Yep, it’s that yearly check up time. Because I have had open heart surgery and five heart stints, I go through a heart exam at least once a year.
It’s a long name folks, but today I had a nuclear ventriculography test for my heart. The test uses radioactive material called tracers to make one’s heart chambers and blood vessels visible. I told them going in that I didn’t want them to mistake me for a Russian spy and give me the wrong kind of stuff. The procedure is completely non-invasive, by which I mean that there are no instruments that touch the heart.
Here’s what happened. A radioactive isotope called technetium was injected into my left arm through an IV setup. The radioactive isotopes that are injected into the body attach themselves to red blood vessels and pass through the heart in the circulating blood. These isotopes are traced through the heart using a special camera or scanner. After the injection, I set quietly for about ten minutes to allow the isotopes to circulate through my body. Then I lay under a camera for 15 minutes while it snapped computer imagers of my heart. Next, I was hooked up to a EKG machine and injected for four minutes with a solution that opened up my arteries, kinda like nitroglycerin on steroids, but without the headache. I walked slowly while I was being monitored with the EKG and blood pressure. The nurse gave me another shot of isotopes. At the end of the four minutes I returned to the camera for another 15 minutes of imaging followed by five minutes of laying on my stomach for another round of images.
I waited for my cardiologist to read the results and he came and visited me in a exam room and shared the results with me. I saw the results of the resting and stress images as he explained it to me. I am very thankful and happy for technology.
He told me that my heart was strong and that the by-passes from 1999 were working fine along with the five heart stints that I have, and that my heart was pumping in an acceptable range, i.e., it is pumping more than enough blood with each beat. Good news! A great Christmas present, I would say.
