Over the past couple months, I've been experiencing some symptoms that ultimately resulted in a trip to the cardiologist. Although the doctor (who went to Simpson College, a rival of Wartburg) was pretty sure that my symptoms were not a result of something being wrong with my heart, he ran several tests just to make sure. I had an x-ray and some blood work done on Monday (during which I ended up passing out...literally), and today, I had a stress echocardiogram.
A stress echo starts with an ultrasound of your heart at a resting heart rate. They then hook you up to a bunch of monitors and put you on a treadmill. Every 3 minutes, the treadmill goes faster and inclines a bit higher. After that, they rush you back to the table so they can get another ultrasound of your heart now working hard.
I've never really had the stomach to really get involved in the medical field (see the first paragraph where I note how I passed out), I've always
been fascinated by the human body. I started talking to the ultrasound operator and ended up getting this picture of my heart. In the bottom left hand square, you can clearly see the four chambers of my heart. The upper right hand square is one of my arteries...completely clear and healthy.
I didn't actually take this picture, but in talking with Pete, he helped me realize that it was just too cool NOT to be my picture of the day. But, before that conversation, I had snapped the shot on the left: a stuffed person doll (the girls at the 'bama house affectionately call "faith) who has run into the wall on a unicycle. It's weird. It's creepy. It's downright funny. A shout out to Kristen, Lauren, Shereen, Colleen, Becca, Christina, Kelsey, and the other girls of that always welcoming house.
As you probably guessed by the simply fact that I posted the picture, everything is just fine. I'm left with a pretty sweet bruise from passing out from a needle in my arm, but if that's the only problem I have, I'll take it. And that's no April Foolin'.
