My mom (80) is scheduled for this two days testing. She's had extreme shortness of breath recently. She's got a pulmonary function test upcoming as well as appt with gerontologist and pulmonologist. I'm worried she's going to think she's having a heart attack with the stress test, she's already anxious when she has these episodes with her breathing. She has very weak veins and drawing blood or injections is also very stressful. No one around here knows how to use her port.
I really hope the techs who do it are kind and explain step by step what is happening and also know if it makes sense to abort.
Worst case she/I can just tell them to stop.
Sigh, even if they do find something that indicates a blockage then it just means another test.... Which sounds even more invasive...
I feel like she just has end stage COPD and let's just bring in hospice for some morphine.. Her pcp has been awful, all these years and she's never seen a pulmonoglist. Even with lung cancer and copd. Have no idea what "stage" she has. He told her she was welcome to get a 2nd opinion when she asked to see a pulmonologist. Ummm sorry dude that's not a 2nd opinion, it's your actual JOB to refer to specialists..
Well that turned into a rant. Any experiences chemical cardiac stress tests are welcome...
My hope is that your mom’s pulmonary and gerontology appoints are scheduled prior to her stress test so you can ask these doctor’s advice on proceeding. My mother did not respond well at all to the chemical stress test and vowed never to repeat it.
Stress test is tomorrow and Tuesday! After discussing with her, she is going to cancel these tests, and we are going to ask the gerontologist for his opinion and do the pulmonary items before pursuing the heart tests.
Given that she has COPD, emphysema (she has regular CT scans of her lung), and had lung cancer what is the actual utility of having a stressful stress test. She'd rather get more bang for the medical buck so to speak rather than going down more medical rabbit holes...
How far advanced these things--both the COPD and the cancer are, makes a huge difference.
I think you should do things in this order (think this as a retired RN)
1. CT scan of the lung
2. Pulmonary function test
Note that both of these are non-invasive.
3. Gerontologist where you MUST attend with her if possible and make clear her ADVANCE DIRECTIVE and her wishes about end of life care.
I am 82, so I include myself in end of life planning. It is well time to decide what she would and would not have to treat things.
4. Pulmonary specialist.
It is time now to sit with mom who has had both COPD and Cancer and is 80, and to make sure her advanced directives are in place. Exactly what interventions would she accept. For instance would she NOT accept a cardiac bypass but WOULD accept a stent placement? If so then the cardiac testing gets DONE. If not then it doesn't get done because she wouldn't accept treatment.
So this is discussion time both with mom and her MDs
Honesty and decisions for her future get made NOW. Whether to go into palliative care or not is an option. If you are unfamiliar with palliative care a good time today to look that up.
As to the stress testing.
They inject medication and it has side effects. You need to look up this test and discuss it with your mother.
You can also see it done on youtube.
You need BOTH to research. And yes, it may make her momentarily warm or hot, momentarily uncomfortable. They will warm her as things are injected IV what she will feel. She should feel free to discuss with them when/if she's uncomfortable. She may feel as though her heart is racing.
The important thing is INFORMED now.
She needs to be fully informed what she has, what the tests are and what they will feel like, as well as what they MAY SHOW and what options are for treatment and whether or not she NEEDS/WANTS treatment at this point.
Information and informed. That's the task for BOTH of you and you do this TOGETHER in front of the computer, discussing things and options all the way.
Does that make sense to you?
I agree with you.....if this were me, I'd opt for hospice and the good drugs. To end the testing and poking/prodding and get the morphine going which helps a lot with breathing issues. Also, an in home nebulizer is a life saver to ease struggled breathing.
Good luck to you.