[doydie]

As usual my bowels sometimes doesn't give me much warning lately. Well maybe once every couple of weeks. So this morning I am jsut sitting on the couch minding my own business when all of a sudden my bowels come a knocking So I run as fast as my fat MS legs will let me go, don't make it in time, just a small soil in the panties. But as I sit on the commode the dizziness comes. It just washes over me. I have been dizzy before but I have never started seeing stars, then black and sweating that much. So luckily I have a portable toilet paper holder I can put my head down on. Can't quite put my head between my knees since I am still going to the bathroom and I have soiled underwear on. I ahve DH bring my B/P cuff in and it's 63/47 OK, Joyce, it will be OK. You are a nurse you know what this is. It's a vasovagal response. But it has never happened to ME before. I have calmed patients and family members through it before but there was no one there to calm me. When my business was finally over and I could get myself in presentable condition I could get to my bed I toddled across the hall to my bedroom and laid down for a few minutes then got up cautiously. My B/P was 110/60 so I knew I was OK. It came up even higher to my normal which is in the 130s to 140s. So I knew everything was OK. I called the doctor of course and found out that I had a physical yesterday OK, so I forgot it. What else is new in my disorganized life. So that will have to be rescheduled but he will see me as an office visit tomorrow afternoon.

I have googled vasovagal to make sure that's what it was and I'm pretty sure it is. But with what MS has taken away form me I will have to have him explain to me what it was and if I am in any danger of it happening again. Happening in your own home with your husband there to help you is one thing. happening in a bathroom while you are shopping and there are strangers around in that ladies bathroom is another.

[Jomar]

Or maybe Orthostatic hypotension- sitting then getting up fast can cause this.

[Orthostatic hypotension, also known as postural hypotension,[1] orthostasis, and colloquially as head rush or dizzy spell, is a form of hypotension in which a person's blood pressure suddenly falls when standing up or stretching.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthostatic_hypotension

[ewizabeth]

Do you take BP meds? If so, maybe your weight loss and exercise will merit having the levels checked. Maybe you can lower your dose? Just an idea, because this has happened to me before.

[doydie]

Thanks both. Yes, I take B/p medicines, 4 different ones in fact. It is my desire to get rid of 3 of them. One will always be needed because of a high heart rate. I have decreased one down from twice a day to once a day. But my B/P today was 140/80. So with that kind of B/P it's not time to back off.

had a nice long visit with the doctor. He agrees that since I quickly bounced back from it and it happened on the commode after a very large expulsion of bowel that is was a vasavagal response. So now we see why the bowels are doing this. I will be having a CAT scan of the colon. She called this afternoon with the time but I was out so I will get that tomorrow. I may have to have a colonoscopy and if that is what is needed then that's what I'll do. He did give me some free samples of a medicine for my colon. My sister is on it and she said it is expensive. She has irritable bowel syndrome. That I do not want. But that may be in my future. Fingers crossed.

As far as the low sodium and chloride go, he said that there are some lung disorders that can cause malabsorption so I will get a chest xray. He also said to increase my sodium intake. I guess I was limiting it to much. Now I find it difficult to change my habits. One thing I will start eating again in cottage cheese. He also said for me to take one of my B/p pills every other day for several weeks and then recheck the
lab. So that's the plan.

I also found out that the Medicare insurance plan my husband picked has dropped my doctor as a provider. So now he has to make a decision. Change insurances or change doctors. He doesn't have as much allegiance toward out family doc that I have. He hasn't routinely seen the doctor until his heart attack. He had a little misunderstanding with a receptionist one day and he hasn't liked the whole office since then. But the insurance plan had $0 premium/month. Money talks with him. I think the reason they dropped my doctor was that he has refused to join any group. He is out there all by himself. Big groups have bartering power. If he feels like he needs to spend 30 minutes with a patient, he does. He doesn't conform, he listens. He let me talk about other issues today, he let me talk about some of DH problems and ordered things for him. I didn't have to take up two appointment times to do that. When he finished up his residency program a good many years ago at the hospital I was working at our benefits program was going through a change and they were dropping the good ol' stand by Blue Cross Anthem. so I think half the staff went with him when he opened up office. He was just that good.

[NurseNancy]

boy, your dr sounds like a winner.
i don't blame you for wanting to keep him.

i hope you get all the BP issues taken care of.

[doydie]

Thanks. As nurse, we all were part of the program that helped to train him through his family practice residency program. We weren't officially part of the program but the head of the program did allow a lot of interaction between the nursing staff and the residents. Some of them were a little to snooty to have much to do with us. But DR. C was one that was of the school of thought that sometimes the nurses knew their patients a lot better than any body else. He had a wonderful bedside manner, never hesitated to ask for help. had impecable hand writing and was loved by all. It was about the same time that the hospital dropped the old long standing Blue Cross Blue Shield as their insurance policy. So we all had to change and many of us took that opportunity to change doctors. My girls were at the age they no longer needed a pediatrician so I along with so many other staff members went with him when he opened up office. When his office nurses had to go on maternity leave he would sometimes recruit from our unit for the girls that worked twelve hour shifts and had extra days off. He is just a great guy.

[doydie]

I got my reports today and both colon CT and chest xrays are normal. I had no doubts that the chest xray would be normal. I was kind of hoping in a way that the CT scan might give some clue as to my bowel habits. So now I will have a colonoscopy. I will also ask my neurologist the next time I see her if it could be related to the MS.