I received a call back from the POTS doc and she agreed that my blood pressures are too low to take a beta blocker like Atenolol. With blood pressures as low as I've recorded it could have ended up stopping my heart! I'm very grateful that I talked to the pharmacist before I started taking anything.
(It's not the POTS doc's fault either, by the way, because when I was in the office, I was nervous and my BP was in the 110s/60s which would be more than acceptable for taking Atenolol)
On to today's frustrating events...
I had made an appointment for this morning to go get my massive load of bloodwork done for both the cardiologist and the POTS doctor. (Two massive lists of tests!)
So, I got there at 9:15 for my 9:30 appointment and they took me early...score! right?
I wish.
I go back with the phlebotomist and she starts to work up the orders before drawing my blood and goes, "We can't do this today. You need to have your cortisol checked in the morning and that means the blood's drawn between 7 and 9 am, didn't someone tell you that?"
Seriously? No one had told me that.
Yep...I was fifteen minutes after the cut off point so they couldn't do it. I have to get the a.m. and p.m. cortisol tests done during the same day, so I have to go back tomorrow.
I also have to do a 24 hour urine test. Know what that involves? Peeing in a rather large jug...all.day. Yes...all day. So, tomorrow when I go back, I get to take them a huge bottle of piddle. Gross and humiliating.
Tomorrow I have to take that back, get my ten vials of blood drawn in the morning, then go back at night for another blood draw. Yippee.
Sigh.
(It's not the POTS doc's fault either, by the way, because when I was in the office, I was nervous and my BP was in the 110s/60s which would be more than acceptable for taking Atenolol)
On to today's frustrating events...
I had made an appointment for this morning to go get my massive load of bloodwork done for both the cardiologist and the POTS doctor. (Two massive lists of tests!)
So, I got there at 9:15 for my 9:30 appointment and they took me early...score! right?
I wish.
I go back with the phlebotomist and she starts to work up the orders before drawing my blood and goes, "We can't do this today. You need to have your cortisol checked in the morning and that means the blood's drawn between 7 and 9 am, didn't someone tell you that?"
Seriously? No one had told me that.
Yep...I was fifteen minutes after the cut off point so they couldn't do it. I have to get the a.m. and p.m. cortisol tests done during the same day, so I have to go back tomorrow.
I also have to do a 24 hour urine test. Know what that involves? Peeing in a rather large jug...all.day. Yes...all day. So, tomorrow when I go back, I get to take them a huge bottle of piddle. Gross and humiliating.
Tomorrow I have to take that back, get my ten vials of blood drawn in the morning, then go back at night for another blood draw. Yippee.
Sigh.
Amount of sleep:
badly fragmented 6 hours
Heart rate a.m. :
laying down: 96/58 HR: 86
standing: 84/62 HR:83
Not the most accurate reading...I forgot to take my BP this morning, so these readings are after I was up and about running errands.
symptomatic: 91/66 HR:106
93/50 HR: 82
85/54 HR: 97
88/50 HR: 83
82/ 51 HR:122
Diet:
- Brunch: salt bagel with extra cream cheese, 1.5 cups cranberry juice.
- Dinner: roast beef on kimmelweck, french fries and dr. pepper.
- Snack 1: handful hershey eggs, 3 cups water
- Snack 2: 3 more cups water.
Exercise/activities:
- doctors twice was quite enough thank you.
P.O.T.S. symptoms experienced:
so far: short of breath, upset stomach, irregular heartbeat, cold extremities
Heart rate p.m. :
laying down: 95/56 HR:69
97/54 irregular beat detected
standing: 89/56 HR: 78 irregular beat detected.
Misc:
- The surgeon also feels that my pain is from adhesions, and says that I have to wait even more time to see if the pain in my groin (from my surgery) will go away. If it's not better in two months I have to go back.
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