Thursday, July 12, 2007

testing... testing...

Yep, just like I thought, more testing next week. Will be doing a 2-day Exercise Sestamibi test on Wednesday and Thursday next week.

When I called to talk to the Nuclear Medicine folk, they were impressed at how well I could pronounce that Ses-tah-mee-bee word. :-) They were also fun to chat with and calmed my concerns about potential allergic reactions to the dye they will use on me. Having had normal IV contrast dye almost kill me, understandably it is of concern! Thankfully this has no iodine in it and apparently is not an allergy issue.


From what I have been told...

... I get injected with some freaky radioactive dye... eeeuuuuwwwwwww, it's glow in the dark time!!!

... they exercise the living heck out of me... ugh! I truly despise exercise!

... they don't let me eat first... ugh!! I get crabby when I don't get my breakfast!

... they do NOT allow me my coffee or tea or any kind of caffeine for a minimum of 24 hours prior to the test... not even a smidge of chocolate to comfort me in my time of need... YIKES!!! Cruel and unusual punishment!!!

All kidding aside, the reality is that the hardest part for me will be the lack of caffeine. Anticipating a big headache, which is typical for me any time I miss my morning coffee.

Test is fairly straightforward and simple. Show up in non-caffeinated mode, wearing comfy clothing and sneakers, get an IV started, take pictures of the heart, make me do a boatload of ding-dang exercise which I hate, continue that ding-dang exercise until I drop, add more weird stuff into the IV and make me exercise for yet an additional one minute even though I will be past the 7th level of hell by then, stop suddenly without a cool down period and take more pictures of the heart.

After all that, they send me on my merry way (hahahahaha! who's gonna be merry at this point?!) and off I go to work. Feel sorry for my coworkers. Feel very, very sorry for them because I don't think I get to have my coffee at this point... I don't think I get my coffee until after I go back on Thursday. Yep, feel very, very sorry for my coworkers. But at this point I can eat. Thank God for small favors, eh?

Thursday I'll go back and they will take another series of pictures of the heart. Results a week later.

So... are we having fun yet???

...may there be mercy and the crabbies be held at bay.

4 comments:

SuziQoregon said...

24 hours without coffee, and you'll be wearing sneakers.

I'll wait for the You Tube Video of what sounds like a recipe for complete disaster.


wsglz

auntie-c said...

ROTFLMAO!!!!!

I knew you'd see that humor in it all...

...and it may end up being almost 55 hours without coffee.

I'll probably end up breaking my neck.

It could get very, very ugly here by noon on Thursday.

Anonymous said...

hmm, next Wednesday and Thursday I think that I might have to be out of shrieking range :)

Seriously - can I still vote for Option 1?

Love ya babe!

Melissa

Eleanor said...

Geez. This is gonna get ugly.