A Midweek Monkey Wrench
“It’s Dysautonomia, Not Laziness.”
Great article, great info, great reminders.
Especially since I have been struggling this week with good ol’ Dysautonomia.
So, this was the first sign of the week that POTS would be giving me fits: When I walked into the art room to pick up my little ones from art Tuesday morning, I felt that familiar feeling of dizziness, seeing spots, sudden sweating, and like I had to find a chair and I had to find it fast. I sat down while the art teacher was finishing up with my class. I gestured for my assistant to come over. I told her I was feeling dizzy and needed to sit when we got back to the classroom. That helped. She took the reigns for a few minutes until I got to a point where I felt like I was not going to hit the floor anymore.
Then, Tuesday night, I had one of the worst headaches I have ever had. Looking at the full-blown blizzard outside of our window, I wondered if it was a headache that had something to do with the weather. I prayed for a snow day; one, because snow days are just a beautiful thing and two, because I felt terrible.
Well, my prayers were answered on Wednesday. We got the call that we had the day off due to 8 inches of snow and a lot of ice. I ended up staying in bed until 10 (very unlike me) because every time I thought about getting up, it made me want to cry. My body hurt that much and I felt like any movement would send me into crazy pain. My thoughts as I laid there in bed: “Please God, please, not another illness like arthritis or some other autoimmune disease.” Sad, I know, that this is where my mind immediately went.
When I finally used all the strength I had to stand, the dizziness and headache from the night before returned with a vengeance. I laid on our bedroom floor and crawled to the bathroom a few minutes later. (Instant flashbacks of my first summer with POTS). I took my temp and there it was: 102.5.
All I kept thinking was, “Thank you, God, it’s only the flu, thank you, thank you, thank you…”
I made it to the couch and stayed there for the rest of the day. Fluids with electrolytes, saltines, soup, my blood pressure monitor, and my blanket were my trusty companions for the rest of the day.
Although, I knew I had the flu, I still kept feeling bothered by how incredibly POTSy I felt. I decided to take my heart rate…102 laying down. That is the highest it has been in a very long time. I pretty much realized that whatever bug I had was making my Autonomic Nervous System go haywire. I made peace with the fact that there was not much I could do besides take my meds and drink tons of extra fluids to try and get it under control. I knew this was just something else I had to ride out.
Last night I made the call that I was going to take one more day to rest and recover. That was BIG for me. The old me would have pushed myself to get to school the next day. However, the new me understood that pushing myself before I could handle it, would make me worse in the long run, and could actually be pretty detrimental. I ended up sleeping 12 hours last night. When I woke up at 11:00, I took my temp to find that I no longer had a fever. I took my blood pressure and heart rate. My blood pressure was really low, but my heart rate was 72.
I still felt pretty fatigued, but I also felt human again.
I’m happy to say that it’s back to school for this girl tomorrow.
Tags: POTS