Monday I endured the stress test and echocardiogram that Raytheon ordered.
On Tuesday the dentist drilled out and filled in a couple of cavities. (It's a bummer the pics that the dental assistant took during the procedures didn't come out, she said she had one showing the needle going into my gum.)
First on Monday I went to the hospital for the echocardiogram where sound waves were used to look at and hear my heart. This is done in a very similar to the way a sonogram is used to look at a growing baby inside of its mother. Fortunately they found out that I was not pregnant… and that my heart is healthy.
*Click on the MP3 file below to listen to part of my echocardiogram. You will hear my left ventricle and my aortic valve as the technician explains to me what we are hearing. No, its not a windshield wiper during a rainstorm.
Smile
Click on the* echocardiogram video file* and you will be able to watch a video of my heart beating. The image is upside down, so the large ventricle is at the top. You can watch the valve between the atrium and ventricle flapping.*
After the echocardiogram, I walked over to my doctor's office for the stress test. The nurse stuck EKG electrodes to my chest to monitor my heart. I then began walking on a treadmill. Every few minutes the treadmill would speed up and the front would raise up. During all of that the nurse was checking my blood pressure. Soon I was running uphill. Raytheon asked me to go to Stage 3 and I went to Stage 5, Dr. Thompson said that should impress them. I certainly hope she is correct.
Stress Test
Mr. B., monitored by the nurse, as he is stresed on the treadmill
(photo by Dr. Thompson)
My doctor says all the results look great, hopefully Raytheon’s doctors agree.