I had chest pains several years ago, had the nuclear test, doc said nothing wrong with my heart! On my own stopped my prescription meds, pain went away, culprit, Hytrin, for enlarged prostate. I haven't taken anything but OTC meds since.
Good luck to you!

I had one a few years back --and I was in the middle of training for a marathon. A normal stress test showed exertional PVCs so they ordered a nuclear. Because I was in training and it was a teaching hospital the room was crowded with med students wanting to see a marathoner on a treadmill test. Or maybe an accident waiting to happen. Getting the nuclear injection wasn't bad. Weird part was being strapped to a table immediately after pushing to exhaustion. Sweating like crazy and breathing hard while gyrating around with a giant sensor all around me. Being in a hospital you should be quite safe no matte what happens. That's what they told me.

We had one, Missile room LL

How about a Piano?

I can relate about heart trouble but I haven't had the nuclear test - mine is in the left chamber and they can do Doppler with the ultrasound to get the flow rates. I understand that the nuclear dye is to look at the smaller passages like your coronary arteries.

I've had treadmill + echo which worked ok - I had a moment to recover while I lay down and I lost some of the stress for their picture.

I've had "cycling" echo which was a fiasco. In theory they can take the shot while you are pedaling. But the rig had me flat on my back and the pedal strokes kept me jiggling too much to get a shot. It was intended for people who can't even sit up, I guess. Waste of a whole morning to go downtown and wait and do the test.

good luck on ur test today
charlie

I hope your doctor doesn't clown around.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x...psc497872e.jpg

"Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life" ~ George Bernard Shaw

Hope all went well today!

UPDATE: I had my test procedure done yesterday. As I sat under the imaging machine, while it took pictures of my heart, I couldn't help but be amazed at the minds of the men and women who devised the device and figured a way to use it to take images of a person's heart. Modern medicine, especially modern diagnostic medicine is truly something to marvel at. I felt as if I was in the sick bay of the USS Enterprise.

The test itself went fairly well. As the cardio cranked up the speed on the treadmill, he remarked that most cyclists hate running on the treadmill. I agree, I would have much preferred to take the stress test while riding a stationary bike, but oh well.

The treadmill test went well. The doc turned the monitor so that I could see how my heart was doing. I am used to riding with a HRM, so I know where my heart rate is at various part of the ride. But that is nothing compared to seeing the actual electrical impulses from my heart running across the screen, from right to left, as the doc took me up to 85% of my maximum rate. I am a tech-geek at heart and all of the medical gadgets really catch my attention.

The stress test went well and I only experienced mild chest discomfort towards the very end, after I had been at 85% for a little while. The doc kept talking to me during this part of the test and I was able to maintain, somewhat, a conversation with him.

I am scheduled to meet with him tomorrow morning to discuss the results of the test. The fact that he did not march me into the OR right after the test is a good sign--I think.

I will keep you posted on what the cardio tells me. I am hoping that the angina I have been experiencing is not a symptom of a bigger problem and that it can be taken care with some lifestyle changes and medication.

Thank you for your concerns, this is a wonderful community of Internet friends.

Dudelsack, I told my cardio: No pie For me. :D

Yikes I hate waiting for test results but it sounds like you did good.

Charlie

Patience IS NOT one of my virtues. I too hate waiting...oh well.

Yep, we had a crappy treadmill on the 623 down in LL missile too, along the starboard side. It sat up high enough so that I always hit my head on a light fixture. Still have that scar.

Eja - Hope your test results came back with good results. My cardiologist always sends me away with a "keep doing what you are doing". Hope yours does too.

Sounds like a good result for you eja_B. I think I'll practice some on the treadmill at the gym before I get any cardio tests done... make sure I can gauge my exertion level the way I know I can on a bike.

I didn't spend much time in Missile Compartment LL (610), but I think I remember just a bunch of nitrogen pipes and bilge water down there... our crappy old exercycle was in upper level so I saw it on every trip back to the engine room... I think only one guy used it... an O3 that was in pretty good shape and trying to not lose it all at sea.

Sounds good.

Not an emergency-so you can think about the options he offers
Oh-prepare for the great statin debate(they work....but some side effects-you can take tiny doses or even every other day)

BTW, the staff at the cardio's office is super friendly, they made the procedure as stress-free as possible. At times I tend to be wound up a bit too tight. The nurses there made a huge difference.

I asked the nurse who injected me with the radioactive dye if it would make me glow in the dark. She said no, it would just make me hot...then she paused for a bit and added, "even hotter than you already are."

She is cute and I turned 50 shades of red...I guess she enjoyed doing that to me. :D

She's just trying to um increase your blood flow.

Anytime you get to go home after a stress test you're doing OK. Hope the results are super positive. :thumb:

Mission accomplished then! ;)

It is the waiting until tomorrow that is "killing" me....

Glad it went OK. When I was a physics major I took a class in Medical Physics. It wasn't one majors normally took, but it fit my schedule. Very interesting stuff. It turned out my school (Wisconsin) was big in that field and at that time they were working on positron emission tomography. If I went to grad school that's probably what I would have wanted to go into. Sort of the intersection of physics, medicine, and engineering.

scott s.
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eja - think yourself lucky you did the right thing and went to see your doc after experiencing those symptoms. All to often they are ignored with a fatal result.
The nuclear stress test is a no-brainer. Technetium-90, a gamma emitter, has a half-life of 6 hours, so by the end of the day, it's all gone. CT scans are potentially much more harmful.

It looks like your asthma is well controlled if you can do 17+mph for 40+ miles. What meds do you use?

Good luck.

Artmo, thanks for the good wishes.

I use Advair, twice a day, and I have a Proventil inhaler that I carry for emergency situations. I hardly use the Proventil, however.

I ride a lot on PCH, next to the ocean, I think that the heavier, moist and "salt-rich" air makes it easier for me to breathe.