Stress Test

[john999]

I had a stress test and an echocardiogram today. The Stress test was a bummer as they could not get my heart up to 140 beats a minute before my feet and legs turned to rubber and I nearly fell on my face. Hey, I am 58 years old for God's sake. My normal heart rate is about 60 so I have to double it plus 20 beats to be in the zone to detect a problems they said. How could any person with foot,leg or back problems do a stress test on an elevated treadmill track without killing themselves I don't know. It was going so fast I was yelling for them to shut it off before I took a crash dive. I think that stress test is useless. They did not see anything bad, but if they did I would probably have had a heart attack before the test was complete. The echo was of poor quality just like the last one I took. Going to the VA for testing or treatment is dangerous. Now my back is hurting like hell. If you want a heart attack get a stress test.

[Stretch]

They gave me this test. The techs couldn't figure out what was wrong, until they looked at my grip on the front bar. My knuckles were white. They kept telling me to loosen up my grip. I did finish the test. I was panting for about 6 or 7 minutes afterwards. I have no idea what they found or did not find out.

[Pete53]

They can give you a chemical stress test that will get you up where you need to be.

Good Luck

With a low heart rate you probably are ok anyway. Why did they think that you need the test?

[purple]

Wow, I'm shocked (well, not really...we are talking about the VA) that they didn't give you the chemical test knowing your history of foot, leg, & back issues. I've had several treadmill tests and a couple of the chemical tests.

Hope you recover from the test and get to feeling better.

[john999]

I am service connected for vascular artery disease and have hbp so they thought I might have heart problems so they tried to kill me. The way of the VA.

[Ricky]

VA provides me with daily stress tests. Every time I communicate with them on a claim issue.

[Stretch]

The first time I took the test, I was stumbling all over the place. I had worn my wolverine snow boots in, as it was snowy winter. I kept telling them to go on but they refused to continue. I was really upset about not being able to complete the test after driving all the way to the VAMC.