About

ME, and My Pre-POTS Life Merging with my POTS life

Hi. I’m Emily Elizabeth and this is my dog Clifford. No, wait. That’s the beginning of another story.  I’m Amy.

I’m not sure where to start without it being a long boring life history.  So I’m going to use some bullet points to go over the basics of my life.

• New Wife as of 09-07-2014 to the most amazing and hilarious man.
• Police Dispatcher. Man mentioned above happens to wear a uniform serving and protecting.
• 7 year old kiddo occupying the house.  Full of energy and great ideas, compassion, humor and a joy spreader like you wouldn’t believe.
• July 2015 we bought our dream house on 6 acres and slightly out of town.  For a girl who grew up and lived in neighborhoods always, this has brought some big changes.
• 2 dogs the size of small ponies live with us rent free.  Well, they pay their rent in snuggles and love and “protection”.
• In previous life before POTS enjoyed spending time doing Aerial Silks and other fun sweat makers like Krav Maga (which by the way, is a great marriage counseling tool).
• Health and fitness have always been intriguing and fun, as well as coffee and cupcakes and  the creation of delicious food.
• I love hockey.  The Pittsburgh Penguins are obviously the best, but I’ll watch any hockey any day!

Ok, I feel like those are the basics and get you up to date enough to find out how POTS crept into my wonderful life.

So in August the afore mentioned 6 year old boy, Carter, kicked an axe.  Does that need explaining? I don’t really think it does, nor do I even know how I would explain it.  Anyways, at the time his Gran and Aunt J were in town visiting and seeing the new house. Gran and I heard the shrieks at the same time and she picked him up and went to the sink.  She explained that I needed to look at it to see if I needed to wake Daddy up from quiet time .  I got enough of a look to see that there was no way around stitches.

Fast forward to dad throwing on clothes and getting Carter’s mom (I’m the step mommy of this adorable tiny axe-kicking man) on the phone to advise the great news that we’d be meeting her at Urgent Care.  I ran downstairs to wake up Aunt J from her quiet time to advise her she was in charge of the dogs.  *I say advise a lot, because I wasn’t lying about being a dispatcher.  Dispatcher married to a Cop equals many moments of ‘disregard’ and ‘correction’ when the wrong thing is said.  It’s always entertaining to be saying a prayer and utter ‘correction’ then move on.*

So Carter was getting ready for the stitches.  His mommy, His daddy and I were all taking to him and distracting him with Halloween costume ideas etc, waiting for the doc to enter the room.  I started to feel HOT and kinda nauseas all of a sudden.  I didn’t want Carter to see me feeling poorly so I crouched down behind the exam table a bit and just took some deep breaths.  I couldn’t tell if I was going to throw up or pass out but exiting the room was all I could focus on.  I told Tom I was going out to the waiting room with Gran.  I stood, made it to the door handle and I remember saying I needed help.  Then apparently I passed out half in the chair and half in Tom’s arms.  He got me upright and we started walking to the waiting room.  Evidently I passed out again completely just crumpling.  I don’t recall this obviously.  I woke up in the exam room next to Carter feeling hot and sweaty and crappy.  They did the basic vitals checking finding a high heart rate and low oxygen.  Everything was written off as ‘oh she got sick from seeing Carter in distress or seeing blood.’

In the following days the dizziness, lightheadedness, and nausea continued.  I threw up at least once a day.  I had a hard time making it through an entire shift at work.  Each day this continued as I was waiting another week to see my primary doctor.  I finally made it through an entire 10 hour shift at work and got off at 2 am and made it home. Victory. The next day getting ready was hard.  I was so dizzy and nauseas and weak.  I pushed on and got on my way to work.  I hit the freeway and dizziness got more intense.  At one point my head dipped forward (you know the elderly person falling asleep in church nod forward) and I realized I better pull over.  I got another mile then pulled off to the side of the freeway and put my hazards on.

40 minutes later (time confirmed using license plate reading cameras) I somewhat awoke to a deputy trying to break my window.  I was able to unlock my door.  I went in and out of consciousness and a nice medic started an IV.  Each time I passed out again the only thing that woke me was pain.  The cop giving me sternum rub upon sternum rub and slapping my face was a good friend of mine.  My husband arrived on scene just as they were loading me up in the ambulance.  Unbeknownst to me my supervisors had already called him which started the “oh shit, she passed out somewhere” cycle.  Evidently it was like a September 1st treasure hunt between first responders.

Anyways, the ER included tremors and loss of consciousness among other symptoms.  It was decided I’d be admitted overnight.  That was the beginning of my 5 day visit to the hospital which we can discuss later.

So those are the basic facts. Kiddo kicks an axe. I pass out. I am dizzy and sick. I try to drive to work but pull over (Thank you God) and pass out. Ride in an ambulance. And admitted to the hospital where all the testing and mystery solving can begin.

Please join me and follow along on my journey.