Thursday, April 16, 2009

Time Warp

Well, it is now Thursday evening here in the U. S., and I feel as if I've just returned to the land of the living. You see, I went to bed Monday night feeling fine, and awoke around 4:30 AM Tuesday morning feeling quite nauseous and faint. I went to the bathroom and ended up on the floor unable to get up. This has happened to me several times in the past. I get these spells in which I feel as if I'm going to pass out even laying flat on my back. I break out in a cold sweat and begin tingling all over. It hits me suddenly without any warning. The only relief I can get is to hold a cold cloth on my face as my husband holds my legs up over my head and fans me furiously. The feeling finally passes, but I'm too weak to move. This time I had several spells an hour until I finally agreed to go to the ER Tuesday afternoon around 3:00 PM. They admitted me and did numerous tests -- EKG, chest X-rays, numerous blood tests, and a CT scan of my sinuses, and they couldn't find anything definitive. They've come to the conclusion that any time I get anything -- virus, infection, etc. -- my blood pressure bottoms out because it runs really low all the time. My regular blood pressure is usually something like 90/60. At the ER, it was 70/30 at one point. So, needless to say, I feel as if I have just come out of a time warp, not knowing what day it is, etc. I'm feeling much better now, except a little frustrated. I'm not convinced about the diagnosis and don't want to have to deal with this again. To add insult to injury, I didn't even feel like reading all week. Seriously though, I don't mean to sound like a whiny baby. I know there are people who deal with serious and chronic illness all the time. It really does make you appreciate your health when you're sick for a while.

I did finish A Lesson Before Dying on Monday evening before all this started, and this afternoon I started The Spare Room by Helen Garner. I'm not quite up to doing a review for the Gaines book, yet. But, hopefully I'll get that done over the weekend some time. I should probably finish the Garner book, as well since it is pretty short. I hope to also get caught up on my blog reading, as well. I never joined in the Read-a-thon officially, but I was hoping to read as much as possible. Now, I'm just glad to get back to being able to raise my head off the pillow and focus my eyes on a page. But, I'll look forward to hearing how everyone else did.

It's beautiful weather here in North Carolina and is supposed to be a nice weekend. So, I hope to get back to 100% soon and start enjoying the great Spring weather. I hope everyone has a nice weekend and good luck on the Read-a-thon.

12 comments:

Eva said...

Oh Lisa that must have been so frightening!!

I'm glad that you're feeling better, though, and I hope that the spells don't come back. I don't think you sound like a whiny baby at all. *hugs*

Sarah said...

I'm sorry to hear you haven't been well and can understand your frustration over a doubtful diagnosis.

I'll be interested to read what you think of The Spare Room.

Ana S. said...

wow, that sounds awful :( I hope you feel better soon!

JoAnn said...

Oh, Lisa, how awful! I'm glad you're back home and recovering. Even though what they said makes sense, I know the non-diagnosis is not very satisfying. Hope you can relax this weekend and maybe even read outside with your gorgeous spring weather. Sending good thoughts your way...

Lisa said...

Eva, thanks so much! It is quite scary when it happens. It's hard to explain. Thanks for understanding.

Sarah, it would be nice to know how to prevent it from happening, but I don't know if that's possible. I'm almost finished with The Spare Room. I should be posting soon.

nymeth, thanks!

Joann, thanks for the good thoughts! I plan on sitting on the porch with a book for most of the weekend.

Tara said...

Sorry to hear you are feeling lousy. Those spells sounds scary, you are not being whiny at all.

Lisa said...

Tara, thanks! It does make me feel better to get all this book blog love!!

Anonymous said...

How frightening! I'm glad you're feeling better, and have a handle on the problem (sort of, anyway!)

Lisa said...

ravenousreader, thank you for your kind thoughts. Not having control is the really the scary part for me. But, at least there was no dire diagnosis to deal with either. :)

Rebecca H. said...

You're definitely not a whiny baby! It sounds hard to have an illness that doctors can't seem to diagnose. I do hope you get to the bottom of the problem. I'm glad you're feeling better now!

Iliana said...

Lisa, I'm so sorry to hear about what happened to you. That is frightening really. I hope you are feeling much better now!

Lisa said...

iliana, thank you so much. It was a little scary, but I'm much better!!