BootsnAll Travel Network



Phuket Island, Thailand (Post #91)

Whew! Michele here…I am finally caught up on the blogs!  Yeah! Today is Saturday, February 18th and we are currently on Phuket island in southern Thailand. We arrived here on Monday, February 13th with the hopes of seeing Dr. Luba Matic, the dive doctor Mike had talked to while we were on Ko Tao. We were also considering seeing a cardiologist so that Mike could get his heart examined.  Upon landing at the airport we had two plans in mind depending on what the doctor(s) told Mike. 

Plan A: If Mike’s heart was o.k. we would find a dive shop and sign up for an Open Water (beginning) Scuba Diving course.  Plan B: If Mike’s heart was not o.k., we would just move on to a more southern part of Thailand, called Trang, not far from the Malaysia border. 

After landing at the Phuket airport we took a mini-van to Patong Beach where Dr. Luba was located.  He was very friendly and knowledgeable about Mike’s condition.  While he wasn’t a cardiologist, when we described the events surrounding the episode in Turkey, he was pretty sure it was caused by something doctors often refer to as ***’Holiday Heart’ (this is a condition wherein an otherwise healthy heart is sent into atrial fibrillation as a result of excessive alcohol consumption and the condition is actually relatively common).  He suspected Mike was probably O.K. and could discontinue using the medications but also strongly reccommended Mike see a cardiologist at the nearby Bangkok Samui Hospital for a thorough examination.

With our backpacks on and no where to stay yet, we took a tuk tuk to the hospital and yes, finally, Mike was able to see a real cardiologist.  She examined him, did an EKG and, at Mike’s request, an echocardiogram (took pictures of his heart with ultrasound), and told him he should no longer be on medication and that his heart was fine.  I was thrilled when I heard this news from Mike. 

We then got a taxi back to Patong Beach and talked to the Dr. Luba again. With the good news from the cardiologist, he said it was o.k. for Mike to sign up for the Open Water (beginning) Scuba Dive Course. We actually had a very educational late afternoon with the good Dr.  He showed us his hyperbaric chamber, which is a space age looking capsule where divers with decompression illness go to get treatment.  At 5:00pm, we told him we needed to leave since we still didn’t have a place to stay yet.  Since we were tired and just wanted a place to crash, we ended up getting a room at Nine Ten Mansion (a guesthouse/hotel) next to Dr. Luba’s office in Patong beach. 

The next day, Tuesday, February 14th, we signed up for a 4 day Open Water dive course with Warm Water Divers which included two dives from Kata Noi, a beach south of Patong, and two dives off a boat at Racha Yai island (a small island about 1.5 hours from the island of Phuket). When we signed up we were told to read approximately 150 pages in the Open Water study guide that night and be ready to take a test on the chapters that these 150 pages covered in the morning.  Let me tell you, this was dense material.  Mike and I studied for approximately 6 hours, highlighting and underlining the important material and taking the mini-quizes in the book. 

The next morning we started our 4 day course at 9:00am.  We had classroom instruction and testing from 9:00a to 12:30p and then we went to the swimming pool from 1:45 to 6:00pm. The entire time we were in the pool we practiced drills and skills.  We were told to read and study the remaining 100 pages in the book since we would be tested again the next day.  Ugh!  We studied until almost midnight and were pretty tired when we went to bed.

The next day, Feb 15th was similar to the previous day. We started at 9:00am, did classroom stuff, then took several tests.  In the afternoon, we went back to the pool to develop more skills. We were relieved when we were back at our hotel room by late afternoon.

The last 2 days of the course involved diving in the ocean.  The first open water dive we did from Kata Noi beach.  Although we saw a lot of fish, the focus was on practicing and passing more skills tests. At one point, we were in what was sort of like a sand storm underwater and Mike and I were trying to practice emergency procedures while being “blown” all over the place by the currents.  We really had to hang on each other in order to do the emergency procedures properly.  We both enjoyed being under water for our two 45 minute dives, breathing easily through our respirators and living (briefly) in the underwater world.

Today we traveled 1.5 hours with about 20 other people to a nearby island.  Although our first dive involved more skills and emergency procedure practice, we saw a vast array of fish and coral.  The water was clear and the sun was shining which made for great visibility.  Our second dive was much more fun since we had completed nearly all of our under water tests and skill sets.  We swam in the middle of huge schools of fish, saw a Morey eel pop out of its hole, and observed many, many other unusually shaped and brightly colored fish.  We really felt as though we were in another world when we were under water.  After our second dive today we got back on the boat and received our PADI Open Water cards.  YEA!  Now we can scuba dive anywhere in the world and are looking forward to our next underwater adventure.  Here we are in all our scuba gear:     

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Tomorrow (Feb 19th) we head south to Trang, Thailand, where we hope to do some kayaking around the national marine parks in the area and also do some island exploring. With no more sicknesses (currently) life is good! 

***Mike chimes in about ‘Holiday Heart’ — I want to stress to our readers that my the heat problems i had in Turkey can happen to anyone who consumes excessive amounts of alcohol.  On the night preceeding my incident, i had consumed maybe 10 drinks.  While this is relatively unusual for me, it doesn’t matter.  Admittedly, i don’t understand all of the physiology involved but the bottom line is the alcohol caused a chamber  of my heart (my left atrium) to become inflamed which, in turn, caused one of the chambers of my heart to beat arrhythmically.  While this in itself isn’t so dangerous, it causes turbulent flow within that chamber which can produce a particle of blood clot within the chamber.  Upon returning to normal beat, the heart can subsequently send this particle out into the bloodstream.  This is dangerous because it can get lodged in the brain, for example, and ultimately cause a stroke.  All of this just because of a few too many drinks… scary!



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-23 responses to “Phuket Island, Thailand (Post #91)”

  1. JSmith says:

    Mike,

    Glad to hear the old heart’s doin’ better.

    -Smith

  2. You two have the best reports. Wow. I’m glad you’re both healthy and kickin! You both look great in your scuba attire. Great pictures as always. Thanks for sharing your stories and pictures. Have a blast!

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