The Night

Me: "What do you think?"

Paul: "It feels like the center of the universe"

...

Later on, I discovered...home.

You'll Find That Life is Still Worthwhile...If You Just Smile!

Adele, Paul, Me, and Maggie

So, yesterday was an amazing day - really crazy, but quite awesome. There is an Indian festival called Holi, which is celebrated by the throwing of colors - in India, this means liquid dyes and colored chalk. In Utah, at the Hare Krishna temple in Spanish Fork, they celebrated the color festival and invited everyone to come join in the fun! After showering, shampooing multiple times, and washing my face over and over, I still have some chalk that doesn't want to come off! It was a really, really fun experience, and I'm so glad that I went. Actually, I went twice. I left at 9:30am with some freshman friends of mine, and we stayed till the early afternoon. Morgan wasn't able to come in the morning, but she wanted to go - so we went in the evening! The festival lasts two days, and it's really a cultural experience. People were crowd surfing, there was a giant mosh pit, bands playing super loud music (and all the lyrics were "hare krishna" chants...), Indian food, and SO MUCH CHALK! For me, it was good to just spend a couple hours and then head out - after a while, I get anti-social in large crowds. This is definitely an experience I would recommend to anyone who has the opportunity to go to one of these festivals. Do wear clothing that you don't really care if it gets super dirty. We were sliding down mud hills and getting colored from the moment we stepped foot on the temple property.

Things to smile about:

Being covered in chalk
"Life is Beautiful"
Lilu
Carissa's team winning some of their VB games!
Getting strange looks from people in stores (while still covered in chalk)
New movies
Almost done fasting
Italy meetings

Gracefulness continues

Yesterday I had to go back to the hospital for a follow up tilt table test. They were hoping that it would be a boring test, with not much going on and I'd be upright the whole time. This did not happen. The results were better this time though! Instead of passing out in 3 minutes, I passed out in 7. There was no gap in my heartbeat this time, and my heart rate didn't get as low as last time! So these were definite improvements and the doctor was happy with them.

But there are more things to smile about!

Improved tests

Learning to make strange noises

Shakespeare

Sleeping In!

Having the house to myself 

Beautiful Weather

Diagnosis

The fainting saga has likely come to an end, thank goodness. I had an appointment at the Faint and Fall Clinic at the University today, and here's what they said:

1. There are a couple things I can do to increase the amount of time between feeling faint and actually fainting, but they won't alleviate the symptoms.
2. Most cardiologists would have put me on a pacemaker because of my 8-second gap in heartbeat
3. They're putting me on medication.

I'm interested to see if it's going to work - it takes about 4-6 weeks I guess, and then I'll go back to the clinic in 3 months. I just want to be able to go through a week without feeling like I need to sit down or I'm not going to be able to function, which right now, isn't happening. I don't faint every week, but I still get lightheaded/dizzy/faint and the occasional blackout at least every week. So there will probably be more stories to come about how things are working and more dr. visits later on.

Graceful...Part IV

Well, today was another adventure in the realm of my body and fainting. My doctor scheduled me for a Tilt Table Test at the U today. 8am - Morgan and I rolled into the cardiovascular clinic for the test.

Let me tell you, it was an interesting experience! Blood pressure cuff on each arm, sensor on my left wrist, IV in my right arm, gazillions of EKG leads all over the front of me. The IV took a while to get in, and the nurse had to call a woman from "the stick team" to actually get the needle in...ouch!

Then, I'm supposed to lie on this table for 20 minutes (as all this hooking up, needle sticking, and velcroing is happening). Then, a doctor comes in and I'm set up in an almost standing position (still strapped to the table). This is supposed to remove any support from muscles or the skeleton that may affect my heart rate/blood pressure, etc. So my body is left to its own devices - or at least the blood pumping system is.

About 3 minutes into the test I started feeling kinda funky and then my vision went starry and I began to blackout. The doctor and nurse were asking me how I was doing, and when I responded "I can't see" they took me down from the standing position and into lying down again. As I came to, my hearing was really muffled and I couldn't hear very well, but was able to make "grunting" noises in response to the doctor's questions.

They started pumping fluids into my veins to help me recover more quickly - and that did help. A full liter was gone by the time I left the office. The nurse started talking to me about what had happened and said that she'd never had someone pass out so quickly in the test. The doctor said it was DEFINITELY positive for Vasovagal Syncope, and that I actually passed out twice in the passing out. I guess my body started to recover a little from the first episode and then went back down into passing out mode again. The nurse said my heart actually stopped beating for 8 seconds, and she hasn't seen that kind of pause in a while!

How timely this was is interesting. The U is just starting a "Faint and Fall" Clinic in November with an expert in the field of fainting/collapsing/what-have-you. They said they're going to get me an appointment there as soon as it starts up, so that I can talk to a doctor there about what's happening and how to avoid these episodes.

So there you have it - the continuing saga of graceful fainting.

Graceful...the continuing drama

Well, a week after the last post entitled "Graceful" I did not attend my voice lesson due to lightheadedness, I could no longer stand, so my roommate/coworker took me to a local clinic to see a doctor. He wasn't sure what was happening and ordered some blood work to check out my kidney/liver function, thyroid, and iron count. I went in for a follow up appointment a week later, all the tests had come back normal, so now it's time for more tests.

On Wednesday, I had an echocardiogram, and this coming Tuesday morning I will have something called a "Tilt Table Test", which should be interesting. I guess if the Tilt Table comes back positive, he'll diagnose me with something called Vasovagal Syncope, but if it comes back negative, I'll be referred to cardiology and have to monitor my heart for a while or something like that.

Please pray that my doctor would have continued wisdom to identify and remedy the problem in my body.

Graceful...part two

Today brought another onset of lightheadedness complete with bouts of blacking out...and though I didn't actually lose consciousness today, I would describe what happened as passing out. Goodness - I was taken to Student Health Services this afternoon and they weren't able to find something wrong with me...he said it sounded like hypoglycemia, but when my bloodsugar was checked, it was normal, as was my blood pressure, and heart rhythm. Most of the people I work with, as well as my roommates are now encouraging me to see a doctor about what's going on...so we'll see where that goes. It's just weird!