The Test That I Never Want To Have Again - A Personal Story

My tilt table test is over thankfully.  It was a horrible ordeal that I NEVER want to go through again.

I didn't sleep the night before the test which I'm sure didn't help matters.  Thankfully we had a safe trip, and although it was cloudy it didn't rain until after we were there.  Everyone seemed to be friendly at the hospital...even people in the second waiting room I went to.

There was a young pastor from another state talking with an older woman from the same place he was from that I handed "180" Movie business cards to, as I thought they could watch it and share it with others.  Before the young pastor from Virginia left, he offered to pray for me and did.  Wow!  I hadn't wanted to bother my own pastor to come...even though he kindly offered.  I wasn't having surgery.

Well, the test itself was another matter.  They make you get in a gown and hook electrodes to you.  Then they put something on your finger and a bloodpressure cuff on one arm and put an IV in the other.
Next, they strap you to a table/bed that had a place to rest your feet.  At some point they tilt you up to a standing position pretty much. You feel like you are in one of those old movies where they strap someone to a wagon wheel or board and use the person for a target.  No, they didn't spin me around.  Who needed that.  After awhile of standing I began to have some difficulty breathing and then started to feel more faint.  My stomach started to hurt and I felt like I was going to faint.  It got worse and worse and I felt like there was a cold fire and black before my eyes.  I was pretty much yelling begging for her to help me and stop it and saying I didn't want to faint.  I felt awful!  It got to the point where I got softer, because I didn't have the ability to hardly get anything out.  From my point of view I never fainted, although at one point I did stop talking and hoped that if I was going to that it would hurry up.  Also, it was so black that I wasn't sure if my eyes were open or closed.

Well, once she was satisfied my numbers were bad enough and thought I had fainted she began to let me down.  I felt like throwing up, but I didn't.  I also felt like someone that had been sunburned all over.  I felt worse after that experience than I ever had before it, and I struggled with feeling faint the next day as well.
The lady was (probably jokingly) complaining that it happened too soon.  She hadn't even finished filling out the paperwork.  I didn't even have to get the nitroglycerin under the tongue.
I got my diagnosis, but what a way to do it!
She also joked that they had a buy one get one free test.  I didn't want it and let her know she could give it to someone else.  Then I suggested the doctor could have it.  After all, if he has his patients put through it, then shouldn't he be willing to experience it?

My family members came in with some Famous Amos cookies that some Baptist church people gave them, and my Mom rewarded me with a yummy coffee drink.  We went out to eat at the Cracker Barrel and went to a hotel where I rested awhile.  It was raining by then and was pouring the next day as well.

I'm thankful that God helped me through that traumatic experience and that it is over.  I'm thankful that He allowed for me to have some pleasant distracting thoughts and some fun chatting the night before the test.

My diagnosis?   Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.
Now I have both Fibromyalgia and P.O.T.S. to live with. 

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2-4 NASB
 

My Continuing Saga for September

Recently I went to a specialist that had bad reviews online.
I was fearful of how he might behave, but I made it through okay...alive anyway.  I certainly was praying!  My highllights of the day were going to Chick-Fil-A to eat and giving 1 Million dollar tracts to a couple of highway patrol officers there.

Doctors are crazy people!  They want you to have tests to assimilate awful things. 
I had one test already where the goal seems to be to get a person to have a seizure. 
Three doctors want me to have a different test where they want to see if they can make me faint!  Thanks a lot docs. !
I felt like I was going to faint just getting my blood taken for some tests already. 
Yes, they used the smelly stuff under my nose, ice on my neck, a fan, etc.!  I've been feeling dizzy and sometimes faint for nearly two months now, so why not make sure of it?  Ugh!

The seizure test I had was an EEG.  This is to check out how my brain reacts to certain stimuli apparently.  A person rubs and irritates and marks up your head and sticks a bunch of electrodes or something to you. 
They flash lights before your closed eyes and make you hyperventilate to the point where you are feeling like passing out and pretty much begging to quit, but they won't let you.  Meanwhile I had a bad headache.  The result?   Non-specifically abnormal.  I guess that describes me pretty well. 
Thankfully I didn't have a seizure.

For the next test they want me to have, they will tilt me up on a table they strap me to I assume and do their best to make me faint to see what is causing my near syncope (near fainting). 
I've been trying not to faint, and this doesn't sound like my idea of an amusement ride.  I suppose they might get some sadistic amusement out of it.  
The good news is that my heart seems to be okay at this point, so it likely isn't the culprit.



Since I shared with you the progress of of our sunroom/laundry room, I thought I'd share a photo of the finished project. It only took them a month!