Pre-op clearance expectations.

I had my initial consult with my surgeon today and everything went great! I am tentatively schedule for surgery on 04/21/16! Woohoo! My insurance requires 2 meetings with a nutritionist, a psych eval, EGD, pulmonary testing, and cardiac testing.  I'm good on the nutritionist, psych eval, and EGD in regards with what to expect. My question is what to expect with the pulmonary and cardiac testing? I'll be calling around in the next few days, but would like a heads up. I want to get every done sooner rather than later! I'm fricken stoked! Thanks all!

---Kim

My cardiac evaluation consisted of a short treadmill test and an EKG.  It was easier than I thought it would be and I passed with flying colors.  I was so afraid when I went in, because my dad had a bad experience with a treadmill test years ago after he had a heart attack.  I was pleasantly surprised when it went so well.

There are a few ways they can do the cardiac testing, depending on what sort of shape you're in.

None of it is a very big deal though. All of this will be a distant memory before you know it.

My Cardiac Clearance could have been as simple as a Doctors opinion of an EKG Strip.  However, my doctor didn't like one area of the strip and sent me to Iowa Heart for evaluation.  At Iowa Heart Clinic,  We chatted and they said they wanted a treadmill and an Echo of my heart.  I said great, can we do it now?  It was 2:30 pm and they just happen to have an opening.

I did my treadmill in my work pants (5.11 tac lite pants) and combat boots.  No problem, they only wanted 150 beats/minute of my heart but I gave them 160.  I could have given them more but they stopped it at 160.  The Echo was nothing more than an ultrasound of my heart.  I was told I was very photogenic and that I had "Fluffy" fat.  ROFLMAO "fluffy fat. I guess they can read through fluffy fat very easily.

Be at Peace,

I also had an EKG, a treadmill test, and they did a lower-body scan of my legs for clots. I don't have a history of them or anything, but they wanted to cover all bases. The treadmill test was horrible for me because I had pretty bad asthma but over quite quickly.