I was at the hospital early this morning, despite the freaky cold weather and 40mph wind gusts that made the temperature feel like -2F. I was scheduled for a Cardiolite Stress Test. Cardiolite is a radioactive drug used with a special imaging test to diagnose heart problems. This, because I had a calcium heart scan a few months ago and the result came back higher than my doctor wanted to see.

A calcium heart scan, also known as a coronary calcium scan, is a non-invasive CT scan that measures the amount of calcium in your coronary arteries. This test helps assess your risk of coronary artery disease and potential heart attacks by detecting plaque buildup in the arteries.

Though I have never experienced chest pains, shortness of breath, or any other typical symptom of heart trouble, the troubling calcium scan result meant this would require additional inspection which was the reason for the stress test.

After I checked in this morning, I got an IV injection with the Cardiolite chemical and after waiting 30 minutes for it to be circulated by my heart I was whisked off to an area where I had to lay on a skinny little table, arms over my head, while a gamma camera (Siemens) took images of the heart at rest. 64 images as the large, scanner camera moved around my chest at a distance of about a half inch, which was a little claustrophobic, took about fifteen minutes to complete.

The next step was to be connected to an EKG monitor and blood pressure cuffs. Nothing like having your chest and belly shaved by a young nurse before breakfast!

Once I was fully connected the treadmill test began. I go to the YMCA several times each week where I knock out a couple of miles on a treadmill so I had some inkling about the settings used this morning. I would guess the belt speed was set to about 3 mph and the inclination was between 10 and 15 percent. The goal was to achieve my maximum heart rate which is 220 minus my age times 85 percent. That put my target at about 131 bpm which wasn’t particularly difficult to achieve. Once I eclipsed 131 bpm I received another injection of the Cardiolite while continuing to walk at a lower speed for another few minutes, I guess to help distribute the chemical through my hard working heart. Treadmill time was less than ten minutes.

After that, it was back to the gamma camera to have more pictures taken of my faster beating heart. While waiting for that imaging to come to an end the cardiac nurse told me my EKG looked perfectly normal, my blood pressure was normal in all my extremities, and that listening to my heart and lungs all was normal.

The entire process took nearly four hours and now I’m scheduled to meet with a cardiologist next week to go over the complete results of today’s testing. I don’t know what to expect when I meet with that doctor, but I’m old enough to know that ignoring health matters like this won’t make them go away.

I should add that in addition to the elevated results from the calcium scan, I had a further complication of high cholesterol that is well under control thanks to Crestor. But I guess when you put those two health issues together, along with my age (66), the stress test was probably warranted. I’m not sure why I dreaded this test so much, it wasn’t difficult or painful. I think I had done far too much doom scrolling online as I didn’t want to be that lucky guy to have a heart attack during a stress test, an event that happens in 3 out of 10,000 patients.