What a turn around...

Thinking of where I was last week and where I am today actually brings tears to my eyes. This time last week I was riding in an ambulance to the ER, shaking so much that it hurt, sweating but freezing, and completely terrified because we didn't know why. But let me back up a bit. If you've read my blog, you know that I was in the hospital two weeks ago for what turned out to be a very rare type of heart attack. Prinzmetal's Angina is what its called, we think the Midodrine I take for my POTS may have caused it, but we aren't sure. They performed a cardiac catheterization to see if there was a blockage or obvious damage to my heart (there wasn't), put me on Norvasc to prevent the muscle spasms, and sent me home. That was fine for a few days, but with my low bp, I couldn't tolerate the Norvasc, so we stopped it and the atenolol to let my bp rise again.
Throughout the whole hospital ordeal I kept telling myself that I had to get through it and get better because the Philadelphia Flower Show was going to be gone by the end of the week and I needed to go. It no doubt sounds silly, but it is a family tradition and is something I look forward to all year. I also find that keeping a goal in mind really helps me, so why not? Anyway, I made it to the show! I was so excited when I was there, I no doubt looked like an idiot I was so giddy, but who cares? I wasn't up to standing or walking through the show, so I did what I try to avoid in other situations, I was in a  wheelchair for the show. It turns out that being in a chair wasn't as bad as I thought, I actually got a unique angle to see the show from and the arm of the chair helped me to take more steady pictures (bonus!). That day was amazing.
That night, I passed out in the foyer and hit my head and twisted my cath site on the way down. (It would be great to stop doing that...) The day after the flower show, as I had expected I would, I crashed with POTS. I pretty much spent the whole day in bed sleeping. I was just exhausted. That night I had some really strong hot flashes and woke up with my sheets soaked from sweat in the morning. It was worse than normal, but I just figured I had a bad POTS night as a result of going to the show. For the next two nights the hot flashes and cold sweats got worse and closer together until I was actually shivering from being cold but sweating so much I had to keep changing my clothes to keep dry. My temp was averaging in the 97s which was weird for me, and I also had a headache that was getting worse and worse, but as usual, I figured it was POTS or a concussion from my fall.
It all finally got bad enough that I went to my family doctor. As usual, when the doctor saw me, I was doing well, my vitals and temp were normal (don't you hate how that happens?) She said that she suspected that it was just my POTS, but wanted to check my thyroid just to be sure. When I went across the office to get my blood test, a hot flash was just coming on. I warned the blood test lady that I pass out, so she had me lie down in a room for the stick just in case. First problem was that she couldn't find a vein anywhere, not in my arm, my hand, my wrist. Apparently the vampires got to me first because once she got any blood, barely any would come out. To make her life a little harder, the hot flash I had been having had turned to cold sweats and now I was shivering. Eventually she got enough out of me, just in time for my shivering to turn into shaking, like really shaking. I asked her to get my mom and while she left she had a nearby doctor come in to make sure I didn't fall off the table. Once the doctor saw how much I was shaking and sweating she started taking my vitals again. My bp was 90/50, my hr was in the 150s, my blood ox was going between 80-90. Clearly something was wrong. Seconds later my doctor, the other doctor and a wave of nurses were all around me, it was kind of scary. By this point I was freaking out from how much I was shaking and started to hyperventilate. The doctor told someone to call an ambulance, that person was a nurse, who glanced in the room to see the reason for the call, saw the shaking, and told the dispatcher I was having a seizure (which I wasn't). Now skip ahead 24 hours in the hospital and we learned that I had hypothyroidism and that was causing all the shaking, sweating, etc. Upon release, I was given a prescription for Synthyroid, a drug that replaces the hormones my thyroid doesn't make properly. That was a week ago.

Today I woke up, took my Synthyroid, did some laundry, walked to the mailbox, let the dogs out, made pasta with red gravy, and did other things that were easy, but had been difficult for me to do for the last few months. While there are side effects and I still have POTS, I haven't felt this well in months! It is amazing the turnaround I've seen in just a week! I feel an incredible sense of hope now that I didn't always feel int he past. Honestly I was hesitant to post this considering the content, this is pretty personal stuff I'm writing about. But I don't think people will understand what I mean when I say I'm hopeful unless the know where I was coming from. I want to share my story so that other people know that things can get better. I know its just a small hurdle in life with POTS, but its a big change for me in my quality of living, and for that I'm very grateful.