The Terminal

Friday began around 4:30 in the morning. Two of my test later in the afternoon required me to fast so I got up earlier thatn normal and had me some breakfast. I took a long shower, fired off a few emails, did a little reading, then took a 45 minute power nap. Woke back up got a haircut, cleaned up and was at the hospital by 10:30. I prepared for a long day on the hospital campus and a lot of walking around to several different building.

First stop was the F-17 desk: echocardiogram and stress test. I was not very relaxed during the echocardiogram. I just did not feel right lying on my left side while some guy behind me had his arm over top of me while he was probing my chest.

Anyways so now for the stress test. You would run on a treadmill and every three minutes they would increase the speed and ramp up the percent incline. The echocardiogram tech decided to talk a little smack and said: "The longest I've ever seen someone on this was 14 minutes when I did this a few years ago. If you can get to 20 minutes I will start running again." Oh boy! The gaunlet was thrown down! Starts out pretty easy, of course. Three minutes in - yawn, wake me when it gets hard. Six minutes in - start powerwalking. Nine minutes in - okay now it starts getting tricky. I have not mentioned yet that they want you to hold onto the rail with your right hand. You also have a bunch of wires and a monitor hanging off your chest. So I actually start jogging now. Twelve minutes in - still not that bad but at 18% incline things are getting tough. My heart rate is over 170, but I could do this for a while if I need to. Fourteen minutes in - I look over at the tech and say: "Yeah I could keep going for a while." He says nothing. Fifteen minutes in - now we're up to a 21% incline and the heart rate climbs into the 180s. Hard, but mostly on the leg muscles. I know I could hold this heart rate for a while because I have been doing that during my indoor cycling sessions. Finally the stress test tech says, "We're going to stop you at eighteen minutes. I say, "I could keep going." But was told, "You worked hard enough." Both the techs were impressed though.

So, now I bring my heart rate down, towel off a little and prepare for my next stop.

Second stop was the Hb6 desk: CT scan. I had to wear a gown for this one. I waited about 10 minutes in the waiting area with the cold air blowing across my back. These gowns suck. So I finally get called, go to another waiting area, get my iv started, and return to the second waiting area.

On a sad note this is where I ran into a former high school track/XC teamate. He tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was all right, I said yeah just some precautionary test for my heart. I could tell though that he was absolutley beat but since he was in stree clothes I knew he wasn't the one getting scanned. He told me his wife was sick and has been in the hospital for over a week without having found a cause. We offer each other encouragement as she is wheeled around to get scanned. Sad. Pause in story...........

So finally after a long wait I get to head back to a CT scanner. Have you ever had an iodine tracer? What a sensation. You get this warm fuzzy feeling into your arm, to the heart, to the head, then down the rest of your body, into the hands and fingers, and finally down all the way into your toes. The scan was pretty quick, but I had to wait for the films. Why couldn't they go digital?

Third stop T-28: rest stop. I decide to head over to my department for a while to