Stress test

[Ronstar]

Went for my first Medicare wellness exam today. EKG revealed an abnormal heartbeat. Dr. said that the results looked like I was having a heart attack.

I’m not having chest pains. Maybe the EKG results were skewed by my 3 mile run an hour before the EKG.

Dr ordered a stress test (9 days from now) and I can’t exercise until he and a cardiologist review the results. Hospital said the test is 3-4 hours long.

Interested in hearing stories from anyone having a stress test. I’m thinking that any 3-4 hour test that includes running or walking fast on a treadmill while wearing a mask would be quite stressful.

 

[eytonxav]

I had one many years ago when I started to experience chest pains, but I do not recall the test taking that long. My test included the injection of contrast which probably would extend the time some, but if my memory serves me correctly I don't think it lasted much longer than 2 hours. The chest pains were probably due to a muscle spasm, as I was helping a friend with his startup tree trimming business and we had to prune dozens of large trees in high heat.

 

[aja8888]

Went for my first Medicare wellness exam today. EKG revealed an abnormal heartbeat. Dr. said that the results looked like I was having a heart attack.

I’m not having chest pains. Maybe the EKG results were skewed by my 3 mile run an hour before the EKG.

Dr ordered a stress test (9 days from now) and I can’t exercise until he and a cardiologist review the results. Hospital said the test is 3-4 hours long.

Interested in hearing stories from anyone having a stress test. I’m thinking that any 3-4 hour test that includes running or walking fast on a treadmill while wearing a mask would be quite stressful.

Glad to hear you caught this, Ron. Hopefully, it's something that can be easily fixed. I don't know what they are going to do to you for 3 - 4 hours.

When I was diagnosed with SVT two years ago (accelerated heartbeat), I had two stress tests. One was on a treadmill and it took about 30 minutes all wired up. That one resulted in me kicking off the SVT (heart rate went to 200 bpm and I couldn't slow it down without medication).

The second was a nuclear stress test where you are injected with radioactive dye and put you in a tube and look at your heart system in motion. That one was pretty simple and it took about an hour+.

I subsequently had and ablation to fix the SVT .

 

[zinger1457]

Had one over 10 years ago, didn't take close to 3-4 hours, maybe a little over an hour. Had electrodes placed all over my chest and starting off walking on a treadmill, doctor monitored me while increasing the speed. I'm guessing how fast he sets it depends on your response. I was going at a decent jogging pace for maybe 20 minutes. Turned out the heart was fine, just a pulled muscle in the chest area, the test was a precaution.

 

[Aerides]

Interested in hearing stories from anyone having a stress test. I’m thinking that any 3-4 hour test that includes running or walking fast on a treadmill while wearing a mask would be quite stressful.

Surprised your doc went straight to stress test rather than an echocardiogram? I have extra heartbeats so I had to get cardio clearance for knee surgery. Doc wants me back for a stress test in 6 months, but cleared me for the surgery.

Yes I think absolutely running the morning prior was (sorry) a silly idea. Kinda like you fast before a blood test, you don't want to get all up there before a cardio guy!

And honestly, running indoors, in the AC with a mask, is probably easier than running outdoors, in summer heat without one.

 

[Amethyst]

Brother has had the treadmill test many times. No way does it take 3-4 hours. More like 15 minutes. Maybe the extra time is prep work and other activities/measurements? Anyway, he said it's not fun, but not horrible either. They don't run you till you drop. Then again he was in the military, so is philosophical about medical tests.

Sister can't run, so has gotten injections, which she hates. The drug revs the heart and makes her feel jittery. Plus, it takes time for the drug to clear your system once it's over.

I've had echocardiograms, due to an irregular heartbeat, which turned out to be nothing of concern. They are so sensitive! The doctor showed me images so clear, that even I could see the structures he was talking about.

 

[Ronstar]

I’m going to have a nuclear stress test. One where a dye is taken by iv, then pictures taken of dye flowing while at rest. Then while on treadmill. Then through to another rest period. And I think an ekg at the same time. This may explain the 3-4 hour test length.


https://encyclopedia.nm.org/Search/3,82060#sthash.3SimAgYY.dpuf

 

[donheff]

Maybe your doc is escalating to a nuclear stress test because of the initial results? I just took a regular stress test a couple of weeks ago and it took about a half hour. I was surprised that the technician had to sit next to me monitoring the gear as I huffed and puffed on the treadmill. She had a mask but still - that;s a long close exposure to a lot of heavy breathing patients. This was the Washington Hospital Center so I would assume they know what they are doing.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Same, it was something like 15 years ago, but I never have been much of a runner, and I don't remember it being taxing. I think it was just enough to get my heart rate up, so maybe 15 minutes at most, but then they also had me wear a monitor for 24 hours. Turned out to be preventricular contractions (PVCs), likely just due to my losing 80 lbs. over a couple of years. CoQ10 supplements got rid of it for me, something my doctor recommended. I stopped taking them for a few months because I figured 1) it had been years, and 2) I am in much better cardiac health than I was back then, as I do regular, heavy exercise now, but they came back. That short of breath feeling with the fluttery feeling in my chest is probably harmless, but it bothered me, so I just started taking the supplements again.

 

[BooBoo]

FYI...My great uncle died from reaction to dye.

 

[target2019]

I’m going to have a nuclear stress test. One where a dye is taken by iv, then pictures taken of dye flowing while at rest. Then while on treadmill. Then through to another rest period. And I think an ekg at the same time. This may explain the 3-4 hour test length.

https://encyclopedia.nm.org/Search/3,82060#sthash.3SimAgYY.dpuf

That's smart. It establishes a visual baseline for the future.

 

[eytonxav]

I’m going to have a nuclear stress test. One where a dye is taken by iv, then pictures taken of dye flowing while at rest. Then while on treadmill. Then through to another rest period. And I think an ekg at the same time. This may explain the 3-4 hour test length.


https://encyclopedia.nm.org/Search/3,82060#sthash.3SimAgYY.dpuf

That is what I had, but again do not recall it taking 3-4 hours. I assume they probably gave you that as an estimate in case of increased waiting time, but will likely be much faster unless you are stuck in a waiting room queue.

 

[old medic]

LMAO... thanks for the memory....
Ran on a treadmill for mine about 15 years ago...
EKG then laid down for the ECHO....
Everything looked good and they asked who I was with to leave...
The look on there face when I said no one... rode the motorcycle there...

 

[Alan]

I’m going to have a nuclear stress test. One where a dye is taken by iv, then pictures taken of dye flowing while at rest. Then while on treadmill. Then through to another rest period. And I think an ekg at the same time. This may explain the 3-4 hour test length.


https://encyclopedia.nm.org/Search/3,82060#sthash.3SimAgYY.dpuf

This is exactly what I had done in 2016. The dye is radioactive and the pictures were done while lying down with the scanner moving over the chest. After injecting the dye a port was left in my arm ready for the next injection. It took almost 15 minutes for my heart to increase to the rate they wanted for the next injection. Consequently I was running while trying to hold my arm steady enough for the next injection to be done. All the time this is happening an ekg is being taken plus blood pressure every few minutes.

A few minutes rest then back under the Geiger Counter scanner for another set of pictures.

Dress appropriately, you will work up a sweat.

They will stop the test immediately if abnormalities are detected.

 

[Ronstar]

Thanks for sharing your experiences! Reading your stories gives me personal info that I just don’t get from a hospital website.

 

[Montecfo]

I have had that procedure twice. I think they are allowing for a lot of waiting time.

 

[Walt34]

I’m going to have a nuclear stress test. One where a dye is taken by iv, then pictures taken of dye flowing while at rest. Then while on treadmill. Then through to another rest period. And I think an ekg at the same time. This may explain the 3-4 hour test length.


https://encyclopedia.nm.org/Search/3,82060#sthash.3SimAgYY.dpuf

Yes, I've had that and several others (many of them at work after age 40, those are the 15-20 minute kind). The 3 - 4 hour estimate you were given allows for a lot of waiting time for the dye to become fully circulated, or something like that. Anyway, there was a first treadmill test in the morning (no food allowed beforehand) then get injected, wait a couple/three hours (you can eat lunch then) and then another treadmill test. At least that was my experience. There is no pain involved other than the needle sticks but they do run your heart rate up pretty high on the treadmill.

 

[Mark1]

I have had this procedure done 3 times as preventative procedures through free mega corp coverage. As others have stated, most of time is wait time as they shuffle folks from station to station. The worst part for me was needle in arm (or wrist one time), which they just leave in place for duration of testing. Not a big deal, but I'm not a big fan of needles in general. Only other negative was sitting still while heart machine scans heart. Sitting still for 15-20 minutes at a time is a long time for me. Scanning machine is a little claustrophobic, but not too bad as your not really encased.

 

[mistermike40]

When I was 33 I had a complete physical... I failed the stress test. They then gave me a Thallium stress test (the nuclear test)... I failed that as well. They said I had "myocardial ischemia", and that one of the chambers of my heart wasn't receiving blood. Of course this scared the crap out of me (even though I had no pain or shortness of breath, played sports, etc). I was sent to another cardiologist who had me take a stress echo, which I passed with flying colors. It turns out I have mitral valve prolapse (a heart murmur) which can cause false positives in non-echo stress tests. I've had a test every five years, no issues... in fact for the past 15 years they can no longer detect the MVP. Good luck to you Ronstar! As stated by others, the 3-4 hours for the Thallium test includes a lot of waiting.

 

[6miths]

Went for my first Medicare wellness exam today. EKG revealed an abnormal heartbeat. Dr. said that the results looked like I was having a heart attack.

Um, is there some other part of the story that is missing. Your doctor said this and then said, 'but the reason I'm not sending you immediately to the ER (or cath lab) for management of your heart attack is because...'.

 

[Ronstar]

Um, is there some other part of the story that is missing. Your doctor said this and then said, 'but the reason I'm not sending you immediately to the ER (or cath lab) for management of your heart attack is because...'.

The dr said that my ekg results were abnormal - the graph looked like that of someone having a heart attack. But abnormal ekg results can be due to a lot of factors other than heart attack.

Since I had no heart attack symptoms, it was safe to say that I was not having a heart attack. So he sent me home. I was there for more than an hour, so they had ample time to notice symptoms if I had any.
I'm supposed to go to the er if I get chest pains.

 

[Dawg52]

Hope it all turns out well for you.

I had a stress test a year or so ago. It was stressful as I was huffing and puffing but I passed. They did an echocardiogram right before the stress test and that was fine too.

 

[Scusan]

I had a "cardiac adventure" in 2015. All is well now. I'm not any kind of medical professional, but here are the comments that come to mind.

Red flags went up for me when the doc said it looked like you were having a heart attack and then didn't order a basic follow on test to confirm. When I was in the hospital, they did a blood test for "troponin", which is supposed to make sure you didn't have a heart attack.

Are you getting a coronary calcium scan too? They aren't always covered by insurance, but are fast and cheap-- I had cut out an article years before about this test (the article said to get the test before you let your doc put you on statins..) and my cardiologist and I thought it was worth doing. Mine cost 75 bucks and lasted all of 5 minutes. You get a result back that is a number to tell you how blocked up your coronary arteries are. (Mine was 0, so I celebrated with chocolate fudge cake..)

I had an echocardiogram in the hospital and the basic treadmill stress test (Bruce protocall) at his office a week or so later. Some thoughts on the stress test specifically:

--Although I hadn't been running over the last several years, I was/am still fairly active. The techs at the stress test tried to caution me that all I needed to do was get to 80% of my predicted max heart rate. I had read that if you ran a lot in the past, your max HR wouldn't decrease as much as predicted. Despite them giving me several hints like "you're done now, you can stop", I went on to my actual max HR. IF I was going to blow a gasket, I wanted to do it in the doc's office and not out in the wilderness on a fishing or hiking trip. I got to 108% of their prediction. Not that it's a contest, but I wanted to know where I stood.
--They told me to wear exercise clothes when I booked the session. After running on the treadmill all wired up long enough to get to my max HR, it would have been a good idea to bring along a couple towels to dry off with a little.
--The test isn't over the second you get off the treadmill. My Dad had a stress EKG many years ago. He did fine on the hamster wheel, but after he got off, he started feeling light headed. His blood pressure totally crashed, and they made him lie down and got the doc in there. Apparently, your blood vessels can get less elastic as you age, so in his case, they opened up during the exercise part (they gradually increase the speed and incline). At the end of the test, they just stop the treadmill so there was no gradual reduction and hence the pressure drop. He'll be 90 in a few months so no harm done.

Good luck on your test. It's nice to know what's going on.

 

[Ronstar]

^ thanks. I don’t know if I’m getting a coronary calcium test. I’ll bring it up when I get there.

 

[frank2009]

Had a stress test in 2018. It took an hour or so including the post exercise echo test. A few leads on your chest and a blood pressure cuff on your arm. No mask. If you can run 3 miles you should easily pass.