets better. The good news.

There is a doctor who lives on campus: Dr. Joseph Lee. He works at the Townsville Hospital and is new to the city, hence why he is living in Pauls. Anyways, he is a cardiologist and specializes in adult health. It wasn't until Maddie and Lucy reminded me of this at lunch that I was like "hey, maybe he will give me a quick listen-listen and give me a second opinion." At around 10:00pm, I finally tracked down the good doctor. Here was his synopsis of the situation. First, my heart beat is in fact slower than normal because I am a "fit guy." Second, the irregularities in my heart, coming from the right side, are because my heart is "super strong" because I am a "super fit guy." Apparently murmurs and such are mistaken, clearly with people of my age group are "super fit." I felt so much better. I think I am going to hold off on the diving because I would still have to go to a cardiologist here to get approved and that would take a lot of time and money. So the moral of the story, I paid $80 to receive a complement...thank you Australia, thank you.