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Stress
North Miami Beach, Florida 11-4-2000 Aaron H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then. Opinions pro or con are welcome.
STRESS
The stress caused by election 2000 is pretty bad. You have to do a lot of
thinking about: "What if...?" Those stressed individuals who are
considering not voting should be very stressed when they really think about
what would happen if a minority government were created by non-voters.
Would their interests be served then?
My stress test yesterday caused these ruminations. I had not had a cardiac
stress test for some time because of treks between two homes and the
construction work in a brand new one. So, my wonderful doctor Stuart Wald
set me up to take a stress test. Another doctor and several efficient but
bored technicians conducted this in another office.
Stress during a test is something not always planned. I was directed to
take off my shirt and then had my chest shaved for the electrical
connections that would be attached later. I then sat for about ten minutes
in the chilled air of the little room where this took place. It was assumed
that something was seriously wrong with me or else why was I there? The
technicians continually asked if how I felt: if I was all right and other
concerns except to question if I was too cold. However, that ten minutes
without a shirt were uncomfortable if not stressed. At least I was able to
read a magazine.
I was eventually taken to the room where the test was to be performed. I
had forgotten that they take a lot of electronic pictures of you while lying
supine on a flat, hard narrow pallet. I had my right thumb stuck under my
right side and my left hand drawn up over my head to grasp the top of the
pallet. The test took twenty minutes that passed very slowly while the
machine traversed my body from right to left making muted noises. These
last were appreciated because I remember the loud knocks and closed in
tunnel in the machine up in New Jersey. They did this to me again after I
walked the treadmill.
The stress was to be on the treadmill set up in the corner of the frigid
room. I was attached to this by lines from my chest to a box tucked in a
belt fastened around my waist and thence into a thick cable leading to the
machine which had three green spiked lines running across a screen. I stood
there for around half an hour holding on to the bar in front of me. This is
where the real stress occurred. I had to wait until they found the doctor.
When the doctor arrived I had run out of things to watch and study. I had
planned the placement of New Jersey 's furniture when it arrived in our new
home in Florida within the confines of a rectangular ceiling panel. I tried
to imagine our bedroom furniture in various configurations in a squarish
picture on the wall. I could glance out of the window through some ratty
mini-blinds to study the traffic flow on Aventura Boulevard. I also thought
some not so profound thoughts. All in all I didn't feel much stress as
tiredness in holding on to that bar weighed down by all those cables fixed
to my front like incredibly long multiple nipples.
I passed the test whether it was heart stress or something else again. I
told the doctor that I never had chest pains for that is what previous
concerns were very vocal about. I told him that my knees and hips would
give out if I remembered the pacing that was required of them. I was even
more "stressed" by the needle inserted in my right forearm to administer a
chemical at some peak or another. If I read the screen correctly while
bearing up on being left alone while standing on that treadmill, my HR or
"heart rate" was as low as 57 by concentrating on it. I was up to 69 at
various points after that.
The doctor read off the paper work produced by the machine with the screen.
I think he said I passed.
Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.
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