Nuclear Stress Test

Heart disease is a major complication of lupus and is now a leading cause of death among people living with autoimmune disease. Individuals with lupus are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), which involves hardening of the arteries and can lead to heart attacks or strokes later in life. As the nation observes February as "National Heart Month," the Lupus Foundation of America is calling attention to this serious complication of lupus, an autoimmune disease that affects an estimated 1.5 million Americans. 

Today was my nuclear stress test.

Lupus can attack any and all organs.  Since being in the hospital for the pancreatitis, caused by the lupus, I have been having problems breathing.  It feels like a lead weight is on my heart.  So today was a test to check out my heart.  

When I arrived, they placed an IV in my arm.  This allowed the girl to inject a radioactive isotope. 

After waiting about 20 minutes after injection, she brought me back to a large imaging machine.  This machine moved around, taking pictures of my heart.

Then, I was moved to another room in which they did an ultrasound of my heart.

20 minutes later, I was brought in to the treadmill room.  The  lady explained that it was going to take a long time to raise my heart rate b/c I am so young.  Then she went on to ask why someone of my age was even in for a stress test.  I told her I had Lupus.  She got a sad look on her face and said she was sorry.  She said that's all she needed to know.  Less than one minute of being on the treadmill, the pain in my heart started and I could hardly breath.  I pushed through and finished the test.  She helped me out by holding my back so I could stay on the machine.  When I was just about finishes, I was given another injection of the radioactive isotope into my IV.

When I was finished, she walked me over and had me lay down.  The extreme pain in my heart started to make its way into my shoulder and down my arm.  I was having an extremely hard time breathing.

Once that subsided, I was moved back into the imaging machine.  The lady sat me under the machine to take images of what my heart looked like AFTER being on the treadmill.