Tests!

When you have Pulmonary hypertension or any long term medical condition you are likely to have to have lots of tests. Not just when you are first diagnosed but continually so the doctors can monitor how your condition is progressing.
When I was diagnosed I had X Rays, CT scans,Echo`s, blood tests, V/Q scan, Pulmonary functions test, six minute walk test and blood gases taken.Some of those tests I have had regularly in the three years now since I was diagnosed.
Most people with PH also have the right heart catherisation performed but I couldn`t have this done as the risk to my already badly damaged lungs was too much.If anything had gone wrong it could have caused very serious consequences.The RHC is the gold standard of PH tests and as it is the one that gives the most accurate record of the pressure in the pulmonary artery.
No one enjoys these tests and if you are having them for the first time you do get nervous which is only naturally but there is really nothing to be afraid of with any of them as none are really that invasive or involve much discomfort.I think people fear these tests if they haven`t had them before  because its  simply just fear of the unknown. Once you have had them once then you don`t tend to fear them any more.
Just a few years ago most of these tests didn`t exist but now they are common place and part of a doctors armory to fight illness.We may as patients get fed up with these constant tests at times but I believe that the advances medical science has made over the last twenty odd years in diagnostic testing has benefit patients by helping doctors get a clearer and more accurate picture of our medical problems and making it easier for them to decided how best to fight these challenges we all face.Without them our prospects would not be as good as they are now.