My day begins at 5. I usually wake (either on my own because I’m an old fogey or the dogs do it) around 4:30p. I have 90 minutes before the kids get up for school. Often my workout happens in this pocket of time. But not today (ominous foreshadowing).
- Meditate
- Feed and walk dogs
- Prowl the interwebs/email/etc.
Breakfast = 2 hard boiled eggs, since caffeine and dairy don’t mix well with stress tests.
6:30: Roust Thing 1 for 7th grade. Make breakfast and lunches.
7:10: Roust Thing 2. Chase her around with hair brush, beg her to put shoes/socks on faster.
7:20: Thing 1 is out the door and off to the bus
7:55: Walk Thing 2 (with canine escort) to the bus
8:15: Head to hospital for nuclear stress test. Spend way too much time figuring out which of the million buildings/wings I need to be in. Finally just pick a garage, any garage, and park. Front desk woman is super sweet when she maps out a 40-mile hike to the proper wing and asks if I need an ‘assistance cart’.
9:30: I finally find Cardiac registration and settle in for a 30-minute wait. Thank heavens I brought my Galaxy Tab2!
10:05: I’m taken to the stress test room where I meet the techs as my IV is inserted. There’s a problem with the tubing. Heaven help her if she needs to stick me again. Thankfully she does not. I get my gown and electrodes that have become all too familiar thru this heart mystery. BP is 100/60. They are impressed, especially after the IV fiasco.
11:00: A Physiologist comes in and we start the test. Walking on a mill to start, adding incline every 3 minutes. My heart takes a loooong time to increase. Although they only need my HR to get to 156, they tell me to go until I can’t, so I do. At some point a guy in a white coat joins us (he may have been behind me, who knows? and looks at the monitor. I’m guessing he’s a cardiologist. He signs something and leaves. The techs look on in admiration and tell me I’ve got ‘the record’. Yeah but my ‘competition’ is in walkers and wheel chairs.
Tired of waiting for me to cry uncle, as I’m still running at 47 degree incline, they inject imaging dye into my IV. I cool down, BP is repeated for the 6th time, then I’m wheeled to Nuclear Medicine for the pictures of my heart.
11:30: I’ve always wondered what went on in Nuclear Medicine. Now I know. I was half expecting a super collider in there. Instead I was rolled into a body length cylinder and told to stay still for 15 minutes. I might have fallen asleep, if it weren’t for some guy in the next bay repeatedly moaning Oooooh I need a bathroom. After that I was free to go. For 2 hours. With IV port still installed in my hand.
Noon: I found a memorial garden in the hospital courtyard, flopped down, fished my favorite Vega One, chocolate/cherry bar out of my bag and worked on my Galaxy Tab2 for awhile. With a full hour left until I could report back to Nuclear Medicine, I decided to power walk the perimeter of the hospital campus.
Between the stress test and the power walk, my Fitbit was very happy.
1:30: Returned to Nuclear Medicine for the second injection and final set of pics. This time to compare my resting heart to my riled up one.
2:15: Raced home to be there before the school buses and prep for dinner and an afternoon of ice skating for the kids and coaching for me.
3:30: Ice skating. One of my most powerful tools for teaching kids to skate is video. I love using my Galaxy Tab2 for this as the big screen shows my students exactly what they’re doing. Video is worth a million words in this case.
6:30: Home for dinner, homework, family time, and before long the bedtime ritual.
9:30: This is my target time for bed, alas today that did not happen until after 10.
Final words on stress test: While it seems like I passed the stress test with flying colors, who knows what the images of my heart will reveal? My doc should have results today. Hopefully I will get those soon.
I hope you get the results soon!
What a day! Glad to hear that the stress tests look good and also hoping that the heart images are also normal. Praying for you and positive news.
There’s just something wrong about the term “Nuclear Medicine!” Glad the stress test looked good. Fingers crossed for positive results on the imaging!
Chasing around thing 2 with the hairbrush- I can relate to that! And parking in the wrong garage- why are those facilities so confusing. I’m glad things look good so far, hope the results have more good news!
Hope you get results really soon – the waiting is the worst!!!
I had to take a heart stress test about 6.5 years ago and they finally just gave up on me, too – pretty sure I still have a local “record.” Funny thing (not the ha-ha kind) after over a year of tests of various types, once they (DRs) determined that my heart was fine they really didn’t care about the other problems so I just gave up.
When I had a stress test, that’s almost exactly what they told me. That I had the best one they’d ever seen. I was like, “yeah, i’m 22 and everyone else in here is like 85, no wonder.”
Not the most fun kind of day, but obviously necessary. Hoping you get great results.
Ughh hospitals. They have a way of stealing time without you even noticing it’s passing. I’m glad the test went well and I’m impressed that you now hold the hospital treadmill record. Way to go!
Ugh…I’m sure you are sooooo ready to have some answers! I hate when you go to the dr thinking its more or less just a formality and then they’re concerned and it just keeps. dragging. on. I’m always all “I want my answers now”.
Here’s hoping your news is good!
Holding really good thoughts for yu!!!!!
Good luck. It seems like you should be fine but good to be sure. How many days a week do you coach? You are a busy woman!
Wow. Just WOW. Talk about a stressful experience. Hospitals can be the worst. I am so glad that you got through everything – just hearing some of the medical lingo is scary. I hope that the results come back quickly and with good results!!!
Geez, Louise – you are in pristine shape to run Leadville, holy crap!
Please text me and let me know what your tests results say so I don’t worry!
Yay for passing the stress test! Of course with flying colors 🙂
Sending you hugs and pos vibes for good news from the heart doc!
Even though tests are hard, waiting for the results is harder – hope you hear positive news soon!
checking back for the results…
xo
As always, your recaps of anything are hilarious whether it be a race or your day. I hope you get good news from your test results!
Wow! Hope you get a good report back.
Love the dentist note too!
Isn’t it funny how connected we are to our gadgets! I really can’t imagine life without them and since I’m too cheap to pay for the 4GLTE I may be crying for a month.
Hospitals are confusing. I always just park wherever right away. I don’t have time to figure out that crap. You got off easy with the 40 minute walk. LOL!
I can fall asleep during any type of test. I once fell asleep during an endoscopy of my lungs. The doctor said that he had never seen anyone fall asleep while he was jamming a microscope down their throat and told me it was “weird”. At least I didn’t bother him while he was working.
Still excited to hear that all this workup turned out with good news for you!
wow what a day! hospitals make me think of being a student and doing rotations, so that equals stress for me! lol