When the Cardiologist says you have heart disease — part-1
It all started innocently enough. I went to my primary care physician complaining of dizziness and a pain in my back. A quick ECG or electrocardiogram revealed a very fine and operational heart muscle. Still, being at an age where heart disease is considered a possibility and having several increased risk factors, my doctor decided that a trip to see the cardiologist was in order.
After all I thought, how could there be a problem with my heart? I just carried several 50 pound boxes down three flights of stairs only a couple of weeks ago. Still, I thought it better to at least get a baseline so we could measure any change as I got older. And the fact that the dizziness didn’t go away was still troubling.
The next test was a treadmill or stress test. Because of the dizziness and nausea however, the heart diagnostic group decided that a chemical stress test was in order. They inserted an IV and took pictures of my heart muscle before being stressed. The idea is that they could then place my heart under some strain and see the reaction. Kind of like a before and after type set of...