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Stress test 12/4/2006 |
I had a cardiac stress test with
nuclear imaging yesterday. No i didn't have any apparent symptoms
but my progressive family medicine doctor thinks that it is a good
idea for anyone my age to be proactive since the leading cause of
death in this country is heart disease. i see my doctor on a less
than regular basis mostly when she declines to refill my
prescriptions by phone. So the visit before last she gave me a
reference to a cardiac specialist to get my stress test. I
procrastinated until just prior to my last visit to my regular
doctor. You see, this way I could at least say i had arranged for
the stress test when she asked about it. Plus I pay this lady for
her medical opinion and having done so it just doesn't seem rational
to disregard it since the extent of my medical knowledge is limited
to an occasional visit to webMD and having a son who passed through
medical school as few years ago. A stress test with nuclear imaging
consists of getting shot up with some kind of radioactive material,
waiting for a while so the radiation soaks in then lying on a bench
very still while a piece of robotic machinery circumnavigates the
chest area. Then comes the stress; walking on a treadmill with ever
increasing speed until the heart rate is sufficiently high to
satisfy the doctor that you are in fact stressed. Another shot of
radio active material is administered and after a wait period,
return to the bench and the robot machine. And that's it! The
technician un-strapped me from the bench (the patient must remain
motionless during the circumnavigation - breathing is allowed but
nothing else) and advised me that it would take an hour or so for
the computers to assemble the data into something meaningful that
the doctor could interpret and if there was a cause for concern he
would call me. Now I have an acquaintance that received such a call.
Subsequently we didn't see him for several weeks while he recovered
from quadruple bypass surgery! I have some significant activities
planned that preclude a six week recovery period. I briefly
considered turning my phone off for the afternoon but decided that
would just delay the inevitable so i left it on.
Americans have elevated eating to a recreational
activity. Most adopt the strategy that satisfaction is attained by
volume and then try to minimize weight gain by limiting caloric
intake. I really don't like the taste of high volume low calorie
food so I have adopted the reverse. I eat all of the good stuff;
pepperoni pizza, regular coke, real ice cream, full flavored full
fat milk, etc but I limit the volume. Well there are occasional
splurges but another of my rules is 'moderation in everything
including moderation'. And then to provide incentive to abide by
this self imposed volume limit I share the details of my regimen
with my friends. In this way I am motivated to police my intake so I
don't have to suffer the embarrassment of admitting I was wrong! For
me this works ... almost. My body mass index is on the high end of
'OK' but I do enjoy some good food!
Since you are reading this, you can assume that
the result of my stress test was nominal and my life style choices
vindicated. Is my choice of food 'persnickety'. I think not. Rather
it maximizes the enjoyment that I get from my limited intake.
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