I just got my heart looked at today in a CT machine, for $69. One of my co-workers was telling me about it, and I thought for that price it would bring a lot of peace of mind. Took less than 5 minutes; cost me $69 no insurance necessary no doctor's order necessary. It looks at your heart in a 3D view and looks for plaque buildup/blockages. You get the report and a copy goes to your primary care physician. If there is something they see they don't like, then you are referred to a cardiologist. Seems to me like a good idea so I had one and my wife is going to also. I made a phone call yesterday at 3 PM and had the scan at 9AM this morning, right down the street at the hosptial of my choice. In and out in 30 minutes. Who says we don't have the best healthcare in the world?
You might remember my thread last month about my 78 year old dad having to go to the ER and them seeing something on his EKG they didn't like. Well, last week he had a stress test, and they found a blockage. Last Wednesday he had an angioplasty to fix two blocked arteries in his heart. One was a 99% (no typo, 99%) and the other was in the 80's. He now has two stints and is recovering nicely at home. I spent the night with him in the hospital on WED night (which may be why I made a flurry of posts that evening because I was sitting in his hospital room with my laptop).
The nurse told me "that's the one they call the widowmaker"; we are lucky it got caught before he had a heart attack and killed him. So I thought it would give me peace of mind to get scanned too.
I thought it was well worth it. If you have history in your family, or smoke/overweight, etc., might not be such a bad idea to look into this, may be the best $69 you ever spend!
You might remember my thread last month about my 78 year old dad having to go to the ER and them seeing something on his EKG they didn't like. Well, last week he had a stress test, and they found a blockage. Last Wednesday he had an angioplasty to fix two blocked arteries in his heart. One was a 99% (no typo, 99%) and the other was in the 80's. He now has two stints and is recovering nicely at home. I spent the night with him in the hospital on WED night (which may be why I made a flurry of posts that evening because I was sitting in his hospital room with my laptop).
The nurse told me "that's the one they call the widowmaker"; we are lucky it got caught before he had a heart attack and killed him. So I thought it would give me peace of mind to get scanned too.
I thought it was well worth it. If you have history in your family, or smoke/overweight, etc., might not be such a bad idea to look into this, may be the best $69 you ever spend!
They also say it will help encourage folks to increase their wellness scores year over year, though it would not impact employment (trust me there's some folks in my company that define unhealthy).
