Adenosine Injection

Adenosine Injection. Yea, it sounds bad, doesn't it?

Today I was off work so that I could go with Justin to a doctor's appointment in Santa Clara, near San Jose. In the past, a doctor thought that he might have WPW syndrome, a heart disorder, but it was never officially diagnosed. This test today enabled the doctor here to determine if he really does have WPW, which is basically an accessory pathway into the heart. In other words, it is an extra pacemaker in the heart that can sometimes beat opposite of the main pacemaker and cause fainting. Originally, we though this might be causing his syncope (fainting) that he has had a few times since college.

The test basically injects a medicine that makes the heart stop for about 5 seconds. The half-life of the drug is short though, and the heart catches back up and functions normally right after. It was a bit scary to watch Justin go through it though, because I could see that it really wasn't comfortable. He said that he felt his chest tighten a bit, but that it wasn't too bad. He was expecting something worse since the nurses and doctor described it as "terrible." The only outward affects was that he flushed red and was hot, but the EKG didn't show any abnormalities in the beat or recovery of the heart. If he had the accessory pathway, he wouldn't have had any reaction to the drug.

We are definitely glad to know for sure that Justin doesn't have WPW, and now he feels like he is clear to fill out some more military scholarship applications. Hopefully that could help us move back to O-H-I-O soon!

Since he couldn't eat beforehand, we stopped at McDonald's on the way back. Their sausage egg biscuits are sure tasty. We both splurged and got two hashbrowns each and chocolate milk too... talk about extravagance! (Though that food might give us heart failure.)

Another interesting point of this trip was that we passed Solyndra, the company the Fed's loaned half billion dollars to and is now bankrupt. Talk about close to home. What is Obama doing these days anyways? I can stand a few more taxes perhaps, but these crazy loans? I just can't back that! I hope we have a quality nominee to go against him for president next year. Otherwise, I'm real worried.