Heart, lung and kidney tests

This is basically to make sure my main bodily functions are up to having a bone marrow transplant

Check out my heart

I stripped to the waist and then was hooked up to a series of machines by three heart monitors - which measured my pulse and then presumably super imposed the trace along side the ultra sound traces that followed

The nurse examined my heart and major veins from three different directions taking images and short video clips as my heart beat. She showed me some results. My heart and all valves seemed to be just fine. It was really interesting when she showed me a main vein - vena cava - as I breathed in deeply the vein closed up completely and as I carried on breathing the vein filled up again. Good job really !

Kidney test using Nuclear Medicine

This was very easy. A nurse gave me a low dose of some radioactive tracer, which then has to be dealt with by the kidneys. Then at 2 hours, 3 hours and 4 hours to the minute if possible, I had blood tests that were all sent for analysis. Presumably they also monitored my other normal blood counts at the same time. This is then a good test of kidney function

Lung function test in the chest clinic

The tests were much more thorough than I remember from years ago. They hook you up to a lung monitoring machine, through a disposable sterile mouth piece - mine was blue. Then I did three tests, and repeated each until they had consistent results. They all involved  normal breathing, very deep inhaling, very deep exhaling,very fast and slow, and lastly after a fast inhale all the way; I had to hold my breath for 8 seconds. I felt perfectly fine during all of it - no problem.

Hopefully all the hard work the past few months trying to get fit should show dividends. Everyone says that the fitter your body functions are the better. This is not getting fit in the sense of loads of extra muscle - although muscle tone of the heart and lungs is important

I will get results on Friday.

We could have just sat there and read all day, but in the bigger time gaps between things we walked around, had snacks, and found a local nature reserve which we walked around for 45 minutes. Barbara and I both have the 'Pacer' App on our iPhones so were able to record how many steps we have taken during the day. So I had done over 5000 steps by lunch time.