[FedCom] The hump on Bush's back

[Dave Emery]

On Thu, Oct 14, 2004 at 09:01:18PM -0700, Richard Crisp wrote:
> usually people wear heart monitors as a diagnostic aid. It might be a 
> simple beat irregularity that is easily corrected. It might be that he 
> ambiguous symptoms and they are simply taking data to rule out cardiac 
> involvement. Wearing an ambulatory monitor doesn't necessarily equate to 
> having a serious medical condition. It means that there is diagnostic 
> activity underway.

	The thing is called a Holter monitor.   I nearly had to try one,
might yet indeed if I have further rythm problems.

	But it would be HIGHLY unusual for the POTUS to wear a Holter
monitor in the heat of campaigning and in public.   Normally the test is
done for 24 hours or a little longer rather than continously, especially
during something like the debates.

	And wearing one indicates a cardiologist is investigating a
potentially LIFE THREATENING condition - arythmia...  it would not be
correct to state that this was "only an investigation", normal medical
practice would be to do so only if something serious was suspected.


> I bring this up because that's exactly what was going on with my 83 year 
> old mother during the summer of 2003. Her doctor had her wear an ambulatory 
> monitor to see if she was having heart issues. Turned out that was 
> completely clear after she wore it for a month. When she had her "episodes" 
> she was instructed to push a button that was attached to a wire attached to 
> the unit so that it could record her activity. Turned out to be an H.Pylori 
> ulcer but they had to do a bunch of tests to rule out certain possibilities 
> and isolate the cause. The heart is usually one of the first things 
> suspected. I understand that someone reported that Bush reached in his 
> pocket at one point to "adjust" something. Perhaps he was pushing the 
> button like my mom had to do?

	This would certainly indicate a newsworthy medical issue in
a man with his health history.

	But your comments are somewhat reassuring as I have also been
fighting gastric problems (too, I had a real PSVT 7 years ago) and it is
nice to hear someone found it gastric.   I have had a recent stress test
(and passed it with flying colors) to rule out some cardiac issues...


-- 
   Dave Emery N1PRE,  die at dieconsulting.com  DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493