See Your Doctor

I was in the pool about a month ago with the crew, and Mark mentioned setting up a physical to make sure he is as healthy as he feels.  How often do you hear about someone dropping dead of a heart attack during a run.  Once is enough for me but I have heard it a number of times.  I will admit that I would have never given it thought until Mark brought it up.

I have been experiencing some chest pain for the last 6 months that I figured was just a little acid reflux so I have just ignored it with everything else I have going on.  You know, training for an Iron Man, starting a new business and spending time with my family.  I had an episode while my parents were at the house and they encouraged (demanded) that I go to the doctor.  It took another two weeks but I finally set up a time to go get a full physical and find out just how healthy I actually am. 

The doctor after some examination and questions determined that I do have acid reflux that is presenting itself as pressure in my chest.  I found out the acid reflux can also feel like hunger and cause you to eat to feel better but that just makes it worse.  She prescribed some meds and asked me to have an EKG done while I was there to make sure I was alright based on the fact I mentioned chest pain.  I of course had no problem with this.

After a few minutes a nurse came in put all of the sticky tabs on my chest and then pulled them off and sent me on my way telling me it looks good.  Later that night around 8:00 P.M. I got a call from the doctor.  She tells me she saw something on my EKG that she wasn't sure about so she wants me to go get a stress test done to make sure I am okay.  According to her, whatever she saw is pretty common in very fit people (me) and I shouldn't worry but we need to cover our bases (cover our asses against law suits).  I can't blame her and don't mind taking the time to make sure I am going to make it back from my next run.

I am going for my stress test on March 4 and will found out the results then.  I am sure it is nothing or I would most likely be experiencing some type of problem but I will post my results and my experience after I am done.  I have never had a stress test and I am sure most of you are in the same boat.  At this point I am not too worried about but the point is, we all need to get checked out because you never know what could be going on.