Tag: stress test

Nueve de Mayo

I’M DONE FASTING!

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I’ve had tests every day this week where I am asked to fast and I have not been into it at all. Being this close to a Valentino’s and not being able to go ham has not been good on the soul.

Finished my last test at 3:35 and ordered Valentino’s at 3:42 while waiting on an Uber in the Mayo lobby.

Today was the first time the new Epic system kind of got on my nerves. We had to wake up early to go get my 24 hour Holter Monitor and blood pressure cuff. We do the song and dance and get to the 19th floor only to be told there is a glitch they can’t override so they couldn’t give me the monitors which means the test won’t be finished in time before my meeting with my specialist. So we won’t be able to go over the results with her in person and talk about how we want to handle it. The purpose of this test is to confirm my subtype of POTS. If it is Hyperadrenergic POTS, it will show my blood pressure rising along with my heart rate. We do have results from my stress test where both were taken. We just won’t have a 24-hour span to see potential patterns.

BUT this did allow us to have a yummy breakfast at a cute little family owned cafe by the hotel.

So Mayo take two today….

I discreetly hauled my pee container from yesterday in an MK bag because, fashion. Dropped it off and no one was even looking at me funny! I think I could be a drug dealer. Be calm, be cool, make the drop, get out, don’t be seen. Idk if that’s how drug dealers talk but I bet they do.

Today was my Endocrine Test. For those with Hyperadrenergic POTS, HyperPOTS for short, the Endocrine System is the gossipy part of your body. Your Adrenal Glands are part of the Endocrine system. This is where your “fight or flight” hormone, adrenaline (epinephrine), starts. So for HyperPOTS, the Endocrine System is playing telephone, which we all know never ends well. My brain says, “stand up” but my systems call out, “OMG, omg she said we gotta stand up for ourselves! Fire up the canons!” The Adrenal glands get very, “You about to see something you ain’t never seen before”, a la Seabiscuit and then my heart gets going and I feel like absolute crap on top of it with lots of adrenaline and no energy or monsters in sight.

This test is done by giving me an IV, putting me in a dark quiet room for 30 minutes, having a nurse quietly come back in and take two vials of my blood through the IV, and then they have me walk around for 10 minutes and then having my blood drawn again. So if I do have HyperPOTS, my blood will hopefully show something that Mayo has seen before and we can better treat me. Hooray!

Let me tell you a quick little story. It’s about what I overheard in the waiting room. I have been realizing that I am the only person I have seen here under 65. As most patients are older, they talk louder and say things. Some adorable, some ignorant hateful.

So I am reading this really cool little display that tells the mini-biography of the man the Mayo Clinic Zayed Cardiovascular Center is named after, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. I’m finding it really cool and tell my mom he must have donated millions of 32191159_10215286100693092_531859883461443584_ndollars. Can you imagine donating millions of dollars to someplace halfway across the world that you don’t go to often? So I start googling this man, seeing what all he has done and take this picture because I love his quote and a couple minutes later this old bigot sits behind us.  He then lets out a disgusted grunt and says to his wife, “look at that *racial slur* he’s from the middle east, guess he’s from the UAE which is better. But still a *racial slur*”. He said a couple other things but I was kind of too upset to process them because here we are, in this place that this man gave 25 million dollars to (this number was not made public until after his death per his request because he didn’t even want publicity for it.) Here is a quote from Chris Gade, the department’s chairman, “He recognized and he has told us directly that the money is really an expression of support for Mayo’s mission to provide the finest medical care to current and future patients without regard to race or creed from all countries of the world,” Gade said of Sheikh Zayed. “That was his specific language back in 1996.” So, sir, if you have an issue sitting in Sheikh Zayed’s waiting room, due to his race, waiting to get potentially life-saving care from some of the best practitioners, and he helped make it possible? I suggest you go somewhere else.

 

*deep breathing*

So yeah test went great and I ordered Valentino’s in the lobby at Mayo so it’d make it to the hotel when we did. And it was amazing, full of flavor and no racism.

I had to order us minis because although the large was great, the box didn’t fit in our fridge and it ruined my leftovers.

You want me to do what…..?

“I was ushered into a room and given a container in a bag that looked like it was from the latest Yeezy collection. She pulls out this massive container and was like yeah so just for the next 24 hours…”

Ocho de MAYO!

Last night was one of the worst nights I’ve had as far as physically and emotionally. I ran out of my CBD drugs that my friend Connor had been getting for me. So I had nothing to calm my system down.  My adrenaline levels and the painful palpitations that started after my Tilt Table Test along with a severe headache continued to be an issue until I finally went to sleep around one. I was just uncomfortable and sick of being sick and had a cute little meltdown on the bathroom floor. I hadn’t taken off my mascara yet so it was fantastically and tragically dramatic.

So today we had blood tests, a stress test, and I picked up my Container (wait for it.)

We got a wheelchair today because Mayo does not give out brownie points for overdoing it so. No glory, no guts. Blood tests were great. Nothing to report.

The stress test was lacking because, in my mind, you know the scene in Space Jam when they are trying to test the athletes to figure out what’s wrong?  The guy running the test said, “how are you doing?” I said, “well I feel like I’m in the Space Jam montage but I’m missing that Barry White song…” He didn’t get it. We continued our non-talking, patient-tech relationship as I did not want him as a friend because he failed miserably. For you uncultured swine or for those of you that want a refresher, Space Jam Stress Test.

I was only able to walk for 8 minutes and 15 seconds before I became too symptomatic to continue the test. Apparently, they predicted that I’d go for 11 minutes and 39 seconds. I just love underachieving.  Especially with my health.

By the time this was all said and done, I had been fasting for 15 hours. Most of you know, food is my favorite so I was more than done. So we wheeled underground to a neighboring hotel and got a large cinnamon roll and french toast before taking a quick nap. 

Now let’s get to the good part shall we?

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My schedule said that at 7:10 a.m., I had to pick up a container. With POTS, as some of you who have read this blog before, you know that salt is a big deal for my condition. So in order to figure out the proper amount of salt I need, we need to watch my potty. It was more aggressive than I thought.

I was ushered into a room and given a container in a bag that looked like it was from the latest Yeezy collection. She pulls out this massive container and was like yeah so just for the next 24 hours, you need to pee exclusively into this container. Like full on, carry this bag around in public and go about your day like it’s normal.

So below is a video of me oversharing because it was a source of joy for us today and anything that can make me laugh through all of this crap right now is deemed worthy of sharing.