Ok.

Wonderful in fact.

I think I forgot to mention it, but I had a stress test last week – well the results are in, and I seem to have a working heart.

So why a stress test you ask?

Well part of being listed with UNOS is keeping up to date with a bunch of stuff. Essentially, in order to keep you “active” on the list, they want to make sure you’re in relatively decent health. So every once in awhile the wonderful folks down at University Hospital call me up (or send a letter) and let me know I have to do this or that test.
The last time I did this test was a couple of weeks before my wedding.
So I go and do this nuclear stress test. Yes, nuclear isotopes are injected into the blood stream to do God knows what (I think they drink margaritas).
A few days later I received the unsettling news that the test results showed significant blockage in my heart.
Great
Every person dealing with Chronic Illness is familiar with these calls from nonchalant doctors which end with you having a panic attack thinking of what torturous concoction of further testing you are going to be subjected to. In this case the doctor wanted me in the “cath-lab” ASAP. He wanted to (not personally) thread a catheter through the femoral artery (conveniently located near my groin), aaaaaaall the way up to my heart.
“Then and only then can we figure out what’s really going on up there” he told me.
So I went into research mode.
“How can a 27 year old man have significant heart blockage and not have noticed it until now?” I wondered.
Some patients get that call, and go straight to the Hospital to figure it out. I went straight to google, and in five minutes learned that there was an alarming rate of false positive results with this particular test.
Rather than feel that hose dance its way up to my heart, I simply asked if we could do something else (anything else!) first.
So I went in again and did an “echo” to check it out. The “echo” is just a fancy ultrasound of the heart.
While I was told it would not tell us conclusively if there was blockage, they said it would certainly show blockage at the level indicated by the first test.
Now … before I go any further, I need to point out something that to this day really bugs me.
This first test I speak of came back indicating that there was “significant” blockage causing lower blood flow in one area – but then showed increased flow further down the same “line”. Ok, so as kids did any of you kink a hose during a water fight and have the person manning the front of the hose turn around and drench you?
No, you didn’t, and I’ll tell you why.
If you block a line, and decrease it’s flow, that flow remains decreased all the way “down stream”
So how then, do I have a blockage in my heart diminishing flow in one area, while I have great blood flow a little further along?
And why was having me sent to the cath lab the answer to this question rather than the echo?
I still don’t know…
It turns out there was no blockage, and no need for all that anxiety a week before my wedding. I was taking valium to quell the anxiety attacks.

So when I got the call this time around telling me to head down for another nuclear stress test, I was a little apprehensive.
My machine is beeping … I’m done.
Awe man … and I was just getting to the good stuff!
Tune in Wednesday (or possibly sooner) for the next installment:

Having Your Heart Jump Out of Your Chest When They Juice it up With Atripene