A Stress Test Then More Stress

I had to get up at 4:30 on Wednesday morning in order to get to the Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Hospital in Houston by 7:00. I had to go for a 6 month check-up after my hospitalization in May. As usual I was a little early and had to wait until the appointed time to get registered.

This time I remembered to bring a book. I figured between that and my i-Phone I would be able to keep myself occupied in between the various fun activities my cardiologist had in mind for me. Good thing I brought the book because my phone couldn’t get a connection.

My cardiologist’s name is Dr. Patrick Hogan. He graduated from Georgetown University Medical School and trained under both Dr. DeBakey and Dr. Cooley. He has been treating me since my 2nd heart attack at age 47. He supervised one of his residents placing the stents in my heart back then. He threw one of his other residents out of the cath lab in the middle of my procedure and it was quite funny. While the residents (& I) were watching the procedure on monitors one of them said “oh shit” when the balloon catheter almost caused a blowout in one of my coronary arteries. Dr. Hogan let him know in no uncertain terms that his days in the cardiologist program were over. There is no fooling around with Doc Hogan. I would highly recommend him to anyone in need of a cardiologist.

After registration I was sent to radiology for chest x-rays and then a CAT Scan of my heart. Of course they can’t do one then the other you have to go sit in the waiting room for a while in between. When I finished there they sent me to another floor for lab work. I had the blood work done 2 weeks ago just to cut that part out. It took some talking and a phone call to the Dr.’s office to convince them that I didn’t need to be drained again. Then they sent me to the 12th floor for my stress test. Only problem was they had never heard of me and I wasn’t on the schedule. Another call to the office and I was told they were going to run the stress test in the office not the hospital.

I made my way to the Dr.’s office and signed in. Another wait. They finally called my name and I was led to their stress test facility. Since it was supposed to be a nuclear stress test they had to inject me with an isotope then send me back to the waiting room for another ½ hour. After I was sufficiently lit up they called me back to lay still under the camera for 28 minutes. This is to take pictures of blood flow thru the heart at rest. Kind of a “before” picture. When that was finished they sent me back to the waiting room for a while. A couple of chapters later they called me back in and wired me up for my test. Surprise, no treadmill, the doctor had order a chemical stress test. I hate that more than the treadmill. They inject you with a chemical that stresses your heart while you’re laying down. It doesn’t hurt but you feel like a weight is sitting on your chest, you get short of breath, have pressure on your heart and start to sweat. The whole thing takes about 5 minutes and about 2 minutes later you start to feel normal again. That’s when they injected the isotope again. This time they told me to go eat something “fatty”, get a cold drink and come back in an hour. I found a deli on the 1st floor and had a muffalotta and a 32 oz. coke.

When I got back to the office I waited for about 20 minutes and then they called me back to take the “after” pictures. About 10 minutes into the photo session my bladder realized I had drank a 32 oz. coke. Talk about stress. I spent the remainder of the session clamped down and praying I wouldn’t wet myself.

By now it was about 12:30 and I settled in to wait to see the doctor. My appointment was for 3:15. At 1:00 they called me to the desk and told me that they had switched me to the 2:00 slot because I had been there so long. I went back to the waiting room figuring I'll be on my way home at 2:30. I sat there until 3:00 before I was called to see the doc. Good thing they moved my appointment up.

Dr. Hogan went thru his check list and gave me the results of all the tests and blood work. He said the enlarged aorta hadn’t changed so not to worry about it. Told me to lose weight and exercise more and come back in a year. Hooray! No changes from May.


“Hey doc, what’s my chances of getting a disability retirement?” “Sorry, you won’t qualify” Boooooooo! Oh well I had to ask. Would have been nice to speed the counter up.

I left the office and went to the wrong parking garage. Couldn’t find my truck and after walking around for a while realized I had taken a wrong turn coming off the escalator. I retraced me steps and finally got headed to the right garage. When I found my truck it was blocked by the valet parking cars. I had to track down one of those guys to move a couple so I could get out. $12.00 later I was out of the garage and on my way home.

When I got to the freeway I was very happy I wasn’t pulling the travel trailer. Those drivers are idiots. Speeding, switching lanes and cutting other cars off is the norm. Of course you have to do all that while talking or texting on your phone. I used to drive in Houston traffic all the time but it has gotten much worse than I remember. My heart really was stressed by the time I got back across the big bridge and on the island. This is east bound on the south loop (610).

After I got home Connie told me she had heard a flock of Canadian geese going over when she was sitting on the deck before work. She usually communicates with her mom in Spruce Lake N.Y. about the geese in the fall and the robins in the spring. They’ve figured out it takes about one month for the birds to travel between our homes, a distance of about 2200 miles.

Adios for now, enjoy the day. --Rod