I don't know if jnewk has had it yet or not but due to my frequent episodes of unexplained dizziness I am scheduled for one next Wednesday morning. I have to be there at 7:30 I don't do 7:30 AM, now PM I am fine at. And DH has to go with me. We will do it but won't like it and to think of the money I am going to have to be putting out to be getting up that early. So I have been doing some reading on it. I hope it is current. First the connect an IV and cardiac monitor in addition to blood pressure and I would imagine the little oxygen sensor on your finger. Then they put you flat on a table that has foot rests on it and strap you down. Then slowly elevating you until you are in a standing position while being strapped in. You stay in that standing position for 45 minutes, having to be still and silent. I have to go 45 minutes without talking?????????They will be looking for several things, changes in blood pressure or heart rate, dizziness, nausea or actual passing out. The table is immediately put back down and hopefully you come back to normal. ????what is normal?????

OK, second stage if nothing happens in first stage, They give you IV mediciation that puts your heart in overdrive, you know 0 to 150 in 10 seconds type of overdrive!!! Whole time watching the cardiac monitor. If all is negative the back to the drawing board.

I did tell the nurse practitioner something I had never told anything. For the last month or so I have been having chest pain. Not big chest pains, just little twinges but sometimes they are also in my left arm. Yeah, I know I'm bad. that's what happens when old nurses try to diagnose themselves. I had always wondered what would happen if I took one of DH nitro tablets. If the pain stopped then I would have been alarmed because I would think it would be indicative of heart disease. That was kind of my own way to diagnose it. A lot cheaper than all those tests a doctor orders!!! But he was never at home and besides that, I would have had to tell him I wanted to try one and for what reason.