This post was quite a coincidence for me to read as just yesterday, I had a stress test and hated it. I don't have aneurysm, I have MVR and AVR, AFib and PH. I left the hospital incredibly angry.
After 5 minutes I felt awful - SOB, heart racing, my BP and pulse rate were going nuts, and I said 'I think I'll need to stop soon' and the junior doctor who was there was totally dismissive and actually laughed. She said words to the effect that I should be able to do much longer and then increased the speed and incline.
After 7 minutes I told her if she didn't stop it, I would fall off the thing. I had nasty crushing pain in my chest that was going up into my throat. They've always ignored me or been totally dismissive of my chest and back pain. My bp was up to 220/140-ish, my pulse was in triple figures. After it stopped, it took ages - as usual after exertion - for it all to calm down.
It angers me that these people who have never had this illness, can be so complacent and smug when they are busy patronising us and 'assuring' us nothing bad will happen.
I think it's analogous to saying to someone who's had a broken leg 'let's just put your leg in this vice and continue to tighten it for a while to just see how strong the bone is.'
The trouble with medical professionals is that they understand the mechanics of our diseases but they've - rarely- had anything like it themselves, so they don't have a clue how scary it is to purposely induce things that we find are distressing symptoms of impending doom. They don't know what it's like to live in fear of 'setting off' something that will lead us to hospital - again!
Good luck Aaron and don't forget that you do have the right to refuse to do it if you don't want to. I certainly will if I'm told to do one again.
Lynn