REVIEW - Pac Sun N819 10th-17th May 08

[gizzigoo]

Hi Glenda,

I was wondering how your son had the problem with his lungs. From your last post, it looks as if he either did not have, or did not know that he had, asthma prior to the dive. I have been told by a dive company that anyone with asthma cannot breathe the compressed air used in scuba diving. Asthmatics are unable to fully expell the air from their lungs, and the compressed air expands and ruptures the lung. Could this be what happened to your son? Is it possible he may have had asthma (recently come on) but not been aware of it. I was diagnosed 18 months ago with asthma and then realised I had had it for around three years. Because I had never had it before, I didn't realise. It took a very thorough doctor to pick it up. A medical person would be able to tell you whether the ruptured lung was caused by asthma (undiagosed) rather than the ruptured lung causing asthma. Sounds like he might need a bit of extra TLC from Mum.:):)

 

Hi Ela,

It would have been a huge shock to you when you were diagnosed with asthma.

My son is one of those people who never really gets sick but one of my other children is a chronic asthmatic. So it was a huge shock to me when our doctor said it looks like he has asthma after we got home from the cruise. It's not something that has ever been thought of previously. On the dive he was having trouble equalising his ears, so he was going up and down. The when he got back he told me he was coughing up blood. So straight to the medical centre and they did xrays and there were 4 tears and one emphysema bubble in his lungs, his oxygen was down. We just had to watch him very carefully, so he was a bit off after that. Yep, I am not sure how he got the asthma, he may have always had it and has just never been ill so it has never showed up until now.

[gizzigoo]

Gizzigoo

Yes, I did see your son around the ship quite a bit.

Glad to hear hes ok now.

Your lucky youve booked another cruise so quick!

Im always looking for "that bargain fare" to pop up- but might have to save the pennys for a while as we have jiust done 2 cruises in 7 months.

Might have to limit it to 1 per year!!! :rolleyes:

 

I can so relate, I would love to be doing many cruises a year, and two in 7 months is pretty fantastic, lucky you! I can see how they could become a real obsession. I booked the next one as I was really happy with the price and I have a year to save, probably the only drawback is that we have to travel from Sydney to meet the ship and that is costly. I also would love to go on the freedom of the seas and this is as close to that as I could get in OZ.

There is a really good one coming up on the pac dawn where the air fares are included and it is t class, boy I want to do this one, really badly, I have been asking friends if they want to come with me to share the cost!

But our daughter is getting married in November and this is costing quite a bit, so it is certainly going to leave us poor. I did try to convince her to get married on the next cruise!

[Ela 2]

Hi Ela,

It would have been a huge shock to you when you were diagnosed with asthma.

My son is one of those people who never really gets sick but one of my other children is a chronic asthmatic. So it was a huge shock to me when our doctor said it looks like he has asthma after we got home from the cruise. It's not something that has ever been thought of previously. On the dive he was having trouble equalising his ears, so he was going up and down. The when he got back he told me he was coughing up blood. So straight to the medical centre and they did xrays and there were 4 tears and one emphysema bubble in his lungs, his oxygen was down. We just had to watch him very carefully, so he was a bit off after that. Yep, I am not sure how he got the asthma, he may have always had it and has just never been ill so it has never showed up until now.

I am sorry to hear how bad this ruptured lung was and hope your son recovers fully. Glad to hear how good the medical attention was on the Pacific Sun, not that I am surprised. Even if the dive company asked on their health questionnaire if your son had asthma, not knowing that he did, he would have answered 'no'. I scuba dived around 15 years ago (before I had asthma) and they adamantly refused another woman because she ticked 'asthma' on the health questionnaire.

 

Your son may not have always had the asthma, just developed it fairly recently. You mention that he never really gets sick, so he (like me) would not realise he had asthma. Mine came on in my late 50s (known as late-onset). Two of my children had asthma (one until he was around 13, and the other from around 13 and still has it at age 30). Anyone would think that I would recognise the symptoms of asthma, but I wasn't looking for it. Didn't think I would get asthma.

 

Look after your son (I am sure you are) and give him an extra hug.:)