Ectocardiogram?

[lph]

Well - since I had another ELECTROcardiogram (can't BELIEVE I wrote ectocardiogram first time round, I'm such a spelling nazi) scheduled today I did a search on TE to see if anybody had said anything about it recently. That turned up mostly my own thread, so I might as well update here...

Anyway, everything went just peachy. I asked for this check-up after just a year since in the meantime my mother has also had a small heart attack. She's doing great (basically denying it ever happened, I think...) but now I am the only one in my close family who has not had serious heart problems.

So I got the treadmill this time, instead of the bike. Got all kitted up with wires hanging all over, looking like something out of Matrix (only without Trinity's sexy outfits), "hiked" briskly up to a pulse of 180 at which point dr. said to stop. My max HR is higher (180 didn't feel like that much of an effort) but he said there were no anomalies so far and wouldn't be any with a higher HR. My blood pressure is a little low, which explains why I get dizzy quite often, but is otherwise a good thing.

I'm going to get tested for a genetic disposition to embolisms though, some kind of pre-disposition that 7% of the population have. But since I'm not on the pill and I don't smoke the dr. wasn't overly concerned.

So I think I just got told that I'm as healthy as everybody keeps telling me I am but I have trouble believing in Sort of on a buzz tonight... even though I didn't think I was worried I obviously feel a bit vulnerable about this, and then there's nothing like being told your health is excellent! Ok, so I'm a bit dense.

[bmccasland]

lph - glad to hear there's scientific proof that you have a healthy heart. And a year later, it's still a happy healthy heart.

[sgtiger]

lph - glad to hear there's scientific proof that you have a healthy heart. And a year later, it's still a happy healthy heart.

+1

[Lifts glass of sparkling cranberry juice]
Here's to your continuing health - heart and otherwise. Glad everything is working well.

[Zen]

I have to have one yearly in order to stay on the transplant list.
I can't do a treadmill test because of my bum knee/hip/back so I have to be injected with dobutamine in order to raise my heart rate.
Even then they can't raise it very high. I have to lay on a table and do leg lifts.
It's old hat by now, nothing to be concerned about.

It is pretty cool to see the sonogram screen though.

[maillotpois]

I'm going to get tested for a genetic disposition to embolisms though, some kind of pre-disposition that 7% of the population have. But since I'm not on the pill and I don't smoke the dr. wasn't overly concerned.

Harumph. you may be the spelling nazi, but I am the embolism nazi. follow up on that, ok? even w/no other risk factors, the genetic predisposition to clot is serious stuff.

it only takes ONE risk factor for an embolism.

[lph]

I will, I promise! Actually, I don't have to promise 'cos the dr. was going to follow it up for me

Search on the net brought up: something called the Leiden factor, which if inherited from both parents increases the risk of embolisms. 5-10 % have one set of this, 1 in 500 have it from both sides. Seems like they check every woman going on the pill now to see if they have this? I've never been on the pill and I don't think I've had the test. Simple blood test.

cheers right back at ya, with a cup of... oh - lukewarm green tea.

Zen - can you do the test on a stationary bike?

[maillotpois]

Yeah, factor V Leiden. Well, let us know how that turns out. I think that's great that they're testing everyone who goes on the pill for it. They sure as heck are not doing that here. (That wouldn't have specifically helped me, but it sure would help a lot of folks.)

[Blueberry]

Nope - they're not doing that on the East Coast either. I've never been tested (and have been on the pill for 11 years).

CA

[maillotpois]

Something tells me the health care system may be a little better in Norway...

[Blueberry]

Yep - I think so (steering very clear of politics). I will at least *ask* my dr. at my next exam, though.

CA