Stress test

I went to hospital this morning for the rearranged stress test on my heart to rule out any structural reasons for atrial flutter.

In the past, to stress test the heart, you used to run on a treadmill until exhausted while your heart was monitored through an ECG and blood pressure.

Apparently, there were many side effects to this physical exertion including bringing on heart attacks. Nowadays you lie on a couch and are injected with a radio active tracer and a drug that stimulates the heart. You can get breathless, sweaty with a headache. I was fortunate in not feeling anything, just a strange sensation as the drug went in.

You had to eat a cheese sandwich afterwards to help remove the radiation. And you could have a coffee, something not permitted 24 hours before the procedure. Then you had the CT scan, which is where todays blip was snapped (with the permission of the staff)

No ill effects. I went to the Marmite Uke jam this evening which was very enjoyable.

I was instructed not to hug children or pregnant women for 24 hours owing to being radioactive. My follow up appointment with a consultant is not until next January.