There's always a first time...

I can't think of a better title than that... Today I had my first EKG. It was supposedly a simple check-up at my doctor's office, where he would check my vitals and see how I'm doing to evaluate the medication I'm taking. The nurse started with the usual -- blood pressure, temperature, and pulse. She commented that it was rather fast. I said that it's always like that, no big deal. She made her notes and left the room.

My doctor came in next, discussed how I've been doing and then he checked my pulse as well. He was alarmed. I was sitting there, at rest, and my pulse rate was 125 bpm. He said it was cause for an EKG. "Great" I thought, "More tests to rack up our bill." Not having health insurance really sucks. Someone get my congressman on the phone!!

So, the nurse comes back in with a little machine and tells me to disrobe, all the way down. That kinda took me by surprise, but I complied, all the while thinking how glad I am that the nurse is female. She said that she'd try to keep this as modest as possible, but there were a lot of places to stick those electrical wires and that paper gown didn't cover much... Thankfully, my husband was the only other person in the room.

The hardest part of the test was getting the nodes in all the right places -- the actual test only took a few seconds. She recorded the readings and then left the room so I could get dressed again and the doctor came back in (good thing I'm a quick dresser, or I would have been caught in my birthday suit!).

The readings came back fairly normal (thank goodness!!) but, even laying down, at rest, my heart rate was over 110.

People who excersize have a target heart rate in that range, and they're losing weight while in that range... Unfortunately for me, I'm not. Instead, I'm gaining. I haven't weighed this much since I was getting ready to deliver my last baby. The weight and the heart rate, and a plethora of other things, are side-effects of an anti-depressant I'm taking to help with headaches, an after-effect of the car accident I was in last December.

Sigh... sometimes I think the headache would be better. Though, I'll need a bigger pill once I receive the bill!! :: shudder ::