Last of my testing…

Today marked the last of my diagnostic testing, though they were less diagnostic tools and more to have baselines.

I had an EKG, an echocardiogram, and a pulmonary function test.

The EKG is simple- plug up a bunch of stickers to your body, press a button, and bam, you’re done. The echocardiogram is essentially a sophisticated ultrasound of your heart. The nurse was a bit grumpy and really shoved the wand down into my ribs, making the whole process a lot more painful than it needed to be. It might have also hurt because all my lymph nodes around my heart on that side are swollen, so the pressure could not have been helpful.

This is not me. I am not nearly so stylish.

The pulmonary function test was actually pretty neat. Years of marching band breathing exercises paid off! I sat in large plexiglass box and did various breathing patterns into a tube. Being told to hyperventilate 3 times in a row was a little fun. 🙂

One of the tests required me to pant into the tube while there was resistance. After the test, the breathing therapist asked me how I did it because he normally has to have patients try the test 3 or 4 times before they “get” it. I don’t know what that says about his qualifications as a breathing therapist…

I go back to my oncologist on Tuesday afternoon to get the staging results and talk treatment.