The heart of the matter

Losing love is like a window in your heart, as the song goes.  But the other week I was given the opportunity to have another (and much less painful) glimpse into my heart.  This view was made possible by an echocardiogram, courtesy of the Bristol Royal Infirmary.  Having never had something like that before I was unsure of what the experience would be like.  As it turns out, it’s rather like having an ultrasound during pregnancy or at least how I imagine it would be...but about a foot higher up.

Once the specialist had found the right spots for getting a good image (and that’s not easy considering what’s in the way, if you catch my drift), the aim was then to find out how the blood was flowing through my heart and if the flow murmur that was detected a few years ago was anything more sinister or potentially dangerous.  For a former chemical engineer, investigating turbulent fluid flow and valves was an uncanny reminder of the career I left behind and, to be honest, exactly how much I have forgotten in the intervening years.  So the standard black and white images on the screen were enhanced by a continually changing spectrum of colour indicating direction of fluid flow.  This was also accompanied by the amplified sound of my heart beating or at least the sound that the beats generate in the ultrasound machine.  Apparently, despite the romanticism that surrounds the idea of a heartbeat, my beating heart sounds remarkably close to sheet metal being waved around.  Not very attractive I have to admit.

But the result is all that matters, so what was the final diagnosis?  Well, thankfully there’s nothing much wrong.  As the specialist said, nothing is leaking or flowing in the wrong direction, which can only be good news for plumbing – albeit of the internal variety.  So I was allowed to go on my merry way – with my slightly noisy, but otherwise undamaged, heart.  Next stop, the brain...

A rather blurry photo of the screen with the ultrasound – I think the specialist was rather bemused by my interest in the images. Needless to say they don’t print them out for you to take home.