Tuesday this week I had to get to the hospital at 8 AM for my stress test. Once I got back there, they started an IV so that they could administer some kind of radioactive fluid that is needed to take good pictures of my heart. I had to wait 45 minutes for the fluid to get through my body, so they went ahead and did my echo to take advantage of the downtime.
The echo chick was nice. I had to put on a gown so that she would have access to the left side of my chest. All she did was do a sonogram of my heart from a ton of angles. She took about 25 minutes or so to finish. Wasn't so bad!
Once I wiped off all the gel and got dressed, it was time for my pre-stress test photos. I laid down on this very thin (8 inches wide) strip of metal with a pillow under my knees for comfort. The nurse told me to put my left arm above my head and then gave me a rope to hold on to. My right arm had the IV still in it and although it was "flexible", it was painfully uncomfortable to bend my arm and they wouldn't let me hold my arm across my waist anyway, so I had to tuck a few fingers under my butt to keep my arm still.
The photo taking machine was very close to my chest and it rotated around from left to right, stopping about a dozen times to take photos from all kinds of angles. The whole process of pre-stress test pix took 10 minutes.
When it was done, I could move my arms and my poor right hand was completely numb. The nurse helped me up and took me to the treadmill room.
I met two ladies -- one was in charge of the machine that controls the treadmill and also monitors my heart rate and blood pressure. The second lady was there to watch me on the treadmill and once my heart rate got to 85% of max (which was about 156 bpm), she was to inject me with more radioactive fluid.
The treadmill started at an incline at at around 2.5 mph. Within a couple minutes my heart rate jumped from the 90s to the 120s. I was thinking based on that quick increase, this would be a piece of cake.
Boy was I wrong.
I hovered in the 120s for so long that they decided to bump it up -- the incline AND the speed...to 3 mph. Eventually my heart rate went up to the upper 140s. After another minute or two they bumped up the speed to 3.5 mph and I felt like I was at my max. They asked me if I was OK, do I feel lightheaded, etc...and I responded, "Just trying to breathe!!"...
I couldn't walk at 3.5 mph (had to go into a jog), so they decreased it to 3.0 and I was so close to 156 bpm that they went ahead and stopped the treadmill and injected the fluid into my IV.
Then they made me sit in a chair for 10 minutes to get my heart rate down back down under 100.
After that, I was taken back to the thin metal bed and did those pictures for a 2nd time. The goal is that both pictures "match".
Once they released me I headed home and took a 3 hour nap. Oh by the way, I was on the treadmill for a total of 7 minutes and 6 seconds. I am so out of shape. In my defense, though, they didn't let me warm up or cool down, which I would've done to increase my endurance in a normal treadmill workout....and eventually build up the incline, but really they just threw me into it to make my heart beat faster quickly.
Friday morning I got a call from that office from Ann. She informed me that I had PASSED my echo, that it was NORMAL. She said she did not have my stress test results as Dr. Langhorne was not in the office today, but I would get them some time next week hopefully.
Next week is the BIG week. MY big week. Last NUT appointment, final write up....I also have support group, have to get some blood drawn for my 6 month PCP appointment. Just LOTS to do.
Ann seemed confident that my stress test results would be fine based on my good echo. We shall see. I am crossing my fingers.
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