One by one, we were taken in to have the radioactive isotope pushed into our IV and after wating 30 minutes, we had a 15 minute CT scan of our heart and its blood flow at rest.
Shortly after that we were taken in one by one to the treadmill area heart monitor connections were attached to our upper body, a blood pressure cuff was attacked to our left arm and we got onto a treadmill and began walking flat for a minute or so.
My nurse told me that my target heart rate was 125 becasuse of my age.
A minute or so later the treadmill's speed and incline were increased and I began to breath more deeply and my knees began to ache.
A minute or so later the treadmill's speed and incline were increased and the incline had to be 30 degrees or better, and another technician entered the room to administer another nuclear dosage once I reached my target heartrate.
By now I was really get hard to breathe and my chest hurt a little and I felt faint but no dizziness or room spinning. As I leaned on the bars because of feeling faint, I reach my target level, the dye was pushed into my IV.
The speed of the treadmill was lowered a bit but not the incline and I needed to walk another 90 seconds. I managed to find the energy to do that and when the treadmill was stopped, a chair was placed behind me and I sat down... with a plop!
It took about 2 minutes for me to begin breathing normal again but the nurse wanted me to sit for a full 5 minutes because I had felt faint.
I was taken back to the waiting area and told to eat non-healthy cheese and crackers which would assist in making the second scan turn out better.
Ten minutes later, I was in the CT scan machine and 15 minutes after that, I was walking out the door, and heading downstairs to my car. I pulled out of my parking slot at 10:00 am.
I am assuming that someone from my Cardiologist's office will call me with the results in the next few days.
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