An Electrocardiogram

Chapter Four

Electrocardiogram - Checking the Electric Rhythm of the Heart.

She then instructed me to lie down, on the examination table.

Out the door she went again.

This time she returned briefly wheeling in an EKG monitor. It was time for the electric current generated by heart to be tested. She was giving me an electrocardiogram.

Preparing for the EKG the Electrocardiogram

She went to the medicine chest and returned with a bottle of alcohol and some cotton swabs. She began rubbing the alcohol on twelve locations on my body. On each dab of the cold alcohol touching my body I flinched.

She was cleaning the areas. She had to make sure the electrodes would stick, and that the oiliness of the skin wouldn't resist the conductivity of the electricity going to the electrodes.

She began ripping the electrodes off the card, and began placing them on those twelve locations on my body. The adhesive on the electrodes made sure that they stuck.

Connected to the EKG monitor was a bunch of wires, twelve in all. She split them into two parts. Six of them she attached to my chest area, and the other six to my limbs my hands and my feet.

Recording the electric waves she then began typing in my name, age and other information into the electrocardiogram machine, switched on a button and the machine started printing on a pink sheet of paper recording the electronic waves that were generated by the body's natural pacemaker that shocks the heart into ticking, and were now crossing my body.

Two sheets of paper came out, she cut them off and inserted the sheets into the folder she was creating adding it to my medical file.

The Purpose of the EKG Electrocardiogram Test

Checking the electric rhythm of the heart is the first test to see whether the heart muscle has sustained any damage caused by heart disease.

Continue here to the next chapter The next test - The Blood test

To get a better understanding of the EKG ( Electrocardiogram), and how the electrocardiogram you can read about it here.