Hump Day

Today I am trying to get caught up from all I missed yesterday. Except I have Kitty that keeps insisting on sitting on my lap and making it hard to do anything! And yes, I am still in my nightgown so don't judge.

Yesterday was really a long day. I had my annual physical a few weeks ago and my EKG came out abnormal so they referred me to a cardiologist. I had to go in fasting in case they wanted blood, so there was one strike. I'm always starving in the mornings and to go without breakfast is really hard for me, especially since I am a diabetic. So, I arrive at 9:45am for my appointment and they take me back pretty quick. Nurse got my info and vitals and then the doctor with his med student and 3 nurses come in. Guess my patient history was interesting to them with the family heart disease.

He asked me lots of questions and talked a lot about my dad's issues, which isn't too unusal. He showed me what was "wrong" with my EKG but also said since I didn't have any symptoms, he wasn't too concerned yet. He did want me to take a stress test, which I was expecting, so off we went. Except nobody had told me how long this process would take. Strike two.

Had to get insurance approval, which they got quickly, so that wasn't a big deal. Then I had to have an IV put into my arm and that mother hurt! When I described the needle to Brenna, she said they used a big one on me, so that explains that. Plus, I hate needles anyway and they had to leave it in me most of the day I was there. I could feel it and it bothered me. But I'm a big baby like that.

After the IV, they shot some junk into it, had to wait 30 minutes which really turned into 45 minutes and then I had to lay down while they took a pic of my heart. 15 minutes on a hard table with your arms above your head. Great. Next step was an echo cardiogram of my heart and my arteries in my neck. You know, the big ones. That wasn't too bad except by this time it's after 1pm and I am starving. I did end up with ultrasound goop all over my chest and neck though.

Finally they took me back for the actual stress test on the treadmill. Hooked me up to all the wires and got me going. They wanted my target heart rate to be 147 and I told them it wouldn't take me too long since I'm so out of shape. They start you out pretty slow and then every 3 minutes they up the speed and the incline. I was fine until the second raise and that aboout killed me. They said I did really good though, so who knows. My heart rate came down pretty quickly too. They had pushed more junk into my IV at the end of that and then I had to wait another 30 minutes. At least they gave me some crackers and juice to eat because by then it was about 2:30 and I had a horrible headache.

After waiting for 45 minutes again they took me back for another heart scan and I got to lay there with my arms above my head on the hard table again. At least the tech stayed in the room that time with me and we talked. He was from Sudan and had lived all other the world as his dad was a diplomat, so he was pretty interesting.

At 3:15 I was finally released! Almost 6 hours it took. What a waste of a day. Well, probably not, but I sure wish they had warned me it would take so long. I would have at least brought a book. I have a follow up on the 29th but Brenna said if they had seen anything they were worried about they wouldn't have even let me leave, so I'm not too worried. I am sure I will get the lecture about need to excersize and loose weight. Tell me something I don't know.

So, they came close with two strikes, but they didn't strike out with me. There was one point I was ready to walk out to go get something to eat though! After I finally left I had to go to the grocery store. It was amazing I didn't walk out of there with a ton of junk food because I was still so hungry.

What a day!