you think you saw what??

i had my second stress test in one week today. totally lame. this time i had a stress test with echocardiogram, which means they do an ultrasound of my heart before and after exercising.

for a stress test, the technicians have a target heart rate that they need to get you up to in order to make sure your heart is truly "stressed". my target heart rate was 180. that sounds kind of high, given that my normal heart rate sitting is usually about 60. however, as i mentioned earlier, my heart rate increases just upon standing, even if i'm just standing still. when they put me on the treadmill this morning, even before they turned the machine on i was already at 110. so, getting up to 180 was a breeze. i could have continued to run for a while longer (see, i'm not THAT out of shape!) but they stopped once i reached the goal.

immediately after the treadmill stopped the technicians pushed me on a bed and began the echocardiogram. they moved the little stick around my chest and took pictures of my heart. at one point, the technician performing the echo turned to the other tech and said "woah! did you see that??!!" i looked at the screen to see what she was talking about, and all i could tell is that my heart waves had completely dropped off the screen for a few seconds, before coming back and resuming normal wave activity. the tech saw it again a minute or so later, and AGAIN exclaimed "oh my god!! did you SEE that?" when i asked what she saw, she dismissed my question.

don't you wish they taught medical technicians better bedside manners? aren't they trained to keep a straight face??

so, naturally, i've been worried all day since my test this morning. what did they see? is it something bad?? is my heart okay??

out.
- L