Chemical stress test info?

[Jude2]

I wonder if anyone has had a different experience with the chemical stress test? I have abnormal ekgs (2 in the last 15 years.) They always make me do a stress test which turns out normal. I know I would be unable to do a treadmill test now because of my knees. Hoping ucsbgals experience is not the norm :(

Would sure like to hear about any experiences with this test.

 

[pjw]

I had to take the chemical stress test because my knees were too bad to use the treadmill. I needed clearance to have a bilateral mastectomy so I had to take the test. To be honest it was not fun but there was no choice. My advise is to get a cardiologist if you have afib. My test was begun while I was on a bed and then I walked over to the stainless seat where the films were shot. I had to do it three times which was very hard on my knees but that was four years ago and all I do now is have an EKG and exam twice a year. The OS did my LTKR in a heart hospital in case I had problems. I had no trouble with my heart for the mastectomies or LTKR. Best wishes.

 

[Jude2]

Thanks pjw for your comments. You really had a difficult road to travel...hope you are doing fine now. So they did your test sitting up? I would much prefer that if I am going to be really short of breath.

 

[pjw]

Yes, the first and last segments I was laying down....even better. For the sitting part of the test I had to sit without moving at all for the 20 min. Test where the camera moves around you and records the heart reaction to the chemical stimulation. I had an involuntary reaction twice and had to start over. The part I disliked the most was the monthly blood draws because of the Warfarin but now I take Pradaxa and have only one draw a year. I have been cancer free for four years and I survived chemo

 

[Jude2]

Well, I have decided not to do the chemical stress test. Now I am in for it, trying to find a way to keep my surgery on track. I will tell my primary who is insisting on this test and my OS who is not. This is a small community and I don't know if OS will do the surgery withou a clearance from my primary. Am feeling very down about this situation. There is enough stress just planning the surgery without this crapola.

 

[ucsbgal1971]

Jude, I would see a cardiologist before making a final decision. He may have a solution for you. Plus, I think it is best to see a specialist anyway when it comes to heart problems. Too bad they don't have recumbent bikes to do the test instead of the treadmill. I can get my heart rate up pretty high with my bike. I can't walk on the treadmill at all now. If you can ride a bike, why don't you ask the cardiologist about that. Maybe they can accommodate you and you won't have to go the chemical route. The docs probably prefer the chemical route because they make more money from that kind of test and they had to pay an arm and a leg for the equipment. Personally, I think they will eventually find out those chemical tests are actually harmful. I have been prescribed numerous medicines over the years that were eventually taken off of the market. Thank goodness I didn't take them. I don't trust medicine. What is good today may not be so tomorrow. I believe they rush to approve medicines and procedures and don't do adequate study before putting things on the market.

 

[knees]

Jude I feel worried about the stress test too. My mother in law was asked to take one last year and she told the dr no. He told her that they had improved and made the test so much better. So I'm hoping if I have to go down that road that it has been made easier. Also there are people who had no problems with it at all. I'm praying for you! This sure is hard and stressful. One day soon we will both be on the other side with our new knees

 

[scaredinCA]

Jude please do not be overly concerned about the chemical stress test!! I don't know why ucsb had such an awful experience but it was nothing like mine at all. I couldn't do the treadmill because of my bad knees so they had me do the chemical one. Believe me I was scared of it because I have reacted to meds in weird ways in the past so it makes me paranoid of taking meds in general. I was worried the chemical would speed up my heart too much and there would be no way to control it. NOT TRUE. Just my mind getting carried away about it.... They can stop that test any time they want to. There are meds that can slow down your heart if necessary, but I didn't know that then.. I was given an EKG first, then I laid down on a table and they injected me with the chemical. Yes I felt it, first in my neck, then shoulders, then arms, but it only lasted seconds, not minutes. All I felt was a deep ache for those seconds. I layed there while they took another and longer EKG, no pain or problem at all. And then I walked over to a huge machine with a bed in it and laid down and the machine moves the bed inside of it but with my head outside. Thank God!!
It took awhile for the machine to take pictures of the heart. I think I was in the machine for about 20 minutes but I was laying down the whole time and could talk to the medical people while I waited for it to finish.
Believe me it wasn't a horrible experience and I would do it again without question. Afterwards I was happy to hear the results which were good. I went into my bilateral surgery knowing that my heart could take it which was a comfort to me.

This test has been around for along time and if it were that dangerous they would stop using it. I too am a worrier and am mistrustful of things, but I was in so much pain from my knees that I knew I didn't want to live like that anymore. If I needed a chemical stress test in order to do the surgery, then so be it. Sometimes we have to stop being in control and allow others who are trained to be in control for a little while. I moaned and groaned on this forum about every worry I had before surgery, and you know what? None of my worries happened!! All that worry for nothing.

I may be wrong but I get the impression that you are not having the test due to what others have said about it. I think they unintentionally scared you. Please don't be afraid, just go ahead and do it like I did. I wouldn't lie to you, it wasn't a horrible experience at all. Did I like it? Oh heck no, I don't like to be messed with.

 

[I'm so ready]

Thank you for your post. My knee surgery was suppose to be on August 5th. I had an abnormal EKG. I was told I needed to pass a stress test. My doctor wanted me to see a Cardiologist. Cardiologist did another EKG, then an ultra sound of my heart, then ordered a chemical stress test. I would never be able to do a treadmill. I am having a chemical stress test on Thursday. I feel comfortable knowing my doctors are looking after me. All I want is for everything to go well so I can get my surgery and be able to do things again.

 

[knees]

Oh I'm so glad to read your post! Thank you! You have helped alot of us feel so much better yay!

 

[RestAssured]

Hello,

I have A-Fib and had a chemical stress test done. Here was my experience, a quick tightening of the chest and my face got hot. It lasted about 3 minutes but it wasn't too bad. Would I do it again? Yes, but now they tell me I am fit enough to be on the treadmill, so they do the stress test on it instead!

By the way, I had a doctor, and two techs in the room with me and I was lying down. I want to insert something else. There are bad and good doctors everywhere! My best PCP that I have ever had and still have is from India and he is excellent! I think it has more to do with the person than the nationality.

 

[pjw]

Jude, I hope I didn't say anything that would keep you from taking the stress test. I don't like any medical procedures and at the time I had it done I had breast cancer and had just been diagnosed with afib and type II diabetes. I was overwhelmed and over reacting. It has all turned out good for me and my doctors who got me through it all are very encouraging. What are you taking for afib?

 

[ucsbgal1971]

Sonja, I agree with you. Nationality has nothing to do with anything but where a doctor is trained apparently does. My Internist seems to think medical school in India is subpar. I have no way of knowing whether his opinion is valid or not. I was shocked that he would say such a thing to me however and wondered if his difference in training is why I had such a hard time. Perhaps my test was done differently than what you experienced because my doctor was trained differently. I just want to clarify that. Also, I would never ever consider having it the way I did again. If it was as easy as you speak of, I would consider it. Consider, however, that you are much younger than the other ladies who are considering this test. Like I said many things go into whether it would be a good test to have or not for an individual. The person to decide would be their cardiologists not us. Also, as I mentioned before, people have different sensitivities to medications. Whether you had an easy time or I had a rough time has no bearing on how someone else will react. People have to make a decision based on their own experiences, situation, and physician advice. That is why I don't take all the positive or negative here as gospel truth because no one knows for sure how I will react. I prefer honesty however rather than Poly Anna stories because if one doesn't have such a good experience it can make one feel like there is something wrong with oneself if a person doesn't have such a good time of it. Age, state of one's health, doctor ability, doctor training etc is what makes up the formula for success. What you and I experienced really has no bearing at all. Just my take on this conversation.

 

[scaredinCA]

I just remembered something. I also had a doctor and two techs in the room with us. It was comforting to know they do this test all day long and are trained to know what to do in case something is amiss. You are in a hospital setting. I forgot to mention this test is in two parts, not one. First I had whatever it is that speeds up your heart just as if you were exercising on a treadmill. Thats when I felt the medicine take affect in my neck, shoulders and arms. A deep ache but it wasn't hideous pain or anything. Yes like Sonja said, your face does get hot for a few seconds but then goes right away. (mine lasted seconds, not minutes). Later they give you a shot of dye in your arm and then you go into the machine that takes pictures of your heart. I didn't even feel the dye go in and had no affects from it whatsoever.

Honestly my story is not a Poly Anna story. Its the honest truth about my test. I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad that didn't have an easy time while being tested. Jude, I see on your signature that you are 77 yrs old and I was 72 at the time, so we are in the same age group. Each of us has to experience things on our own in order to find out how we each react to something. If all of us could do the treadmill, then this test wouldn't be necessary. I thank God they invented something that helps find answers when a person can't do the treadmill.

 

[ucsbgal1971]

Scared. That is interesting. I never had the dye. The tests must be done differently in different places. It is great you had a doctor present. That would be much preferable I think.

 

[ucsbgal1971]

I have also read there a two different types of medicine they can use. I don't know what I had. Maybe that would have made a difference. There was no place for anyone to lie down. We were lined up in his waiting room so there were people getting sick in the waiting room. It wasn't a very pleasant experience to say the least. They didn't even have a chair for me to sit down on after they got me up off the floor so they put me on one of those stools with wheels that doctors sit on. Incredible! I had just fainted and I was placed on a low stool with wheels. Certainly most experiences won't be like that. Like I said. It must be a difference in doctor training.

 

[scaredinCA]

Thats sounds incredible alright!! I think I would have talked about lawyers at that point. I seriously doubt anything of that nature would take place at my hospital. I belong to Kaiser HMO and they have strict regulations and protocals in place. They don't want anything to happen to their patients and they are covering their own butts also.

If I were you, I would keep an open mind to the test itself, but I would only consent to having it done AFTER I toured the hospital and knew exactly how it would be done beforehand. And I certainly would not go back to that place again for any reason! And I would change doctors too. Once is enough. Even if your doctor didn't have proper training, why on earth didn't someone else (nurses, aides, etc) know better than to treat people like that? I mean didn't anyone notice people getting sick and no place to sit down? And were they all so unprofessional as to put a patient that had just fainted on a wheeled stool? That has nothing to do with the doctors schooling. The whole place sounds unprofessional to me.

 

[ucsbgal1971]

Yes, it was exceedingly odd I think. Maybe that is how they do things in India. The test was not done in the hospital but rather in the back part of the doctor's office. He is the head of cardiology at Los Robles Hospital, however, so I thought I would be safe. I fully expected him to be there because my previous cardiologist was always there but this new doctor was on vacation when my procedure was scheduled. Go figure. I am now with a new cardiologist. I am not one for lawsuits so I just changed doctors and that is the end of it. The bad part was trying to hang onto the stool because I was still light headed. I thought I was going to fall again. Actually, I am lucky I didn't break my neck. I am also concerned about the amount of radiation I have experienced lately. They always say it is minimal but it adds up. It had to be a lot from that test and every time I go for another opinion, the doctor wants his own x-rays so I have been
x-rayed about 40 or 50 times. That can't be good. They took the series twice at SCOI because the x-ray tech was training and made a mistake. I haven't had much luck with doctors at all lately.

 

[ucsbgal1971]

Another point. I checked and it is not required by law in California to have a doctor present during that procedure. One would think for liability reasons a doctor would be present however.

 

[RestAssured]

ucsbgal1971

Pollyanna stories? If I had a bad experience I would have told it just like when I had the cardiologist that told me to go on the Atkins diet! He said I didn't have atrial fibrillation! Well, 2 days later the school was calling an ambulance because my heart was quivering like jello! They had to inject medicine that made my blood pressure plummet! It gave me a horrible headache! Ok, here comes my "PollyAnna" ending! The cardiologist who came in to take care of me is now my cardiologist because when they asked me if I had a cardiologist I said "no"!

Of course their cardiologists should decide, they just wanted our opinion.