The Stress Test

Can you imagine why anyone would continue to use the name “Stress Test” for a procedure whose purpose is to find out how well your body handles stress? Doesn’t that name just increase the level of stress?

That was the question in my mind as I made my way to the 9th floor cardiology unit at Vancouver General Hospital a couple of weeks ago. The pink slip of paper with my appointment time on it said I was scheduled to take an Exercise Stress Test that morning. My heart, which was the subject of investigation, had been doing flip flops all morning at the thought of the procedure. My mind kept saying, “Calm down. You will do fine” but I’m not sure my heart was listening.

As you may know, the test involves being hooked up to an octopus of electrical leads and then walking on a treadmill while a technician operates a bank of devices which are recording what your heart is doing. In addition, they take your blood pressure every few minutes and record that.

Since my blood pressure likes to skyrocket when I’m involved in medical situations, I was relieved to find it was only 140/80 before the test started. Believe me! That’s good when I’m faced with a new medical experience such as this. On top of that, I hadn’t been doing much strenuous physical activity in months and here I was getting ready to ramp things up big time.

And ramp it up we did. Every 3 minutes the technician raised the incline of the treadmill and increased the speed at the same time. At one point, he suggested I move forward a bit saying that they had a “rather short treadmill”. I guess he didn’t want me flying off the end. By the third increase in speed & elevation, my legs and lungs were wondering what I was up to, but my heart was enjoying the experience immensely. My blood pressure may have been 200/80, but my body seemed to be enjoying this.

Then suddenly we were done. That was the end of the test – about 10 minutes of fun and it was all over. The rest was anti-climatic. Lay down on the stretcher; take your blood pressure to see if it goes back down; unplug the octopus, and tell you the doctor will let you know in a few days how you did. No big deal after all that worry!

So, yes I have heard that I “passed” the test, although I’m not sure what had to happen for me not to pass. I have been referred to a cardiac rehabilitation program where I will get the opportunity to exercise every week for 6 months under the guidance of exercise specialists and a cardiologist among others. I start in April; should be fun!

All of this just because of a little incident last October – a mild heart attack. But more about this another time…..