Monday, December 1, 2008

The Highly Anticipated Stress Test Results

It took 2 days. Doctor Newton finally called me and confirmed the beta blocker caused my blood pressure drop. He took me off of it. He said the stress test pics looked good. He had no worries about the heart rate and said he can't find any damage in the heart. He said Ed can move forward, remove me from the telemetry and move up the work out load.

Of course I couldn't wait to get to rehab that day. Ed didn't share my enthusiasm. He wondered how I could have a "normal" outcome of a stress test when I passed out. He understood the point of stopping the medicine, but felt that he still had a lot of work to do. First, he had to monitor me and get baseline data when I'm not on the beta blocker. Second, he wanted to be sure I was having follow-up appointments with Dr. Newton. Now here's where Derek's situation becomes more important. Had I not known that Ed's insistence and intervention lead to fixing Derek's pacemaker, I would have considered Ed paranoid. However, I trusted Ed not as paranoid, but concerned and I followed his lead. It meant more rehab at lower paces, but better safe than sorry.

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