Heart Tests

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

I went to St. Paul for some pictures of my heart. The new cardiologist needed to rule out anything physically wrong with my heart as he tries to figure out why I feel so lousy most of the time.

Man, I should have been a med tech of some sort. I enjoyed everyone I met today. Everyone was so nice and seemed to be having a fine time doing their jobs. I had the best time. I checked in and the young woman at the desk asked me a couple identifying questions, then indicated a door and said, “Meet you there.” We walked down a short hall, then she turned and made distinct eye contact with me and said, “I am going to give you directions now, and I need you to pay attention.” It was awesome. She was very friendly, but I understood what to do. I am going to try that in the classroom. Can you imagine if everyone listened to the directions? Whooo.

I changed (they gave me a choice of gowns. I went with pink. Pink is my new thing. I looked good) and went to lock up my stuff in a locker. As I walked, I decided I wanted one in the middle. I wanted a key on a green bracelet. I saw my destination and went for it. Number 8! My favorite color and my favorite number smack in the middle. I was so happy. My head did a happy wobble back and forth.

I waited a few minutes for Liam, my student tester, to come to get me. I got comfy – in the exact position I like to sleep, on my side with my arm curled under me. Liam did an ultrasound of my heart, while I dozed (what are you going to do when you are in the sleepy position). My contribution, other than having a heart to look at, was to occasionally hold my breath. I was great at it. Robie, the supervisor, took over to finish things up, for the sake of speed. They both thanked me for being so still for the hour. I told them just being still is one of my greatest strengths.

Next, I met Tina. She was absolutely great. She popped in an IV. My job was to have a low heart rate. I sat and relaxed and breathed slowly. I am so good at all these things! I didn’t even need lower-your-heart-rate drugs, I was just naturally (in addition to all the heart medication I take) cool. I told her stories about having hallucinations while taking Percocet after my appendectomy and she laughed a lot. We were off to the CT room, where I met Mike. There was considerable discussion about lowering one’s expectations (regarding the comfort of a CT scan, and then, of course, movies). Tina filled Mike in on my hallucinations of the past. They rolled me into the small tunnel. There were light panels on the top that changed colors. It could have been doing something, but I think it was just for my enjoyment. I enjoyed it. I went forward a few inches, back a few, up a few more, back even more, forward, and then apparently, I was done, because I just shot back out of the tube. I mean seriously vroom. I just laughed and said to nobody (because they were all hiding in another room from the radiation (Radium Girls!) but I heard them laugh and call back, “It is a ride! Surprise!” Tina brought me nitro to dilate something. It dissolved under my tongue, which was weird and gritty.

Suddenly, Nicole was next to my head. She was there to do a test with contrast dye. I have not had that before. I was totally game, since I was pretty much stuck where I was. She said you are going to feel really hot all of a sudden (I thought what else is new? I don’t like the hot. Let’s not do the hot) and feel like you are wetting your pants, but you aren’t (I hope not. I bet they would be super nice, but it is not a thing I want to do), and you HAVE to hold your breath when I say to. Some people try to gasp through it, but don’t. (Gasp? Why gasp? That does not sound good. Maybe we don’t need…whoops, I’m in the tube again. Bye Nicole) I was taking solid breaths, so I didn’t get told to hold my breath when I was out of air when all of a sudden my whole self was hot. Not the horrible your bones are on fire trying to kill you regular hot of 20 times/day, just a very cozy sort of feeling…oooo, glad she told me I wasn’t actually wetting my pants because I wouldn’t have known. I laughed out loud, and it echoed in the tube. I took a breath, she said hold, click click click, and I was done.

IV out, drink water, stop feeling wobbly, change, and off to Tono for a late lunch with Keith. Lunch Tono was even better than dinner Tono (probably because I couldn’t eat before the tests and it was 2pm and I was HUNGRY).

The POTD is the water feature in the lobby. I really liked it. I wonder if super rich people have water features in their house. I think that would be great.

Here are Alexander’s kitties waiting for the sink to magically turn on.