Zero tolerance

Spent the morning at the Heart and Chest Hospital attending appointments for:
1/ an echocardiogram (ultrasound scan of the heart) and
2/ an exercise tolerance test (using computer-controlled treadmill while wired up to sensors to monitor heartbeat.)

The scan went ok, although to be honest it is a bit weird having an attractive young male technician running a gloopy sensor over your boobs and trying to retain some dignity. I had to face away from the screen, which was quite annoying as I wanted to see whatever was going on in there, thinking it must be exciting like the prenatal scans I had with the 4 kids.

Next up was the stress test, which involved a different young male technician wiping off the gloop residue and attaching loads of electrodes to my once again exposed chest, which I did find quite embarrassing. The procedure was to use the treadmill for as long as comfortable while readings of my heart function were to be taken, but I never got to do this as the blood pressure test done before the start showed that my BP was too high to do it. Despite 5 repeats with rests in between it didn't come down sufficiently to carry on, so the test was abandoned. The consultant who could have granted permission to continue had gone awol, so protocol dictated I would have to have another appointment at some unspecified future date.

I was quite peed off by then, so had a very stiff black coffee (to do the BP no good at all) and headed off to the gym for a workout. I could use the treadmills there with no questions asked, but doing the same in a hospital chock full of doctors and nurses was deemed too dangerous. Madness.