all good news

And now I am done with all of the testing. They moved my 10 AM appointment today for the stress test up to 8 AM and I am not an early riser. I had less than a half hour between waking up and leaving the house. Did I mention it's a good hour's drive to see this cardiologist? It's on back roads though so no traffic and better scenery. So I drove to his office yesterday morning and got the heart monitor which I wore the rest of the day and the night and it is a pain to have to sleep with what with the five wires stuck to you and the little box in a pocket on a neck strap so I didn't get a great night's sleep between it and the cat who seems to consider it her life's mission to wake me up at least three times every night.

Today I returned the heart monitor and underwent the stress test. The first thing was to get my IV in so they could inject the radioactive tracer at the proper time. I was the tech's first stick of the day, I guess, and he had to stick me three times before he could get the IV in. The first one he just couldn't get. The second one he jabbed me a good one or two (still have a painful lump there and a deepening bruise) and then accused me of moving my arm and still didn't get it in. I told him basically that I'd had enough IVs and blood drawn in my life that I knew not to move my arm. The third time he switched to my other arm and did a perfect job but the whole thing didn't do my stress level any good considering the poor start to my day on an empty stomach and no coffee.

Next I was led to the room with the treadmill and they stuck 8 wires to my chest and buckled the box to my waist and from it went a cable or two to the monitor and I could see my heart beat rhythm jumping away on the graph. And, yeah, that's totally me in the picture unlike all those other old people in the waiting room.

image via: https://www.healthtap.com/topics/stress-test

They took my blood pressure which was a little on the high side (because the guy had just fucking stuck me three times and I didn't want radioactive anything injected into my blood) and again during the three different speeds on the treadmill and as the speed increased, so did my blood pressure. About halfway through the 8 minutes on the treadmill, they injected the nuclear tracer into my blood stream. Done with the treadmill, they unhooked all the wires, took out the IV, and sent me to the next room which was the x-ray machine where they attach three wires and you lay down on a bed of sorts and they push you into the working part and you lie still for about 10 minutes while this thing rotates around you and looks at the tracer flowing through your heart. 

image via: http://www.fredcardio.com/services-procedures/stress-testing/

Then they sent me into the waiting room where four other people were waiting to undergo the tests I had just had.

After a while they came and got me for my face to face with the doctor who said everything looked good, monitor had one little blip that he wasn't concerned about and the stress test was good, no sign of any blockage, good heartbeat, didn't even mention the AFib episodes and when I brought it up at the end he sort of waved it away as nothing to worry about. He was more concerned with my rising blood pressure during the test but not so much that he was going to suggest medication. Just monitor it at home and come back in a couple of months. I've never had a problem with my blood pressure until this year with first time visits to two doctors and lots of invasive tests with possible heinous results so if my blood pressure holds steady for the next two months, I'll probably put off the return visit.

One thing this whole experience has done has gotten me really in tune with my heartbeat. Sitting here, resting, I can close my eyes and sense my pulse, feel it throbbing along. I expect that will fade after a while when I return to a less vigilant position concerning my general well being.