The Glow in the Dark Test

(well, sort of ...)

I tell you what – they’re going to either stress me out completely or totally distress me doing so many stress(ful) tests on me this year!

The first one I had earlier was just a “regular” stress test – for the very first time! Usually, they have done just the “nuclear” one in the past. This year, the new doc decided to go with the “regular” one first, and then decided that it was not very conclusive, so he ordered a nuclear one, to follow, as well. More trouble for me, more money for them – is how I look at it.

Although I have done the nuclear one at least twice if not three times at my old doctor’s office, in NC, I discovered that this one, another state, another clinic, was slightly different than before. I am still not nervous about it, except for the IV, which I hate, but I was surprised about some things that I was not familiar with, really.

First, they refer to it as the “thallium test”, not the “nuclear one”. So, I am not quite sure whether the substance they inject you with, the one that glows in the pictures, is the same as before. The sensation of cold, when the “poison” goes into your body is the same, however.

The nurse also asked me if I am going to travel by plane in the next week or so. I told her no, but I also asked her why she’s asking – this was the first time I was asked this. She said it’s because thallium will stay in my body for that long and I can set off a security metal detector at the airport because of it. My eyes must have popped out of my head, because she continued: “Oh, no, don’t worry. It is not harmful to anyone around you, nor the environment, so it’s OK!”. This time, I could not stand it, and blurted out: “Harmful to the ENVIRONMENT?? Or OTHER people?! What about to MYSELF? I am a walking, rusting (no doubt!) robot for a week but this is not harmful to ME?!”. She laughed it off and said no, but … are you really convinced?! I am not, and I am not usually paranoid about what might kill me. Just sounds a bit strange!

So, the drill with this test is: you go in preferably early in the morning, definitely fasting. They hook you up to an IV and you wait for about 40 minutes in the waiting room, till the thallium gets through your whole body, I guess. Then, they put you on a table, to take pictures of your heart. You wear a gown for your upper body but you can be dressed in your own clothes from the waist down.

After the pictures, you wait for another 40 minutes or so, not sure why. Then, they ask you to come in the treadmill room. You walk on the treadmill, with them increasing the speed every 3 minutes and the incline, as well. You have to keep going till you reach your required heartbeat rate for your age – mine is 156. At about 146 I thought I was going to choke! But I reached my peak, nonetheless.

My chest never did become heavy, but my throat always chokes up when I am running, like someone is literally strangling me. My throat just becomes very, very narrow, all of a sudden.

While you are running, a different nurse injects more thallium in your IV.

Towards the end of the exercise, they lowered this old fashioned X-ray machine and made me put my chest right up against it WHILE I was running, with an IV in my arm, and stickies with wires stuck all over my upper body, to measure my blood pressure and what not. This was, once again, something new to me. I am not sure what the X-ray machine measures, but I honestly don’t see how 90 year olds do this.

After I reached the heart speed they wanted, they slowed down the treadmill and I was walking normally after that, in a stroll pace. When I stepped down from the treadmill, I was extremely light headed. My blood pressure went during the exercise from 120 over 60 to 147 over 98, and then, within minutes, down to 60 over 40! No idea why!

The nurse shot about 4-5 syringes of saline into my IV and I started to come to. I also drank a lot of water. She did not release me from the room till she got a “normal” blood pressure and the headache and lightheadedness subsided.

After this, I went to the waiting room for another 40 minute wait, and this time, I ate a breakfast bar – as I was told that the fasting part of the test was over.

After another 40 minutes, I went back to the room with the machine that takes the heart pictures. For the pictures, you lie down on a very narrow wooden (I think) table, with your arms folded under your head. You are told to not move whatsoever, even if it is just to clear your throat. The pictures will be blurry otherwise and they will have to start over. You lay there for about 15 minutes while this massive moving metal machine goes around your chest from right to left and shoots pictures of your chest. The pictures show up on a computer screen somewhere, in the room, but the machine blocks your view, so you’re not seeing anything. The machine is not touching you, and although it is terribly close, you don’t panic, like in the MRI tube, from claustrophobia. Not the same feeling at all.

And after the second set of pictures you are done!

After a week or so, I got a call form my cardiologist’s nurse and she told me that the test was fine and that my heart can withstand exercise, so I should continue exercising as much as I can, and come back for another regular checkup in 6 more months.

Mystery solved – and now I am happy that this is behind me, too!

It’s not too bad of a test, and if it is indeed accurate about spotting blockages and their severity is pretty harmless and noninvasive to be worth while in knowing what you’re dealing with. The biggest inconveniences are that it takes about half of your day (and time off from work, etc) and the IV is not very pleasant. And I almost forgot: they sand down (yes, as in sandpaper!) the spots on your torso where they stick the sensors for the EKG wires. They use a small piece of sandpaper to make sure no oil or other residue is under that sensor. When you peel them off, you will lose some skin!

Aside from that, and considering that a regular dental cleaning is more bloody and messy than all this, this is pretty tame. Just don’t get thrown out of a flight for transporting liquid thallium in you! Plan your test a couple of weeks in advance of your flying trips, I’d say, and good luck with the results!