Some hospitals are advertising on billboards for walk-in heart scans. Usually, when I see a billboard advertisement from a hospital, I don’t pay much attention, because whenever I go to a hospital, it is because either (1) my doctor ordered it, or (2) there’s an emergency. I don’t typically go to a hospital because an advertisement convinced me to do so.

However, there is one hospital advertisement that did catch my attention and convince me to act. And that advertisement was for a walk-in heartview scan.

What is a heartview scan. A heartview scan is basically a CT scan that takes an image of your chest so the radiologist and cardiologist can see if your heart has any calcium build-up. This is particularly helpful for people with a family history of heart disease. In many cases, someone who is otherwise completely healthy and shows no outward symptoms of trouble may in fact be on the brink of a heart attack because of plaque build-up in their arteries. The only way to truly tell is if you do a CT scan, which is was a heartview scan is.

I did a heartview scan, and it was super simple and pretty quick.

Once I checked- n at the front desk and paid my $70, I was escorted back to the room where the scanner was. The radiologist technician placed a few wired sensors to my chest and had me lie down on the bed of the machine. The bed took me through the machine three times, scanning only my chest. Each time it scanned, I was instructed to hold my breath during the scan.

And that was it. Nothing more.

I left and was told that my results would be faxed to my primary care physician and mailed to my home address within the week.

As I write this blog post, I am expecting the results to arrive at any hour. Here’s hoping that all is well and fixing things won’t require even a simple bandage remedy. But if all is not well, I will be very grateful to have the information so I can do what’s necessary to mitigate a potential heart attack.