Banded Together

I had a “spell” of sorts earlier this week.  In the past I have felt dizzy and nauseated while getting ready in the mornings, specifically while my hands are up messing with my hair and such.  Normally I am able to drop my arms and will get to feeling better, but not this time.  Having scared myself pretty bad I called my PCP and they worked me in for an appointment 30 minutes later.

My blood pressure was fine and always has been, but he ran an Orthostatic test (hope I got that right).  The difference between my heart rate while lying down and my heart rate 4-5 minutes later while standing up was 10, and it should not have been more than 5. 

My PCP thinks that I am not getting enough sodium in my diet, so he sent me home and told me to eat more salt - pretty unusual for a doctor.  Evidently there has to be enough sodium in our bodies to retain the water that we drink so as to keep up hydrated.  He said I am drinking the appropriate amount of water, but it is going straight thru me without being much of a benefit.  Not being one to ever add extra salt (makes me sick thinking about it), I have been trying to make sure I get enough sodium in my diet based on my normal food choices.  I must say, this is a difficult task when you are limited to a cup of food at a time. 

Even potato chips don’t have as much sodium in them as one would think.  An entire 99 cent bag of chips only had 480 mg of sodium and I am supposed to have 2,000 - 3,000 a day.  I was hoping there would be more in it, not that I am supposed to be eating chips anyway, but at least I was trying to up my sodium intake because I really don’t want to pass out.  He also mentioned putting me on a blood pressure medicine to keep my heart rate at a constant level, and I don’t want that either.  Someone mentioned to me that there are sodium tablets you can take, so maybe I will ask him about those next time I go in.

I guess I was just so surprised to hear eat more salt when it seems like every other day the media is reporting on how sodium is a downfall in the American diet.  Well, gotta go find something salty to eat.

Based on the results of my blood work, it probably wasn’t sodium after all.  I am anemic, low in Vitamin D and numerous other vitamins.  Something tells me I should have been taking that multi vitamin - oops! 

They drew some more blood this week - only took 5 attempts, a time out to drink some water, and a syringe to pull it out of me.  I will see my PCP this week for the results of those tests as well as a game plan to get my levels back up to normal.  I am eating a lot of red meat and raw spinach right now to try and get the iron level back up on my own.  I am going to have plenty of liquids in me before this appointment.  Not being able to use a tourniquet because of the arm lift I recently had did not help with the process.

Keep us posted. And thanks for being active in the threads.

Well, here is the scoop.  I am anemic, but not from eating too little iron.  My primary doctor thinks my blood loss during my recent plastic surgery is what did it to me because I dropped 4 points in 3 months time.  My plastic surgeon said I didn’t lose very much blood, which may be true when the TT and Arm Lift are looked at separately, but considering I had both done at the same time I did lose more than would have normally been lost during a procedure.  I am also low on vitamins B12 and D.

I started the vitamin D supplement last Thursday.  Today I got a B12 shot and two prescriptions.  I go back in 2 weeks for another B12 shot and more blood work.  I am just excited to know that soon I will be waking up in the mornings feeling rested and that there is a reason I have been feeling faint, in a mental fog and not able to focus on my school work. 

In regards to the multi vitamin issue, I bought One A Day adult gummy vitamins today.  They taste just like gummy bears/worms, so I am pretty sure I will remember to take two of them each day.  I compared their contents with the children’s version and taking 2 adult or 4 children vitamins give almost equal nutrients.  I will figure out which is more cost effective in the future, but at least wanted to give the adult ones a try.

Take your multi vitamins and get things checked out if you feel weird.