PAD is a test to detect a problem with blood flow in the arteries. |
I had to go to the Dr. this morning to take a Pad Test. I hope I passed it! I suppose some of you are wondering what a Pad Test is. Well, I wondered too until Ron, my partner, had his last week. It is a test given to us senior citizens. Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a test to detect a problem with blood flow in the arteries. It tests the blood flow in the arms, legs, and feet. First you have to lay down on the table. Then the one giving the test wraps velcro pressure cuffs around your upper arms, your upper legs, lower legs, ankles, and sticks a clamp on your big toe! Then each velcro cuff is inflated until it squeezes the blood elsewhere...well maybe not elsewhere...but it felt like it. After that is done to both sides of your body. Then You have to stand on what resembles a treadmill. Then you walk at 2 miles an hour (I believe) for exactly 5 minutes. Then when that is over with you are given a glass of water and it's back to the table for the post exercise squeezing again! All of this is fed into a computer above the table, to be read somewhere by some genius who understands computers, and can calculate what your blood flow and heart rate is doing. Then you have to go back in one week for the results of your test. Incidentally Ron's and my results are on the same day. I think I already know who passed the test and who didn't though. He passed of course! |