I currently have a small, round, plastic disc glued to my chest. It has wires coming out of it, which are also glued to my chest. Called a heart monitor, it is sending information to somebody in Idaho, where I know nobody, about the workings of my heart. If I feel faint, or dizzy, or pain, I've been instructed to push the center of the disc one time. I will wear the device for two weeks.
Just yesterday I had an echocardiogram, which is a diagnostic test that looks at the inner workings of your heart. The technician who did the procedure was a personable woman who looked just liked a young Teri Garr (before she got MS and gained weight and ended up in a wheelchair and ultimately died at the age of 79). We chatted easily while she stared at a computer screen and moved a wand all over my chest. She said the facility where she works employs 13 such technicians who perform 80 echocardiograms a day.
That's just one facility in one small town in one small state. Multiply that by all the hospitals in Maine, and all the hospitals in all the towns of America, and one can hardly comprehend such a number. As I write this, hundreds, maybe thousands, of people are having echocardiograms.
My echo results were posted electronically last night on a page called My Chart. Of course I couldn't interpret them but they didn't look all that great to me. One unfortunate word that popped out was "suspicious." Anyway, if you want to avoid having this test, stop smoking and limit your alcohol and don't eat ice cream, bread, croissants, bagels, French fries, cereal, cookies, crackers, cakes, pies, brownies, red meat, hot dogs, sausages, burritos, fajitas, tacos, pretzels, chips, processed foods, salt, and all dairy.
Have a nice day!
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