For those who have never had to have an EKG or ultrasound, let me comfort you in knowing that both are painless procedures. An EKG involves a medical professional placing several stickers connected to wires around different spots on your body. Now, for females, you may have to lift a breast as two stickers do have have to go near the upper left rib cage area. Then they scan you and a fancy machine prints out your heart results. They remove the stickers and you can leave. Start to finish, it took me all of five minutes.
The ultrasound requires you to lie on your back while wearing a hospital gown. The doctor let me keep all undergarments and my pants on. They did not make me remove the hospital gown, just leave it open them back. After you lay down, the technician puts a warm jelly-like substance on you and presses around with a smooth handheld device. It does not hurt at all. Sometimes they may have to add a little bit more of the warm jelly. This did take a while. I believe this part of the procedure took about 15 minutes, and then she had me lay on my left side where she did about five more minutes of scanning. After that, I sit up, she left, and I was able to put my shirt on and be done.
Honestly, the hardest part of everything was getting my blood drawn. I'm not a huge fan of needles. I don't have a phobia, per se, but I'm very hard to poke. Luckily, my hospital was awesome and had a very skilled phlebotomist who was able to get me on my first try. All in all, I spent about three hours at the hospital. Most of that time was in waiting rooms. I did not experience any major pain and was able to drive, and did not need anybody with me. If you want somebody there for moral support, though, just make sure they have a good book!
No comments:
Post a Comment