First I want to say I’m basically happy with the care I’m getting at Yonsei Severance Hospital.

So today I headed in to give blood for a test, and to do my treadmill EKG test as well. I did the blood in the morning, so I could eat lunch, and then took in a movie — 조�?� 마누�?� 3 (My Wife is a Gangster 3) — and it probably says something that I understood enough of it to get a fair number of the jokes, in essence if not in detail, despite the fact a lot of it was in Chinese (with Korean subtitles way too fast for me to catch more than the first few words before the next ones flashed by). Okay, not a great film, but it was a distraction and I’d seen everything else that looked even vaguely interesting.

Anyway, then it was time for my treadmill EKG test. Showed up at the clinic and was walked over to the cardio clinic. I was surprised in a couple of ways:

1. I’d been advised to bring/wear tennis shoes, but then was asked to do the test in sock feet instead.
2. I’d not been told to shave a couple of patches on a certain spot on my chest for the electrodes to be attached. So I had to shave them in the testing room. (At the time, the woman conducting the test instructed an assistant to contact the two people having the same test tomorrow to warn them to shave those spots before coming in, but honestly, I wouldn’t have understood the instructions so I’m glad I hadn’t been told — I might have shaved my whole chest!) Now I have two round shaved bald patches near the middle of my chest, and they’re very sensitive and bugging me more than my awareness of my heartbeat is.
3. The blood test results came back, but a specialist’s analysis of the treadmill test was necessary. Preliminary analysis suggests my heart’s fine, strong, good, and the blood test came back normal on all counts. But I need to go back Friday morning for the follow-up and the official results.

I think stress has something to do with all of this, anyway — I’m not noticing my heartbeat as much. But I am looking forward to the follow-up test. Anyway, everyone’s said I need not worry, so I’m guessing this is good news. Why I can feel my pulse under my right arm and on the back of my neck is a bit of a mystery, but, well, the description of the symptoms isn’t setting off anyone’s alarm bells, so I suppose I shouldn’t worry about that. Worrying, I know, makes me even more sensitive to that and all other sensations in my body.