Thursday, April 8, 2010

be still my heart

Last week, I went to the doctor for a fairly routine appt for my high blood pressure. I mentioned that I sometimes have heart palpitations, so she scheduled me for some tests today. Lots of you have probably had these, too.

First, I had an echocardiogram (an ultrasound of the heart), which was painless and only took about 20 minutes.

Next, they outfitted me with a halter monitor that I have to wear for 24 hours. It's a gadget that records all my heart's rhythms via electrodes, which are stuck all over me right now. It looks like this, except mine has a lot more electrodes:

Plus, I have to keep a written journal of my activities, so the doctor can correlate them with what my heart's doing at those times (should I write down "blogging" right now? LOL).

And then I have to wait several days for the cardiologist's report. I'm hoping that these tests don't reveal any problems. I'm a little nervous ... and that's probably showing up on the heart monitor right now too, LOL.

2 comments:

Momofboys said...

interesting i just had all those tests done too!! i was having major heart palpitations in the beginning of march so my doctor sent me to a cardiologist who ordered an ekg..which was fine (had one in doc's office and that was fine too)...and ekocardiogram...which was fine (and i had one last year too)...stress test...fine...bloodwork on lipids...not back yet but have had that done and my cholesterol is fine! so why does my heart palpitate...they don't know!!! i think my body is changing...including my hormones which is precisely the problem and here's why i say that...check this link out....http://www.womentowomen.com/understandyourbody/symptoms/heartpalpitations.aspx?id=1&campaignno=heartdisease&adgroup=ag6palpitations&keywords=heart+palpitations+in+women

daysease said...

I have had some panic attacks that caused something similar. haven't had one for a while, but are you stressed about anything? I need to get to the doctor and have some other things checked out. sigh... Hope all goes well for you, dear cousin. Let us know what happens.