Due to some unforeseen circumstances I had to cancel my appointment and reschedule it for yesterday so that my mum could come with me but of course nothing goes smoothly and her car broke the day before so I had to go it alone.  I got the bus into town with my husband and then made my way over to the hospital at 8.30am.  My appointment wasn't until 10.15 but because of the infrequent bus service to my village I had to go in much earlier.  I took a book along with me and settled down at Costa with a large hot drink ready to while away the hours until my appointment.  As soon as I was really getting into my book my mobile rang and it was my mum saying the hospital were looking for me, I was supposed to be at the appointment for 9am.  I knew I had checked the letter thoroughly and it definitely said 10.15 but it turned out that the second letter hadn't been posted to me.  I dashed upstairs to the Cardio unit and explained what had happened and it turned out I was supposed to be at ward 27 on the other side of the hospital!  I frantically ran down the corridor, tossing my half drunk Costa into a nearby bin and made it to the ward.

A lovely woman nurse greeted me and was completely understanding about the mix up.  She led me into a room where I was welcomed by an anaesthetist and another man.  The nurse took me to the bed and drew the curtains around me while she hooked me up to the ECG.  She was brilliant and didn't make me feel embarrassed at all, she even let me keep my bra on.  Then the exercise bike was altered to my height and on I got.  A blood pressure cuff was placed around my right arm and then a mouthpiece attached to a computer was placed into my mouth and a clip on my nose.  I must have looked a right sight!  I was told to begin cycling at a pretty slow pace and the resistance would slowly increase.  I can honestly say that there was barely any resistance at all during the whole time I was on the bike, it was really easy.  After about ten to fifteen minutes my private area was crying out for mercy so I pulled out the mouthpiece and begged to stop.  Obviously they had heard it all before because they laughed and said it was a really bad saddle!

The nurse took me back behind the curtain and removed the sticky patches and then I took a seat and waited for the verdict.  The anaesthetist sat down and began to explain that there were serious risks to the operation and that they have had people die during this surgery in this hospital and the reason they do these tests is to see how someone's body holds up under stress so they can tailor the aftercare for them.  I began to panic because he was focusing so hard on the risks and was starting to think that my heart maybe wasn't in such a good shape after all.  He then said that although no surgery is without risk, I am a very low risk case.  Apparently my heart and lungs are in brilliant condition!!  What a relief!

After thanking everyone I left and dashed back over to the cardio department for my next appointment.  I wasn't sitting long before a man called me, took my height and weight and then led me into his office.  I was ushered to sit in crazy space-age pod while he took my pulse and checked my notes.  Here I went through a series of breathing exercises into a mouthpiece which feeds information back to a computer.  It was all very straightforward and simple.  For the last test the door of the pod was closed which was so strange, it sounded like being underwater.  I had to pant into the mouthpiece with my hands over my cheeks and then an obstruction would cover the tube and I had to breathe against the restriction.  This was repeated several times and then I was released from my chamber!  The man was really happy with the results and said my lungs were functioning on the higher end of the normal range.

Now that all the breathing was out of the way, the cardiologist gave me the oximeter I was going to have to wear overnight to measure my pulse and oxygen saturation to see if I have sleep apnoea.  It's such a tiny device which is attached to a Velcro wrist strap.  When I went to bed that night I strapped it around, clipped the peg to my finger and then put some tape over the wire to make sure it didn't tangle up in the night.  The unit has a nightlight feature which I couldn't help but keep checking throughout the night!  When I woke in the morning it was still attached firmly to my finger so I was very impressed.  I just need to return the unit tomorrow for them to analyse the results.

The only tests I have remaining now are the glucose tolerance test and the dexamethasone suppression test, which I've been told will happen at the same time, but I haven't yet had an appointment set for these.  My appointment with my surgeon is on the 4th of November so I guess that will be my next big update.