I almost didn't write this one. It's been a long day, and I'm tired, and achy, and cranky. This morning started off-kilter when I couldn't find my car keys (they were in my pants pocket in the dirty laundry basket), had left my sweatshirt in the car and it was cold, and I should have had more breakfast.
My Apple Watch is doing its job-- and it does seem to track significant leaps in heart beat when I rise, 30-35 beats per minute, but I don't know how long that has to last to qualify as POTS. (And I have a note to call and schedule the tilt table test Tuesday afternoon.) Right now, I am just collecting data. And those numbers tell me when to give my body a minute to right itself. Regardless of what my diagnosis is.
When I got to work, a colleague told me she called the cat rescue and the person she spoke with didn't know anyone with my name. That was certainly odd.
I started out strong, as I often do in the morning, preparing 8-9 fixes every half hour. But by first break my hip started acting up, which made the day harder and I fell behind. By ONE fix. But of course break is 10 minutes, so then it was four fixes. But by lunch I was only half a fix behind.
I didn't have many calories with lunch. The portion of hearty vegan barley soup I had left was smaller than I expected. But by second break I was officially at the company numbers, which meant I'd be a little behind when I returned. But I had work that was easier for me, so I was confident that despite my inability to bend, I'd get the job done.
But then I saw a notification from my medical portal. My CT results were in.
Normal. Normal. Normal. That's what I saw as I skimmed the report. Normal. Normal. Then... "suspected 2 mm laterally directed left paraophthalmic ICA aneurysm. Recommended follow-up with neurovascular service."I freaked out internally. Started shaking a bit. I was prepared for a lot of things but an aneurysm never entered my mind. Pun intended. Note: I was reading this at work, and I only get ten minute breaks so I wasn't reading for comprehension. Over the course of the afternoon, I realized this was small. And I calmed down fairly quickly. So this was about surprise. And I told my friends, "Well, now we wait. The faster I get a phone call from the doctor, the worse the news is, right?"
The nerves gave me the energy to finish at my target number to make my employer happy.
I then headed to physical therapy, where I was honest with my physical therapist about everything. And before we got started he fixed my back and hip. Those people are incredible. I noticed while doing my exercises-- the clamshells were much harder and the stability exercises... I was falling backwards instead of forward. When I stand on one leg I normally fall forward. I almost fell right off the machine, and backward, which would have been terrible as the physical therapist was with another patient and no one had a gait belt on me.
But remember what I said about lunch? I was starving. And I seemed to be recreating the same scenario as some of my other falls-- busy day, discomfort, hunger... if I went home and ate a big meal (which diverts blood into digestion), would I fall?
I went home and The Teenager promised me a big dinner of chicken parm, cheesy garlic bread and brussel sprouts. I warned her that large meals might be part of the fall formula, so she followed me to my room after we ate. She stated that she didn't like the way I was wobbling.
Good news is I haven't had any low blood pressure since I ate that entire Little Caesars pizza Saturday night. Bad news is, the binge made me regain the five pounds I lost.
But at least in my dreams last night I had a good time-- as I was apparently dating a man with dark hair and a Tesla. I very much enjoyed his company, and he appeared to enjoy mine. This wasn't our first date, but it was definitely a new relationship.
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