I had my tilt table test this afternoon. The test is supposed to take an hour and a half. Mine lasted 25 minutes and 1 second. You know why? Because I really do have something wrong with me. So, my test last 25 minutes, but 15 minutes of that was spent lying flat at the beginning to get a baseline reading. So I got to the testing room, had an EKG hooked up to me (they rub your skin with sandpaper first, and umm, that hurts...ALOT!) then I had an IV put in as a precaution and they put a blood pressure cuff on my arm that went off every two minutes - it was like being back in ICU. So, the first 15 minutes were boring, just laying around, strapped to a table, have my blood pressure taken, and talking with the nurse. After 15 minutes they raised me up to a seventy degree angle, basically standing. That's when the fun began. Usually when I stand up I get light headed and dizzy so I do what I have to do and then I go sit back down. Some times I last longer than others (I can go shopping and stuff, but other times I have trouble taking a shower) and I'm usually worse off in the mornings. When she raised me up to the standing position, but pulse, right on cue, rocketed up to 120 before it stabilized around 115 or 116. It had been in the mid 80s while lying down. Well, I made it about ten minutes before the nurse came over and announced the test was over and lowered me down. I was really confused, and said, what?? Then she said that she had lost my radial pulse and my blood pressure dropped way too low. Do you want to know what my pulse was? Yeah, while laying flat it was normal like 120 over 65 ish. When I had been standing up for a few minutes, right before the test ended, it was 78 over 52!!!!!!!!!! She kept coming over and pushing the machine to make sure it was reading everything right and she kept checking for my pulse once they lost it. My heart rate had sky rocketed to 136 by the end of the test as well. I was sweating and my ankles were itchy! When she told me she lost my radial pulse, I asked her what that meant, to which she replies, "Good question." When she told me my blood pressure I asked her if I should have passed out before that point, and she said, many people would have, but not necessarily. So, now I am waiting for a phone call from the cardiologist for a follow up! Woohoo, another specialist! I still don't have a primary care physician, but who needs one when you have a specialist for EVERY possible ailment. So, that's my story. I'm waiting to see what the treatment regime will be. I'm hoping for some sort of alternative treatment methods, instead of taking drugs all the time. Oh, also (and this is just my theory here) the nurse mentioned that if I didn't have any reaction to the tilt they would give me adrenaline to see if that would cause my symptoms (it wasn't necessary obviously) but she said that the adrenaline was a good way to burn calories (because it sped up your heart rate). So, I'm thinking that this is why I'm losing weight so easily (while trying to GAIN weight) because my heart rate is always sped way up when I'm up and walking around. I'll let you know what the doctor says about this. For now, I'm going to go bake a cake!
