I’ve been in 5 states in three weeks

08/21 – I’ve been in 5 states in the last two and a half weeks, and I’m beat!  Like, cannot get enough sleep and haven’t had to take a sleep aid in a week kinda tired!

 

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I started this post before my recent trip to the hospital, and I guess it should have been a clue.

The best thing I have heard in this whole ordeal is this; “Tracy, it is easy to diagnose a sick person and not so easy to diagnose a healthy person.”

And that makes total sense.  I am overall healthy.  After a follow-up, my doctor is leaning toward POTS.  There is a plethora of information on this mostly unknown disease/syndrome which you can read about here.  The short of it is that my blood pressure is entirely too low most of the time and that my body has trouble regulating it, and also it has nothing to do with pot – go figure! ::eye rolls::

Some of the symptoms and side effects of POTS are:

• Headaches
• Nausea
• Abdominal pain
• Chronic Pain (General)
• Chest Pains
• Heart Palpitations
• Fatigue
• Shortness of Breath
• Insomnia
• Brain Fog
• Sweating Abnormalities
• Weakness
• Tremors

All of which I experienced Friday morning, and here and there leading up to the ER visit.  Now all of that is awful by itself, but I get to tack on my lovely anxiety disorder and boom, disaster!  There are some cases where people have been misdiagnosed with things like anxiety when POTS is the real culprit.  Not me, of course, I am still lady loca, but you can understand the compounding effects.

I am grateful for some logical answers and a doc who does not just assume it is all in my head, even when he knows I am somewhat crazy.  I even said, “listen doc if it is all in my head, I will accept that, but I need to be sure because what I have been experiencing is not right.  If it is psychological I need to learn some new ways to cope.” He listened, he dug a little deeper and now I have a preliminary plan and it is not just taking another pill.  Again, thankful!

Bottom line here is to trust yourself, even when you feel or doctors make you feel like it is all in your head.  It is not normal to suffer daily.  Ask for help, seek it out.  Let your friends and family be there for you, be there for yourself too. Hugs!

Even if it comes from with in.

XOXO

T