hi Randy,
i have had both of these done- the echo is very simple, just time consuming, you lay there on a table and the echo technician uses something similar to an ultrasound wand, which she has hooked up to a monitor, and she takes many pictures with this of different chambers of your heart, she also will turn the sound on and listens to your heart too- i was kind of anxious during mine asking her different questions but she really didn't say alot other than your Dr. will go everything with you.
when i had my halter monitor, i choose to do mine on a week-end because 1- i didn't want to wear it to work out of embarassment and 2- you can't shower with it on because you have all these wires hooked up to you like an ekg, and you can't get them wet. i was hooked up on a fri. after work and returned it sun. afternoon. they will give you a diary- make sure you write EVERYTHING down no matter what your doing, so that way when your cardio dr. goes back thru and looks he can see what you were doing if your heart rate went up.
i was relieved to have mine done, both my tests were fine, but there were times i had wrote in my diary i felt my heart racing and on the tests, the highest it showed was like 92- which he said wasn't bad.
I wish you luck- hope all turns out well for you- let me know!! jackie
