Yesterday and today were short days
so I decided to combine posts. I have an appointment for acupuncture on March
31st and since I do not want to stay in Minnesota for an extra week
I plan on skipping it. Yesterday, I went to go see if there were any
cancellations for the acupuncture appointment and waited to see if the patients
came, and they did so I couldn’t get in early. I have tried acupuncture in the
past and I did not feel like it had any effect on me besides making me tired after
the treatment. Since I am already so fatigued, the acupuncture just made me
more tired and I didn’t like the experience.
The only real appointment I had
yesterday was a catecholamine test. For this test you couldn’t eat or exercise
four hours before. I went into a room and had an IV put in, and I had to lie
down for 30 minutes. The nurse told me to stay as relaxed as I can, and she
shut the lights off and the room was quiet. I just watched the clock for 30
minutes, which was very boring. After 30 minutes, the nurse came in and drew
blood. She then told me to go walk around for 10 minutes and come back. After
the 10 minutes of walking up and down the hallway, she took more blood. This
test is to see if there is a difference in dopamine, norepinephrine, and
epinephrine (adrenaline) levels when lying down and relaxed and to see if there
is a difference in levels when I am walking around. For a POTS patient, walking
around is very stressful on the body so they want to check how high my hormones
get upon standing and walking.
Today, I had a biofeedback
consultation where I learned the basics of slow breathing and relaxation. The
woman put a monitor on each of my shoulders and a strap around my stomach, and
these three devices monitored the tension in each shoulder and my breathing.
They transmitted information about my breaths per minutes and amount of tension
in my shoulder onto the computer screen. During this session I practiced slow,
even breathing, which helps control POTS symptoms. By breathing slowly and
evenly, it slows down my heart rate, which prevents chest pain and also this
type of breathing helps with stress. Since stress is a major POTS trigger, it
can make symptoms significantly worse. Since my sympathetic nervous system is
dominant over my parasympathetic nervous system, I am constantly in “fight or
flight” mode so even a little bit of stress can have a negative impact on my
body. She also said this breathing technique can help with my migraines and
insomnia.
She said to practice these breathing
exercises throughout the day, especially when I am preoccupied with something
else because then this type of breathing will become more natural. Some apps
she suggested to use to help with these breathing techniques were “BellyBio
Interactive Breathing”, “Breathe2Relax”, and “My Calm Beat”. I have to practice
biofeedback twice a day for 20 minutes for a few weeks to really start seeing
an effect.
The biofeedback consultation was my
last appointment before I get my results on the tests and see Dr. Fleming again.
On Tuesday, I will see the doctor and he will let me know about all the tests I
went through this week and possibly suggest new techniques or medicines to help
subside symptoms. As a nice way to end this long week of testing, my mom and I
are going to see Zootopia. So pumped to see Flash the sloth J
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