Monday I had my Nuclear Stress test. Here is what transpired:We arrived at the doctor's at 11:45 am and of course had to wait a bit before being taken into the nuclear medicine office. A small injection port was inserted into my wrist with a big honk’n needle (which hurt of course) and was taped into place. The tech then took out of a lead lined box the nuclear dye which was then injected into the port. There was no burning or other sensation - thank goodness because the needle on that syringe was BIG.
[Note: I HATE needles, when I was in third grade I bit the doctor who was trying to give me a tetanus shot. He had to have one too!]
I then went back to the waiting for 45 minutes while the dye to be dispersed through my system.
Eventually I was taken back to nuclear medicine where I laid on a table with my arms over my head for 20 minutes while the imaging head (a big table like thing) slowly rotated from right to left. During this time "YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO MOVE" because you can blur the image. As your shoulders start to ache and quiver from your arms being over your head, you are lectured by the tech - DON'T MOVE
After that, I was sent back to the waiting room for the stress test. I had to wait about 15 minutes.
Once in the room, the nurse put all 12 leads on my chest (for the EKG) and put me on the treadmill and cranked that puppy up.
I know it was the same test I took in early June but it seemed harder and of course during this they took my BP every minute.
Every 2 minutes (?) they increased the speed and angle of the treadmill.
At 8 minutes I thought that I was going to lose my footing and get flung off the back of the tread mill. Luckily, the test was almost done and at this point the nuclear tech came back in and injected me with the nuclear dye AGAIN. After the injection they lowered the angle and dropped the speed of the tread mill but I had to stay on for another 1 minute so my heart would really assist with the dispersion of the dye.
And of course, then I had to go back to the waiting room for another 45 minutes.
I was eventually called by the nuclear tech and once again I went back to the imaging room to be recorded for another 20 minutes with my arms over my head. This time though, my heart beat was audible on a monitor speaker. You could hear each time there was a missed beat or a double beat - which was rather disturbing because you wonder if the next beat will happen when there is a longer pause between the beats.
When the scan was over I went back to the waiting room because I now had to have the 24 hour recording monitor put on.
(I went back to the doctor's office Tuesday at 4pm for it to be removed and they can down load it to their computer for analysis)
We left the office about 3:00 pm and we went out for late lunch or early dinner as I had not eaten anything since 9 am.
When we got home I watched television for a while and went to bed.
Oh, and Erich had fun with the Geiger counter again as I am emitting radioactivity (for about 3 days and less each day.).
These are beta particles vs. gamma from the iodine when I had my thyroid removed. Today I still set the thing off!
Sounds like fun eh?
I get the results NEXT Tuesday.
I was very tired yesterday and feeling a bit better today.
[Note: I HATE needles, when I was in third grade I bit the doctor who was trying to give me a tetanus shot. He had to have one too!]
I then went back to the waiting for 45 minutes while the dye to be dispersed through my system.
Eventually I was taken back to nuclear medicine where I laid on a table with my arms over my head for 20 minutes while the imaging head (a big table like thing) slowly rotated from right to left. During this time "YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO MOVE" because you can blur the image. As your shoulders start to ache and quiver from your arms being over your head, you are lectured by the tech - DON'T MOVE
After that, I was sent back to the waiting room for the stress test. I had to wait about 15 minutes.
Once in the room, the nurse put all 12 leads on my chest (for the EKG) and put me on the treadmill and cranked that puppy up.
I know it was the same test I took in early June but it seemed harder and of course during this they took my BP every minute.
Every 2 minutes (?) they increased the speed and angle of the treadmill.
At 8 minutes I thought that I was going to lose my footing and get flung off the back of the tread mill. Luckily, the test was almost done and at this point the nuclear tech came back in and injected me with the nuclear dye AGAIN. After the injection they lowered the angle and dropped the speed of the tread mill but I had to stay on for another 1 minute so my heart would really assist with the dispersion of the dye.
And of course, then I had to go back to the waiting room for another 45 minutes.
I was eventually called by the nuclear tech and once again I went back to the imaging room to be recorded for another 20 minutes with my arms over my head. This time though, my heart beat was audible on a monitor speaker. You could hear each time there was a missed beat or a double beat - which was rather disturbing because you wonder if the next beat will happen when there is a longer pause between the beats.
When the scan was over I went back to the waiting room because I now had to have the 24 hour recording monitor put on.
(I went back to the doctor's office Tuesday at 4pm for it to be removed and they can down load it to their computer for analysis)
We left the office about 3:00 pm and we went out for late lunch or early dinner as I had not eaten anything since 9 am.
When we got home I watched television for a while and went to bed.
Oh, and Erich had fun with the Geiger counter again as I am emitting radioactivity (for about 3 days and less each day.).
These are beta particles vs. gamma from the iodine when I had my thyroid removed. Today I still set the thing off!
Sounds like fun eh?
I get the results NEXT Tuesday.
I was very tired yesterday and feeling a bit better today.
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