I had contrast injected then a echo-cardiogram done to see how my heart was dancing around in there. Then I was taken to the dreaded treadmill room. I really should have talked to them about using my inhaler! After having half dozen or so electrodes were attached to my chest in various places we ended up waiting for a doctor to come supervise. To fill time the tech showed me the EKG readings that were abnormal both a few days ago and still (to a slightly lesser degree) this morning. (Which I appreciated because I like to know what's going on). Basically, the t-wave is slightly inverted. This can mean that there is a portion of the heart that is not working adequately. The question was whether stressing the heart would fix the inversion or make it worse.
It took me 7 1/2 minutes on the treadmill to hit 90% max heart rate (a perfectly average time, I was glad to know). From a cursory glance the doc said it looked okay. In women, however, 30% of cases slip through the EKG with stress, so after I lay down for a while and decided I was not going to actually throw up (I *really* should have had my inhaler!) I was put through the echo machine again.
I haven't heard back yet, so I assume everything is fine. Apparently an inverted t-wave can be normal for some people (though it never has been on past EKGs of mine). No news is good news at this point. Since I have no risk factors for heart disease it is very unlikely that there will be any further problems. We just need to makes sure they're all ruled out. Preliminary results should be available tomorrow or the next day with finalization in a week or so (which apparently is the difference between a doctor finishing the paperwork or not).
The really obnoxious part has been the remainder of today. Stumping along at increasing speeds and inclines with fibro that is only managing gentle stretching right now was not particularly pleasant. My heart rate, which has been pretty high as a general rule lately, has been crazy high the rest of today. It has been above 125 each time I checked. (I checked because I was pretty sure my heart was going to pound out of my chest!). Along with this is shoulder aches, chest tightness, neck pain, etc. Since none of it started until well after the test I assume it's just my body's reaction to stress and not just my heart's reaction to the stress. I am treating it as an anxiety attack and a flare and waiting to hear back.
I do realize that calling and talking to the doctor may have been a clever move with these symptoms, but I tried and they ticked me off. :P I just wanted to ask what side effects the two contrasts they used on me may have and if they may be causing or encouraging this tightness and pain (which kept me half the afternoon in a hot bath). The person who answered the phone said she'd have to ask a nurse and put me on hold. After a few minutes the line rang through again, as it does, but after listening to the phone ring for 8 more minutes I gave up and decided I wasn't dead yet and truly didn't believe myself to be in any risk of being so at any time soon.
SO there's my experience with a cardiac stress test. I expect to be told that I'm just "abnormal" with a little divot in my t-wave. I suppose I just like to be unique!
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