Anyone ever have an Echocardiogram? Just curious exactly what one entails.

In October I was at the doctor for a physical and the doctor apparently didn't like something when listening to my heart, and she had an ECG done (I think that is what it was called, they hook a bunch of sticky pads to you, clip on some wires, and 10 seconds later a piece of paper prints out.)

The doctor sent in a referral for an Echocardiogram to be done in Vancouver (not available locally) and its been scheduled for May.

Doctor isn't really sure if there is anything wrong, or at-least hasn't said anything to me in great detail, other then I shouldn't worry too much as everything is probably fine.

I am just curious about the procedure in general, doesn't sound too complicated when reading about it online.

It's an ultrasound of your heart, just like one you may have had on your abdomen. You take off your shirt, lay on your left side propped up with pillows in your back so you're not completely on your side but not on your back either, then the sonographer uses an ultrasound wand to take pictures of your heart. You'll hear a whooshing sound at times, like a heartbeat, but actually it's just the sound of blood flow though your arteries. When they're done you wipe the gel off and you're good to go. The test takes about 30-45 minutes and is completely pain free. (I work in cardiology in a major teaching hospital right next to the echo department so get to hear about 30 of them being done a day)

Thanks, I reread the OP, so deleted my inaccurate response. Last time I ended up having to go for an angio, the OP does not want one of those.

Any time they hook me up to those ECG thingies I inevitably find a sticky pad somewhere that they've left on.

After my last operation I found one under my boob the next day when I got home

Thanks for sharing

welcome

Oh oh! That's what they always say.... can I have your bike?

nothing eciting at all about it. A routine examination as Dorothy desribed. I had to have one recently and the precis of a page of cardiologits report was that my heart is as old as I am.

It doesn't say much for the state of cardiology inBC that you have to. Travel. To 0vancouver and wait til May. It wasn't much better here though I. Waited a few weeks for the scan and then it took them 5 weeka to issue a report.

Anyway don't worry about it. If it was anything urgent then you wouldn't waiting til May

Small communities tend to not have much in the way of medical testing available outside very routine stuff like an x-ray, we have a small fairly limited hospital. In fact if you go in after lab hours, the docs have no lab or equipment to do anything, if its urgent they send you to Vancouver area hospital in ambulance, if it can wait til the lab opens, they either have you go home or sleep in the ER.

Its the one downside to living in a small community in BC, proper urgent medical care can be a good amount of time away, luckily we are only about 50 minutes from the nearest big hospital, but still a bit too far if you need very urgent emergency anything.

One good thing we have that some small communities lack in the province is a good network of GP's and almost all are accepting patients, and pretty much all rotate through the ER and walk in clinic, as well as their own practice. The GP's really work together to keep everything covered, where in some small towns in the province, they have issues just having 24 hour DR coverage in the ER, a couple times a year somewhere usually up north the news will report an ER closing because there is no doctor coverage in the area available.

BC is very Vancouver centric when it comes to the medical system.

Its one reason I want to eventually live back in Vancouver, I prefer to live near a major hospital in the event of a medical emergency, I had a friend die of what would be a survivable medical issue if near a hospital, but it took over 90 minutes to get to the nearest trauma center, and by then it was too late.

I am not overly worried at the moment, but once closer to 40, because of heart issues in the family of mine, I'd prefer to be near a major hospital.

Any surgical instruments jiggling around?

none that I'm aware of but the fridge magnets do seem to stick to my abdomen now

Well at least reminder notes are available wherever you go.