No wonder I'm confused about whether P.F.O.s are linked to stroke. The Science News site says: "But in some cases, blood clots passing through the PFO can shoot to the head and trigger strokes. Air bubbles and dissolved chemicals can also slip through the one-way shunt rather than ride to the lungs, where they'd be exhaled or broken down. To reduce the (woman's) odds of another stroke, Sztajzel and his colleagues at the University Hospitals of Geneva performed surgery to close her PFO. According to the patient, her migraines immediately disappeared." But of course Mayo's website is likely a more reliable and more up-to-date source. What does predestine mean exactly, though? It still may leave room for greater possibility of stroke, if not certainty of one.

SO glad your heart is pumping as it should now, Liz. Dance to the beat of that inner drum, my London guardian angel!

~b.w.