Has anyone ever had a "Tee echocardiogram"?

[zanne]

I'm having one on Tuesday. Apparently, I'll have to swallow a tube. I'm really looking forward to that one. On Monday, I have to take a stress test in my evil cardiologist's office. (He waits until I'm all sweaty and breathless, then he yells at me about my weight). I'm so anxious for Wednesday.

[thinkingwoman]

1. Why do you pay someone

to yell at you about your weight?

I'd tell him that unless he has real help to offer that he should just shut it.

Then I'd change doctors.

But that's just me.

[Warpy]

2. A T.E.E. is a Trans Esophageal Echocardiogram

It allows the doc to visualize a lot of the structures in your heart a lot more clearly than he can through your chest wall. You will be doped up to the eyeballs during the test and will likely not remember it when it's over. It's one of those tests that looks a lot worse than it is.

I wish we did have a treatment for obesity, but every doc knows the statistic that 90% of people who lose weight, even those who go through gastric surgeries to do so, will gain the weight back AND MORE within 5 years of reaching the ideal weight. The statistics are LOUSY.

The better idea would be to wait for the results of the TEE and the stress test to show you what your exercise tolerance is, and then try to increase it. Increasing activity, especially weight training, can vastly improve oxygenation of even badly diseased hearts. Just make sure you don't push it beyond what the doc recommends for guidelines.

Good luck. Remember that active fatties are a lot healthier than sedentary skinny people. As long as you're exercising, you're doing just fine.