I think by now I've had just about every type of stress test there is; run-of-the-mill-treadmill, nuclear, and cardio-pulmonary. The only one I can think of that I haven't done is chemical. And I'm ok with that. I also hope I never have to see another treadmill as long as I live.
About a week and a half ago I had a nuclear stress done to try to determine to cause of my chest pain. Doing a nuclear stress test is a long game of "hurry up and wait". I went in and was hooked up to all the leads for the heart monitor (EKG) and an IV for my radioactive dye. Then I sat for an hour so they could get x-ray pictures of my heart at its resting heart rate. Then I got to hop on the treadmill. Oh joy! Having already done a regular stress test I knew what to expect. The treadmill starts off slow and gets more and more intense. I was told the goal was get my heart rate up to at least 150+ beats per minute. I only made it to about 140 beats before we had to stop because of pain and shortness of breath. Then I got more radiation and some medication to open my blood vessels. Then it was hurry up and wait again, but this time for about 15 minutes. More pictures were taken of my heart. All in all, this whole process took about four hours.
The results were that my heart is completely healthy and normal. So my cardiologist referred me back to the doctor who did my coiling procedure in September to see what his opinion was. My cardiologist told me that if I stayed with him, the best he could do was treat me with medication and he didn't want to keep throwing more and more pills at me. So off to the specialist I went.
At his office, he suggested we do a cardio-pulmonary stress test to see if there was a correlation between the shortness of breath and the chest pain. This stress test is a little different in that you are hooked up to a breathing apparatus that measures your oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output. It also keeps track of your heart and watches to make sure it isn't being deprived of oxygen while it is doing its job. Good news is, my heart and lungs are healthy and normal. Everything looks great. Although I wouldn't suggest doing this test when you have a sore throat like I did. It's like tiny fire icicles being driven into the back of your throat and you can't swallow because your mouth has a giant plastic tube shoved in it! But I'm ok.
So. What does all this mean now?
It means that I have to push through this setback. The chest pain is not something that is going to hurt me, it is not warning me that something is wrong and I'm certainly not going to die because of it. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I have been told to start pushing myself. I need to get out and start moving; get my heart pumping again. Get it used to the lifestyle I want to live. I can't help but remember five years ago after my first stroke when I was told to stop all activities until they figured things out. And then it took five years to figure things out. In fact, it wasn't until this past September I was finally released to resume normal activity. And now that my chest hurts when I resume normal activity... AAAHH! It's enough to drive a person crazy.
This is going to take some getting used to.
And I didn't even get superpowers from all the radiation I've been exposed to the last five years.
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