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?***

Forget the Apple, I Need a Doctor

Phew! Finally, some time to just sit down and relax. Now that finals are over, I'm moved back home for the summer, I've got everything set up for my mission trip to Alaska (leaving on Monday, so excited!), and got everything lined up with my summer job, I finally have some time to just breath. But with the semester being over and me being back home, that brings a new challenge: doctors. When my mom heard about that incident I had about a month ago when I collapsed twice without warning, she instantly when into protective mode, trying to figure out what exactly she could do to help me regardless of being six hours away. Her first course of action was to try and get some medical advice on what might have happened and to get me into a doctor. There was only one problem: I didn't actually have a primary doctor.


Now when it comes to someone's health, doctors play a huge part. The hard part is finding the right doctor for you. In my personal case, my medical history and incontinentia pigmenti has always made finding the right doctor for me difficult, especially because of the fact that I have so many of them. A primary doctor, optometrist, dentist, orthodontist, periodontist, prosthodontist, dermatologist, neurologist, otolaryngologist, geneticist... The list goes on and on. And it isn't only the number of doctors I have that makes finding the right ones for me difficult, but also the sheer number of practicing doctors in the area that I live. I can't count the number of optometrists my mom went through when I was little before she found one she approved of and that I liked. The same went for my primary care doctor. It took so long to find one that I liked that I stuck with her until I was eighteen, regardless of the fact that  I was the only teenager in a waiting room full of toddlers. It took a really long time to find someone whose advice I trusted when it came to my health, especially because of my ED. The more medical care that someone requires, the more trust they have to put into the hands of others when it comes to areas they don't understand. The many optometrists I met with before I found my permanent doctor, for example, all stated that I needed eye surgery because of the large amount of scar tissue around my retinas from my eye problems and the retinal bleeding I suffered from for many years. Eye surgery at the age of about six, mind you. But my mom kept looking until she found a highly recommended doctor who said otherwise. Now there isn't any signs of eye surgery in my future and I didn't have to undergo that unnecessary risk. Finding trusted and qualified doctors is difficult, but finding a doctor who you have faith in makes all the difference and really helps put your mind at ease. Unfortunately for me, my nineenth birthday put a wrench in my peace of mind because many of the doctors I had were solely pediatric doctors. That of course means I have to deal with the looming task of starting the search all over again.


So on that day when I collapsed, suddenly that problem was brought to my mom and I's attention. When I turned nineteen I lost my primary doctor and my neurologist (among others), the two doctors that I now need to check in with, both of whom knew my medical background very well. Of course there are plenty of other great doctors out there, but sometimes the idea of trying to explain nineteen years of medical history to someone who has only read of the condition I have in a textbook is rather daunting. My mom even got recommendations from her doctor for both a primary care doctor and a neurologist for me, only to find that all of the doctors recommended were either not accepting new patients at the time or would not treat nineteen-year-olds. Not a great time to need a check up, right? Well, that was back in April. Now it's May and I haven't collapsed again since then, but my mom still wants me to get checked out, just in case. For right now, we took the simplest approach to finding a new doctor for me: I have an appointment with my mom's doctor! She has been with her for so long and talks about me so often that she practically knows me any who, so it is worth a shot. Having a primary doctor wouldn't be such a big deal if I could see a neurologist without a referral, but alas that is not how the world works. I have an appointment with her on June 4th, shortly after I get back from Alaska. If she comes up with anything conclusive, I'll keep you guys updated. For now, take care of yourself!

Fifty Fifty

When I was born, the doctors observing me told my mother that I was going to die. Or, to be more precise, that there was a high likely hood that I would die. Considering that I'm here typing this now, they were obviously wrong. When I continued living, they informed her that there was a fair chance that I would be mentally retarded. That didn't happen either. Instead, I'm currently a successful college freshman who is very much alive and not mentally handicapped in any way (unless you considered the lack of sleep that all college students seem to suffer from a handicap). My doctors told my mom that I was a medical miracle. Instead, I prefer the nickname that one of my friends came up with after hearing the story: the fifty fifty girl.