Stress test question

[Bemabound 11]

Hi all,

I go in for all my pre-op testing on MOn.....I'm wondering about the stress test....what's it like? Is it like the normal ones that people get for check their hearts or are ours different somehow???? Any advice welcome and thanks for the support!!!! Tracy

[BriarRose 438]

Hi all,

I go in for all my pre-op testing on MOn.....I'm wondering about the stress test....what's it like? Is it like the normal ones that people get for check their hearts or are ours different somehow???? Any advice welcome and thanks for the support!!!! Tracy

My ekg came back funky so I had to do a cardiac stress test. If you can walk fast on a treadmil it's not bad. If you can't they give you a medication that makes your heart race to simulate what exercise does to your heart.

Because I have arthritis in my knees I had to have the medication. That was not fun. Otherwise it was easy.

You go in and they put an IV in your arm, then they inject a radioactive substance in the IV. They tape the IV down and you go to the hospital cafe or out to lunch to push the radio active crap out of your stomach into your blood stream. You come back and then either walk on treadmil or have the yucky injection. If you have the injection, they give you an antidote in 2 minutes. So it's over fast. Then you lie on like an x-ray table and put your hands over your head,and lie there while a camera thing goes around you and takes pictures for about 10 minutes.

BriarRose

[feedyoureye 3,087]

I didn't like it very much, but it was over super quick, and I felt just fine afterwards. I was given a drug that made me feel like I was climbing Everest. All of a sudden I had extreme shortness of breath and had to take a HUGE deep breath like I had not had oxygen for about 5 minutes. I felt like I was going to pass out... then no more than 5 minutes from start to finish, it was over and I was just fine. The technicians said some people do not get any effect at all. This could be you. I was sure that with my crazy response, I must have clogged arteries to the max... but my test came back better than normal so go figure. I was also given two shots of a radioactive isotope with a half life of about 2 seconds, I couldn't feel that at all. They were all very nice, and they just told me to close my eyes, and the machine didn't bother me. Some places use the old treadmill way to get up your heart rate, but because we are overweight, they don't want any bad side effects from lots of exercise. There ya go... my critique.

[disappearingme 0]

I had a Nuclear Treadmill Stress Test. First, they set up an IV and put in some thallium to do a SPECT scan. Then they set up the treadmill test, hooked me up with an EKG and blood pressure cuff. Stage one was just a walking pace. Stage two was a slightly faster walking at an incline and stage three was more of a fast run/jog. I only made it just over a minute into stage three and I was done. My heart rate got to 168 and I was on the treadmill for about 4 minutes. The first part wasn't bad, but the second was tough. A minute before I stopped, they injected me with more thallium and took my blood pressure again. I was so out of breath and light headed and it took quite a while for my heart rate to come back down to 100. Then, they put me back in the SPECT scan to take more pictures. The whole thing took about 4 hours.

[Bemabound 11]

Thanks guys....I'm really not sure what they are going to have me do...they have 5 tests set up....one after the other with them all only lasting 2 hours total. A Psch eval, nut, ekg, chest xray and the stress test...Hum...so I gues it will be a surprise. My surgeon said if you can walk for the parking lot to the hospital that you should be fine! We'll see!!!!