Thursday - April 28- After 5 days of fainting, I saw my doctor, we’ll call Dr. M, because I wanted a cardiologist referral to see if I could get tilt table testing to see if I have POTS and possibly EDS.
Dr. M went over my history with me and decided that it was stress causing me to faint and told me to see a therapist.
HOWEVER, he did put in the cardiologist referral- and along with it, he ordered labs as the cardiologist would probably want to see them. So thank you for that, Dr. M.
After crying about that appointment, I called my insurance company and switched my doctor to one my friends recommended, Dr. O.
I tried making an appointment with a therapist- because maybe Dr. M was right. And even if he wasn’t, everyone can benefit from therapy, right?
But everyone was booked and I couldn’t be seen for a few months.
If you're thinking you'll need a therapist in 3 months, get it scheduled now.
I cried Friday and Saturday as I tried to convince myself it was stress like Dr. M said, and maybe I needed to just put on my big girl panties and handle life and all its stressors.
I read and re-read Dr. M’s appointment summary fearful the next doctor would read them and believe him without considering something else could be going on.
I also noticed he put on the referral, “Syncope & collapse (likely stress related).”
Tuesday - May 3- After finally getting registered with a certain lab Dr. M wanted me to use, I got in for those labs. I had been fasting since finishing dinner the night before — at that doctor’s recommendation.
It had been 14 hours of fasting at this point.
I felt faint and said to Dan, “If I faint, just keep going (with the blood draws)." I wanted them to have consent. AND I didn’t want to have to fast again considering how I was feeling.
Then I fainted.
The phlebotomist stopped the blood draw abruptly and said she had enough to work with.
They called for an RN to come down and assess me.
When it was determined I was stable enough to go out in a wheel chair (that I came in on), they let me leave.
That day I pondered on how pale I looked according to everyone.
I thought about the poor circulation feeling I had in my upper body. I could only handle going up the stairs once in a day and it was almost guaranteed I’d faint on the way up.
I messaged my daughter, Gabi, and asked her a little about how she feels when her iron is low.
I determined that I should get over-the-counter iron and take a pill a day until I would get my labs back. So I ordered it with my grocery pickup order for Wednesday.
I scheduled my lab follow up appointment for Monday, May 9th, to discuss any next steps if necessary.
I took an iron Wednesday, took one Thursday, and took one Friday.
Friday is when my new doctor’s nurse called and said, “Dr. O would like to see you today to go over labs.”
Dr. O squeezed me in for an afternoon appointment because my labs were concerning enough to be discussed in person and couldn’t wait until Monday.
My CBC test (complete blood count) revealed very low numbers.
“Hemoglobin is 7.5 and should be between 12-16,” she said.
We discussed possibilities for what might be going on.
While sitting in that appointment, I almost fainted twice, and then was reclined to lay down, and almost threw up once.
So she sent me to the ER.
To be continued....
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