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| I can safely say this is me for the next FEW DAYS..... |
I don't even know where to begin... I was told at 8am this morning to be back for testing at 3pm at the Vanderbilt Autonomic Dysfunction Center due to their error in scheduling. I checked in at the Kiosk at 2:45 and waited patiently...and waited ....and waited. Finally at 4:30 I went in search of a human. At this point my day went into ludicrous mode.... no one knew why I hadn't been called back or the location of any of my paperwork . Another hour passed as I lay in my chair with my feet up to keep from passing out in the lobby. I hadn't taken my Toprol for 24 hours and I was a hurtin' big time. My sister was just about to rip someone a new one (she is a 30+ year veteran ER nurse) when a young man came to take me back for the test. I must say by this time I was close to just trying to leave and get back to the hotel and my bed. Out of my entire experience at the Vanderbilt Autonomic Center, I must say this young gentleman brightened the day. He was so nice and apologetic for all the hassles we had endured for two days. The paper the hateful Beeatchh from the day before gave me was not even the correct testing that had been ordered by the doc in the computer. Hells bells. No wonder people give up and die. I finally started testing around 5:30. This young man stayed over to make sure I got the test completed today. I had a series of three tests and two of them showed positive for POTS or postural orthostatic tachycardia. They did a modified tilt test that only lasted about 15 minutes and it showed the rapid heart rate increase indicative of POTS. I feared this would be the case. It explains my extreme fatigue that no amount of rest can restore. Interestingly, the doctor said Toprol was a terrible drug to cause fatigue in many people. Finally around 7pm we boarded the shuttle back to the hotel but first we had to take another guest downtown so at least we got a glimpse of old NashVegas. We were both so tired and addled we did indeed look like zombies. We ate some chicken from a dive next door and crashed. Tomorrow I head home, more than a little disappointed at the Vanderbilt Autonomic Center. If you read this and you are planning a trip to the center in the future, please don't get your hopes up. I hope and pray you have a better experience than I did. The doctor stayed maybe 30 minutes in the room with me and I will not see him again. They forward the results and a treatment plan to your doctor. I swear you are your own best physician...research and try to find what might help. At least the doctor gave me some information on drugs that might be better than Toprol for me to give to my primary care physician.
I knew I would test positive..it was the obvious cause of many of my daily struggles according to most of the research I did. But I needed to get it documented so when the day comes that I simply can't do it anymore, I might have a chance with disability. So I leave Nashville tomorrow and not a moment too soon .... I miss my inner sanctum and my memory foam bed. Hopefully, they will forward all the test results and the treatment plan in the next few days, but if the last two days are any indication of their follow-up ability, I'm sure I have a battle ahead to get the information to my doctor.
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