Frantic Friday

What a day.

First, I woke up in terror/tears/anguish several times this morning. Horrible nightmares that I haven't had in a long time. This is the second night in a row where I've had nightmares like this. I'm literally afraid to go to bed at all tonight.

Second, I went to see my boyfriend, and his new place in the afternoon.
He's had an awful cold, so I took him some chicken and Italian pasta to make for dinner
(I couldn't stay)
I also brought him a good movie (that we both love), a furry friend to watch over him, and a brownie. :)
As far as the place goes: It's nice and a definite step up from his last one.
He really likes it, and that's the best part.

Third, after I got home, what an awful health day.
After dinner, I honestly thought I was having a heart attack.
My heart dropped out of my chest and stopped beating for a second or two, and I freaked.
Afterward, I felt really weird. Lightheaded, nauseous, brain foggy...just weird.
I feel somewhat better now, and I would love to sleep (if I wasn't afraid to!)

I really wish my cardiology appointment was sooner though.
worried :(

Amount of sleep: let's not discuss it. horrible, gut wrenching nightmares all night.

Diet:
- Breakfast: two brownies, 1.5 cups water. (literally the only thing to eat in the house)
- Lunch: (totally forgot about this)
- Dinner: steak, cheesy potatoes, 1.5 cups lemonade
- Snack 1: crackers, 1 cup dr. pepper
- Snack 2: brownie, 2.5 cups water

Exercise/activities:
- laundry
- cleaned up after the dogs
- house cleaning

P.O.T.S. symptoms experienced:
pounding heart, arrhythmia, headache, nausea, sick (lower), achey, cold extremities, light headed, chest pain

Misc:
- still have the weird lump in my eye, wtf lol

Let the fear set in...

In the last few days/weeks, my arrhythmia has gotten worse, and my heart pounds more often. We're talking pounding so hard that my body vibrates...even my boyfriend can feel it sitting next to me on the couch.

I can't help worrying (irrationally, I'm sure) that I'm having mini heart attacks when I get chest pains and palpitations; or that they're damaging my heart in some way. I understand why they say that the quality of life a POTS patient has feels/is similar to someone with congestive heart failure.

I'm glad I've decided to go for a stress test and an echo of my heart. Even though it's not for two weeks still, I'm comforted (slightly) knowing that it's coming and going to happen.

No 23-year-old should have to worry about whether or not they're having a heart attack/going to have a heart attack.

Sniffly Thursday

Had my bloodwork this morning...what a pain.
They wouldn't remove any of the tests even though I just had them done because they
"can't go by patient history"
So I had another seven vials drawn, and have to go back for another one later (p.m. cortisol)
This time it was so bad that the arm they were taking the blood from actually turned purple!

****
Just had my last vial drawn, and let me tell you, I've never been so glad to see only one vial on the table in my life.

I've managed to make it through this day better than I had thought- and at least better than after my last big blood draw but I do have a cold. I'm fighting it with all that I have, and am probably (hopefully) going to call it an early night.

Amount of sleep: not much. five "hours" of sleep. Very fractured

Diet:
- Brunch: salt bagel with plain cream cheese, 1.5 cups cranberry juice
- Dinner: chicken strips, green beans, leftover roasted potatoes, brownie, 1.5 cups dr. pepper
- Snack 1: crackers, 2ish cups water, 1/2 cup Hi-C
- Snack 2:

Exercise/activities:
- ran errands
- cleaned up after the dogs

P.O.T.S. symptoms experienced:
pounding heart, arrhythmia
symptoms hard to distinguish whether it's from POTS or from a chest cold: weakness, exhaustion

Misc:
- massive lump in my eye out of nowhere. I haven't worn makeup in a week and haven't gotten anything in my eye. Could be a sty coming with my cold though. Who knows.

Blah Wednesday

Not feeling so great today...not sure if it's still because of readjusting to the Florinef, or it's the awful chest cold my boyfriend has that I feel like I'm coming down with.
Either way, a very blah day.
Blah weather, blah feeling...just blah.

Amount of sleep: not much. five "hours" of sleep. Very fractured

Diet:
- Breakfast: two hawaiian delights baby food, 1 cup water
- Lunch: shredded leftover rotisserie chicken and mac and cheese, 2 cups dr. pepper
- Dinner: homemade hamburger and oven fries, 1.5 cups dr. pepper
- Snack 1: handful hershey eggs 2 cups water
- Snack 2: another full bottle of water (prep for bloodwork tomorrow)

Exercise/activities:
-

P.O.T.S. symptoms experienced:
pounding heart, arrhythmia (really bad last night for whatever reason), weakness, exhaustion

Misc:
-

Tuesday's Trembles

Trying to get back into the swing of things.
Once again, feeling awful...trembling so bad I can barely move.
Didn't get up until almost noon, or eat until then..and didn't even shower until just now (6pm)

Amount of sleep: 9 crappy hours. (Sounds whiny....but it was a very poor nights sleep)

Diet:
- Breakfast: two hawaiian delights baby food- don't judge me, it's just pureed fruit and delicious, 2.5 cups water
- Lunch: leftover beef kabob, 1.5 cups dr. pepper
- Dinner: roasted chicken and potatoes
- Snack 1: two wintergreen patties, 1 cup water
- Snack 2:

Exercise/activities:
-

P.O.T.S. symptoms experienced:
so far: light headed, cold extremities, extreme weakness, nausea, headache, trembling (so bad I can barely walk), sweating, aches, brain fog

Misc:
-

Sucky Monday

Feeling just awful.
Turns out, you can have a heart attack by just stopping this drug.
Thankfully, my doctor's office called in an 'emergency' refill for my prescription, so I should only miss today's meds.
*****
It turned into an epic battle with the insurance company. They won't approve another refill of meds because mine are already in the mail; even though there's a two week gap between when my meds run out and when my new ones come.
(Switching to mail saves me some money, but has been a pain in the ass seeing as they just switched it this month and didn't account for the gap.)
Hopefully, this will be the only problem.
******
My next round of bloodwork was supposed to be tomorrow, but I changed it to Friday so I can get my meds back in my system, and have an accurate round of bloodwork.

Amount of sleep: 8ish hours.

Diet:
- Breakfast: three mini monkey bread cups, 2 cups water
- Lunch: leftover salmon, pretzels, 2 cups ginger ale
- Dinner: roasted chicken, pasta, 1 cup dr. pepper
- Snack 1: handful crackers, 1/2 cup dr. pepper (to up my blood pressure)
- Snack 2: two ghirardelli squares, 2 cups water

Exercise/activities:
-

P.O.T.S. symptoms experienced:
so far: light headed, cold extremities, extreme weakness, nausea, headache

Misc:
-

Soggy Sunday

Important News Break: Osama Bin Laden is dead and the U.S. has his body!

Full day...lots of work with dad, running errands, and misc other stuff.
A little pissed off because my insurance company screwed up my meds and when I can get them...so I'm out of Florinef; something you can't just stop taking.
And, of course, no one's there to talk to on the weekend.
Tomorrow's going to be an ugly day symptom wise.

Not looking forward to seeing what my withdrawal's like, hopefully nothing really bad will happen seeing as you're supposed to take things like Florinef religiously- no skipping a dose, and no stopping cold-turkey.
Ugh.

On the plus side, my visit with my dad went better than expected.

Amount of sleep: 6ish hours.

Diet:
- Breakfast: fruit
- Dinner: salmon filet, green beans, rice, monkey bread 2.5 cups water
- Snack 1: 3 cups gatorade
- Snack 2:

Exercise/activities:
- fixed/put up fencing (sections blew down during the storm)
- errands (picking up stuff for fixing the fence)
- helped fix/install new sink parts
- grocery shopping

P.O.T.S. symptoms experienced:
so far: headache/migraine, exhaustion, slight anxiety, light headed, cold extremities

Misc:
-