Blessed Day

Well, I woke to the solemn reminder that I was scheduled for a Stress Echocardiogram this morning at 8 a.m. Got showered, made it to the hospital about 20 minutes early and checked in. Fortunately, the Echocardiographer is a close friend, as are my physician and his assistant. Together with the lab assistant, whom I also know (and now know on a personal level, seeing as how she shaved and sandpapered--yes, they use SANDPAPER to prep your skin!!--my chest this morning), they made up the four-person echocardiography team.

I say "fortunately", because I have to admit to some degree of trepidation as I approached the hospital. Though I work in a clinical setting on a regular basis, serving on the Clinical Pastoral Care team of McDowell Hospital, today way different. I was a biochemistry major as an undergrad, and I'm quite familiar with laboratory equipment, anatomy and physiology and so forth, but today was different. As a good friend who's a physician once told me, "It doesn't matter how much you know about medicine, the view is completely different when you're the one flat on your back!"

I was also a bit anxious because innumerable church members and friends who have had this procedure done have described it to me as "an attempt to make your heart explode", "the worst torture I've ever endured", etc.

Thankfully, my experience was quite different!

After a resting echocardiogram, in which my friend Steve used a "wand" (basically it looks like an oversized salt-shaker with a cord!) to gently prod between my ribs and visualize my heart by means of reflected sound waves, I was asked to mount a computerized treadmill with the EKG electrodes, blood pressure cuff and various other medical equipment still attached to my body.

I easily reached the target heart rate (80% of the maximum safe rate for my age and gender), and found it easy enough to keep up the exercise for as long as they cared to measure my heart's function. Then, they swiftly moved me back to the hospital bed, where Steve repeated the echocardiogram, watching carefully for any exercise-induced changes in heart function, the volume of blood ejected with each cycle, etc.

In the end, I was pronounced thoroughly healthy and told to keep doing what I was doing to take care of myself. Thank God!

No doubt, I have some extra pounds I'd like to shed, but I will say this: My recipe for health includes hard work coupled with regular exercise and frequent fun activities; occasional naps; plenty of water; plenty of fiber in my diet; and trying to eat mostly non-processed foods. (It doesn't take much more energy to grill a piece of fresh fish than it does to buy a Fillet-o-Fish from the drive-through, and I think the investment is well-rewarded. We try to avoid mixes, premade meals and instant anything at our house, and it seems to be working.) I think balance is important, and trusting God with stress means leaving it with Him, not dragging it home with you at the end of the day.

There. My "health" sermon is over. Hope you enjoyed it. Please call again! :-)

God's best blessings to you and yours,
--Steve