I was starting to feel pretty tired over the weekend, which, you know, I have EDS and various supporting cast, so not a big deal. Monday I was really dragging and was sure that I was going to crash hard by the weekend (but the weekend was mine for the taking, so it was fine). All I had to do was make it to the weekend. But I've had a busy month and another busy week ahead. By midday, I'd talked myself out of the weekend and just decided to let it happen. I canceled my PT for Monday, and called off work for Tuesday. I had a GI appointment early afternoon and then I could go to bed for as long as I needed.
I took a pain pill to help aid deeper sleep and help prevent pain that comes from too much bed rest. And I felt soooo much better by Tuesday morning when I got up, but still opted to spend a couple more hours in bed while I had the opportunity.
Felt marvelous! Got up and cleaned the kitchen and thought I'd tackle some produce that I'd purchased over the weekend (I usually just spend time washing and cutting up everything so that I can just pull out containers and go). And again, still feeling so great considering I'd been on my feet without shoes or braces for an hour.
I was making a salad while Dad made his supper, sipping juice, munching on yummy cold veggies, and all of a sudden the room spun and I felt very nauseated. Dad was cracking an ice cube tray so I asked him to pass me one (thinking the cold would help calm things down, usually works pretty well). But by the time he'd passed me the ice, I'd decided I had to throw up. I went upstairs and by the time I got there, I was feeling very dizzy and confused and disoriented and had tunnel vision and just felt horrible!
The nausea was getting worse by the second and it was making my stomach hurt. I sat on my bath chair in front of the toilet so I would hit the target and because I was so dizzy I couldn't stand. By then, I had mostly sweat through my shirt and was starting to drip on the floor.
I tried to gag myself to throw up because my stomach hurt so bad from the intense nausea. No luck. I was trying to calm everything down by doing some deep breathing. Then I leaned forward and rested my forehead on the toilet because I was shaking so hard I couldn't hold myself up, and my body knew enough to want my head between my knees (glad with all the brain fog, at least stuff like that sticks...head between knees to ease lightheadedness...it wasn't cognitive, just habit). The cold felt good but I felt like I was spiraling out of control of things quickly and felt SOOO scared - I knew I was in trouble. I remember thinking I needed Dad to call 911 because something was very wrong. Then I passed out. It was only for a few seconds, and then symptoms started going away pretty quickly.
I was able to breathe through the nausea, the dizzy feeling and confusion were letting up, the sweating had stopped (but I was SOAKED). I was able to sit upright again, but still felt really funky. I called my dad (gotta love technology - cell phone in my pocket, called Dad downstairs) and had him come upstairs before I got up. I also had him bring my blood pressure cuff to me because I didn't want to try to stand and wind up on the floor. My blood pressure was low. 97/65. Not particularly dangerous. But ever since my ablation in February, I've not experienced any blood pressure changes at all. It runs slightly higher than it ever has in my life and is always in a very tight range, regardless of what I'm doing. So the fact that it had dropped so much made me think that it was probably even lower before that.
This whole episode took place in about 5 minutes. So if my blood pressure had dropped, it did so very quickly. I don't know if a fast drop caused the passing out or if the passing out led to low pressure, but I know the two had to be related.
I started feeling pretty good quickly after that. Even went back to the kitchen for my salad after sipping water for 20 minutes.
I called my doc the next day, but found out she was out of town (for the next 2 weeks). They said I could see one of the other GPs in the office, but I elected not to. I've been seeing the same doctor for a year and a half and we still haven't covered all the crazy EDS bases. It's a lot to go over in a 10 minute appointment. Especially when I have a funky body that the docs don't know a lot about (not that they're incompetent, just that it's difficult to actually find a doc well versed in EDS). So I called the cardiologist who did my ablation procedure. He told me to come into the office and he'd put a monitor on me.
Good deal, that's what I was hoping for. I didn't actually see the doctor, his medical assistant hooked up the monitor and I made an appointment to see him in a couple weeks. While I don't want for anything to be wrong, if there is, I'd like for it to show up while I still have this itchy heart monitor on so we can deal with it sooner.
And now, I'm going to go take off the dreaded itch machine for a few minutes and let my skin breathe before I stick new electrodes on again.
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