Stress Test

I was feeling a little down about our health care system after my fruitless visit to emergency on Friday. Even though something very real had happened in my body, it was discouraging to leave with the impression that nothing significant had happened at all. Even though I had been given the stress test appointment, I had no allusions that my mystery symptoms would reappear during a treadmill fitness test and fully expected to be instantly dismissed.

Within minutes of arriving at the Cardiac Centre I was joined by a fellow emergency room buddy. Her eyes brightened up when she recognized me and we laughed when we realized that our similar symptoms had landed us with identical follow-up appointments. I never did learn her name but I found out that she didn't leave the ER until 3:30am and we were both grateful that we hadn't caught the illnesses that the other waiting room patients had displayed.

The stress test went as predicted and was over in less than 10 minutes. No sign of blockage to/from my heart. That is good news. Instead of dismissal, however, I was encouraged to undergo two more tests: an ultrasound (echo) and a "Cardio Loop".

The ultrasound was more comfortable than the ones I experienced during pregnancy--probably because I hadn't ingested a gallon of water first and had my bladder poked & prodded while they attempted to get images of my unborn children. This ultrasound was a little more awkward though if you think about a jelled-up instrument probing in the general vicinity of your heart in a dark room. Thank goodness the echo technician was a female!

The Cardio Loop is a procedure that involves a EKG recording device that is attached by electrodes in two places and it is going to be my constant companion for the next two weeks. It is always recording and erasing on a delay, waiting for me to push the button if my chest spasms occur again. If they do, the device will permanently record the 15 seconds before and after I push the button. After 10 pushes I have to download the recordings via phone (think fax machine) to the Cardiac Centre and then my device is reset to record again. Very cool technology. Sean, my technician, assures me that I have been given a less technologically advanced model because I'm less elderly and appear to be able to follow instructions. We'll see about that!

So, from now until my vacation I am wired up to catch another occurance of Friday's incident. It's hard for me to imagine that the chest pains will reoccur but I am armed and ready to record it if it does!