The doc in Calgary says she thinks I’ve got IBS too. I’m not surprised. Reminds me of the movie, The Ladykillers, where the character Garth Pancake, kept having to use the bathroom urgently, and he’d warn others to get out of his way by saying, “IBS! IBS!” He met his girlfriend, Mountain Girl, at IBS – Irritable Bowel Singles. Hilarious.

I was also told there may now actually be a thyroid and heart problem on top of this. My heart rate is so fast, it is like I’m doing aerobics all the time. Jane Fonda… eat your heart out. Ha! (Sorry, couldn’t help myself.)

So I’ve got to spend a near entire day at Radiology next month, mostly lying still, for a bone density test, a chest X-RAY, and an ultrasound of my thyroid and of my heart (echocardiogram).

Yesterday I had to do the usual labs and have an electrocardiogram. For the latter, I was so disappointed. I thought I’d get to hear the beeps and watch the graph. Nope. Totally silent, and they have the graph turned away from you. It lasted maybe a minute. The nurse took more time putting the sticky electrodes on me.

An echocardiogram is cool, I’ve had one before. It is much like what a baby ultrasound sounds like – this whoosh-whoosh-woosh sound. It’s rather hypnotic, and they have you lying down on a firm, but soft bed and pillow, and the lights are subdued. I tried not to get too excited over the male nurse doing the test. Then I was trying to not fall asleep to my own personal white noise.

They don’t let you look at that one either though, probably in case watching your actual heart beating might make it beat faster. If you do turn out to have a heart problem, they understandably don’t want you getting upset. I did manage to sneak a peak at a still image of it when the test was done. Kinda neat, though it would have been cooler to see it doing its thing.

Sunday, May 20th, 2007 · 3:08am