Cold Showers It Is

At the moment, not a whole lot is going on. I did finally get to see a new doctor last Monday, something that I promised to keep you guys updated on. I went and communicated my concerns with her about the collapsing episode I had a while back while on campus. She, unlike the doctor I saw on campus, eased my worries by explaining exactly the reasons why she thought it was not a seizure: one, the two most common types of seizures, grand mal and petit mal, are fairly distinctive and did not fit the description of my episode, and two, of the two most common types of fainting, vasovagal syncopes and cardiac syncopes, the former seemed to fit my situation like a glove. With vasovagal syncopes, "the episode often occurs  while  standing  in  a  warm,  crowded environment,  or  when  the  patient  is emotionally upset or stressed. Blood drawing or  public  speaking  may  cause  fainting. Episodes are more common when the patient is tired,  hungry,  ill  or  dehydrated.  Older children report a  feeling  of  warmth, a  'cold sweat,' or nausea before they faint. Witnesses describe the child as being pale with  dry skin.  The  loss of  consciousness  typically  lasts less  than  one to  two minutes. The patient may be pale, sweating, or generally feel 'washed out'  for a period of a few hours. If the patient returns to the upright position too quickly, loss of consciousness may recur. Rarely, seizure activity (stiffness or shaking) may occur as the patient wakes up" (source here ). Now that sounds like what happened to me. The other kind of fainting is caused by some abnormality with the heart and its function, such as rapid or abnormal heart beat or heart blockages. I did tell my doctor what my friend Mandy said (her blog can be found here), about it sounding like a possible first seizure, and while she was hesitant she still gave me a referral to a neurologist who I will be seeing in August. In the mean time, she did have some of her nurses run a few tests to get a better idea what she was dealing with. They ran an EKG to check my heart which returned as normal (though the first time the nurse ran it, one of the electrodes must have been loose because she ran it a second time, which scared me for a minute). The rest of the tests were blood tests, specifically testing my thyroid, glucose levels, my liver, and my chemistry profile, whatever that means. All of those tests came back normal, but one thing was a bit off. With the handwritten lab results that were mailed to me, my doctor wrote in "mild anemia, take 'one a day teen girl,' discourage blood  donation for now" under other. So as far as the seizures go, she thinks that are highly unlikely, but wants me to check with a neurologist anyway, and I am lacking a bit in red blood cells. I walked away from that doctor's visit taking that as good news. After all, it could have been worse. There is one thing that does kind of suck though. My doctor told me that just in case taking hot showers are triggers for fainting spells for me, I should lay off turning my bathroom into a sauna in the mornings. Taking cold showers is definitely not going to be easy to get used to.

*** By the way, while I was typing this blog, my cat decided that he wanted to help by typing up his own little bit. I thought I'd respect his creative license by sharing it with you guys as well.

"(stiffness or fgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777◘96o9pshaking) may occur as the patient wakes up" (source here ). t655555555555555555"

What do you think?***