My cardiac clearance for Getson's ketamine treatment was paid for by my personal insurance, while my injury is WC. I used my personal insurance at the urging of my WC attorney, who told me that WC doesn't have to pay for everything related to my case.

The testing consisted of an initial appt with a cardiac doc, and a follow-up appt with her asst. during which I needed to pass a stress test on a treadmill. The stress test only lasted about 15 minutes or so, they started the treadmill out slow and at the end it was at an uphill slant and I was running at a medium pace for about a minute. They needed to get my heartrate up to 145 beats per minute (I think I'm remembering the number right) for at least a minute or so. The entire time they had me hooked up to a cardiac monitor and measured my pulse and BP. The biggest problem for me is my pulse and BP - they have been high lately because my head pain levels have been really high since my lidocaine infusion wore off last week. (I had a lidocaine infusion on Dec 23 - combined with Fentanyl .75 mcg, I was about 50% painfree for about 1.5 - 2 weeks). My BP and pulse actually went down once I started moving.

I didn't have to do a tilt table test - thank goodness. That sounds awful!!

XOXOX Sandy