Stress Test

I took my first stress test today. It's actually done on a treadmill, not on a stair-stepper as in the pic. It wasn't as bad as I had feared. They stick a dozen electrodes all over your chest, strap a blood pressure device on your arm, and hook everything up to the EKG machine. . You get three minutes at 1.7 mph and a 1% incline. Childsplay. Then you get three minutes at 2.6 mph and a 10% incline. That gets your heart and lungs' attention. Then you get 3 minutes at 3.6 mph (a fairly fast walk) and 15% incline. That had me gasping for air after the first minute, but I hung on. The nice technician said the next stage (running) was optional, and I declined his kind invitation. . Everything is predicated on getting your heart rate up to a certain level, and that 3.6 mph-15% incline did that quite well. I think the target rate was around 136-140 beats/minute. I felt a sense of accomplishment when I got to that rate. . The cool thing is you get to watch the various read-outs as you're gasping for breath. Blood Pressure went from 120/80 to 140/something, which is what it's supposed to do. After I got off the treadmill, the BP rapidly came back to normal, which is the key thing. . The cardiologist looked at the stress-test EKG results and said everything looks normal. No follow-up needed. Thus endeth my physical. All that remains is an ultrasound on my leg in the near future to hopefully confirm that the DVT has fully dissolved.