CHOP, CHOP

always be prepared

My cardiologist is at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.  When you call to make your appointment, they say "May I have your child's date of birth?"  And then I have to say "I am the child."  I am not, however, her oldest patient.  I asked.  The check-in guy said she has patients in their 50s and 60s.
  
All 4 of the children in my family have the same heart condition, Long QT Syndrome.  It can basically be explained, according to the Heart Rhythm Society, as "a disorder of the heart’s electrical system, in which the heart muscle cells take longer than normal to recover electrically after each beat."  For me, it means I have to take medicine, and stay away from caffeine, and that I got out of gym class every once in a while in high school because I "didn't feel good."  (Usually, I just had homework I hadn't done the night before...)

So on Wednesday, I had a stress test (and a few EKGs), which is when the doctors watch you do a lot of cardiac exercise, and measure what your body is doing, from your oxygen intake and your CO2 output to your blood pressure and your heartbeats.  The EKG, done laying, sitting, standing, and riding the bike, measures those pesky electrical signals.

I couldn't take pictures of the stress test itself, since there were other people (a little boy who did a really good job at running on a treadmill) and it's all HIPAA non-compliant.  But I took as many as I could:

abandoned belle

university city 

t wave issues

it is not a toy

waiting