[Jeff]

I'm a little behind in replies, but to answer your question from what I know Susie, stress tests are ideally done on a treadmill, but they also do them pharmacologically, injecting adrenaline (or something with a similar effect) to get your heart rate up - my mother in law just had one done that way - she's not in good enough shape for a treadmill test but they needed to test her heart, so that's an avenue available.

I really don't know what they're looking for with a stress test - obviously they're taxing your heart to see how much work it can handle, but I don't know what measurements they're taking. I've had a stress test myself, the treadmill type, but it was so long ago I don't recall much about it, other than I had a few leads on my chest and I had a single PVC during cooldown (to which I said "SEE? SEE? THAT'S WHAT I'M HAVING - ONLY ALL THE TIME.")

As for the chart you looked up - for my own self I guess I never put a lot of stock in the charts because I think they're designed to give you a target heart rate for exercising, and trying to lump every single person, healthy or not, short and tall, thin and overweight into a single theoretical max hr just isn't realistic. So that rate is probably a lowest common denominator.

@dr461 - I'm envious of your HR. My father ran marathons for awhile, and during that time he had a really bad head injury requiring him to have some emergency brain surgery. He's been fine for more than 25 years, but the funny part was we were in a little podunk hospital, where most of the ICU patients were in their 90s, with resting heart rates in the 140+ range. My father's was in the mid-40's because he was in such fantastic shape. The nurses kept waking him up to make sure he wasn't about to flatline because his heart rate was so low, and he told them each time that he was just fine.

[Chaoticdopey]

Originally Posted by Jeff

I really don't know what they're looking for with a stress test - obviously they're taxing your heart to see how much work it can handle, but I don't know what measurements they're taking. I've had a stress test myself, the treadmill type, but it was so long ago I don't recall much about it, other than I had a few leads on my chest and I had a single PVC during cooldown (to which I said "SEE? SEE? THAT'S WHAT I'M HAVING - ONLY ALL THE TIME.")

omg thats what happend on my last stress test. 1 single PVC on cooldown but dam doc wouldnt look at the EKG screen he was to busy looking at the echo machine, i still would have liked to know what it was i felt...

[dr461]

Originally Posted by Chaoticdopey

omg thats what happend on my last stress test. 1 single PVC on cooldown but dam doc wouldnt look at the EKG screen he was to busy looking at the echo machine, i still would have liked to know what it was i felt...

The doctor is doing his job. The PVCs are NOT important. He's looking to see if there are any serious abnormalities on the cool down phase, and a PVC simply isn't an abnormality. I think you get the message from all of us that PVCs are as common as dog poop, and just as annoying--but dog poop isn't a serious illness, nor are PVCs.

[Chaoticdopey]

Originally Posted by dr461

The doctor is doing his job. The PVCs are NOT important. He's looking to see if there are any serious abnormalities on the cool down phase, and a PVC simply isn't an abnormality. I think you get the message from all of us that PVCs are as common as dog poop, and just as annoying--but dog poop isn't a serious illness, nor are PVCs.

I understand, just like some one else said "as normal as they can be, they feel very abnormal" and that freaks me out. but i will slowly but surely get over it like some of you have, and if i don't get over it, that's what loony bins are for lol.

[dr461]

Originally Posted by Chaoticdopey

I understand, just like some one else said "as normal as they can be, they feel very abnormal" and that freaks me out. but i will slowly but surely get over it like some of you have, and if i don't get over it, that's what loony bins are for lol.

Oh, I KNOW you will get over it. You have all of us rooting for you, and we all love you, dude. Don't think it doesn't bug all of us at one time or another, and we likewise need reassurance. I just think that you would be much happier with someone to talk to objectively about your problems, so therapy would help tremendously. I am not pushing it--I just know how much it helped me take a lot of the focus off of my body. Do I still have anxieties that make me crazy at times? Of course I do. This site is great, as people tell it like it is, and support one another in the quest to deal with the skipped beats that are generally anxiety created and caused.

[Chaoticdopey]

Originally Posted by dr461

Oh, I KNOW you will get over it. You have all of us rooting for you, and we all love you, dude. Don't think it doesn't bug all of us at one time or another, and we likewise need reassurance. I just think that you would be much happier with someone to talk to objectively about your problems, so therapy would help tremendously. I am not pushing it--I just know how much it helped me take a lot of the focus off of my body. Do I still have anxieties that make me crazy at times? Of course I do. This site is great, as people tell it like it is, and support one another in the quest to deal with the skipped beats that are generally anxiety created and caused.

I think i would piss a therapist off how much i can babble. i think i make my doctors mad to lol, i would like to talk to some one, but rather talk to some one that has gone through this also, face to face. and also Merry Christmas to you sir dr461. i just want to get over this as fast as possible but, being on county insurance im stuck with there very slow process for mental health being so many people in Los Angeles are freaking crazy.. i hope they can help me, or at least an anti-anxiety med can, so far ive tried Zoloft, Paxil, Prozac. all increased my anxiety, at 7 years old they had me taking all this crap for ADHD, Wellbutrin, Adderall, Ritalin, Cylert, and Dexadrine.

[bypeep]

I've never had a stress test per say, however during my EP study, Dr. Love injected me with adrenaline and got my heart rate up to ungodly speeds all the while shocking my ventricles and atria in an attempt to trigger an arrhythmia. When I went back in for my follow-up, and I asked him if I could have a stress-test, he told me that he'd basically given me a chemical stress test there on the table. That even if he had me run the treadmill, it would most likely yield the same results.

But then again, I was in the EP study for about 2 hours, the last 1/2 hour of which I was juiced up to level 3 of the drug they gave me.

Why don't you ask your doctor if he considers the elevated heart rate you experienced during your echos to be anything close to the same as what a stress test would produce?