Think I just had a hallucination...?

[sunbun]

Recently learned I have hospital acquired anemia from all the blood tests I have had over the past 2 months of POTS crashing and hospital visits. I must have been low on iron to start with.

ive noticed my dizziness, presyncope; brain fog, confusion, memory loss and fatigue and neurological symptoms are way worse at the moment, likely due to the anemia causing poor perfusion. Been experiencing numb hands and cold feet more too.

Today I have been feeling particularly bad, tired, confused etc, however something weird shook me up tonight.

I was drinking a glass of water with an iron tablet and felt like there was something hard and sharp in the water while drinking it, I felt it touch my lips, then looked down and to my horror saw a pretty large solid piece of broken opaque whiteish glass in my water, that I had almost swallowed down. 

I instinctively panicked, then went over by the sink to slowly empty the tumbler out and retrieve the large piece of glass that somehow ended up in my drink. Well I did that except there was no broken glass. I spent a few minutes making sure to search for it, but there was nothing to be found. Now I’m freaked out a bit. It was a large piece of glass impossible to miss, I am sure I saw it and I felt it bump my lip, and I did not swallow it. But when I looked there was absolutely no foreign object in my drink. I have never suffered hallucinations or delusions of psychosis before so I am a bit concerned now that I was seeing/feeling things.

Is it possible this is from low brain capillary perfusion or hypoxia of the brain due to the combo of POTS and low iron/hemoglobin? Yesterday I had a horrible vasovagal near syncope in public. Would love to hear if anyone else has experienced this when crashing. I have heard of people having postural hallucinations and anemia induced psychosis before, including a woman who had low iron and would claim to see her dog wearing a fedora (lol) but there is not very much literature on it. I also feel extremely stressed atm so not sure if that could be it too. I also feel like I am seeing slight shadows or flickers in my peripheral vision which is freaky. 

[POTSie78]

Sorry you're going through this. Not sure if this helps any but here's my experience.  I am not anemic and haven't had any hallucinations like that but I do see shadows and flickers in my peripheral vision of something moving even though there's nothing there.  I also see sparkles all over my vision kind of like looking at a 4th of July sparkler.  All of which comes and goes. I was diagnosed with occular migraines. 

[Pistol]

@sunbun - how scary! I am sorry you are having such a hard time. I have HPOTS and NCS and used to have daily episodes of presyncope, syncope and autonomic seizures. The latter caused by sudden vasoconstriction causing cerebral hypo-perfusion and the syncope caused by sudden vasodilation causing the same. I am VERY familiar with the prodrome symptoms of syncope as well as the symptoms of recovering from it. I have never had any type of hallucinations or psychosis from either scenario but I do have visual disturbances such as tunnel vision, floaters as well as dimming vision before and after the episodes. I assume that it could be possible to experience hallucinations from not enough oxygen reaching the brain, as well as from anemia if it is severe enough. I would be careful and if it repeats I would notify your doctor.

[toomanyproblems]

I have had one incident that might be described as a hallucination. It was maybe three years ago. It was around lambing time and I looked out my kitchen window and very clearly saw a ewe with a newborn lamb trying to nurse. It was about 50 yards or less from my window so it wasn't hard to see or far enough away to normally imagine something was there that wasn't. It was too early for any lambs so I blinked and looked very carefully for a decent amount of time. I was certain I saw it. So I went outside and no lamb, just the ewe. I'm 67, have had sheep for nearly 30 years and have never had anything like this happen before or since -- with sheep or anything else. 

I have to say it really rattled me. Like the OP this was no fleeting glance, it was something that really seemed to exist. I don't specifically remember whether I was having a flare at the time but I did use to pass out a lot. Maybe the visual center of my brain was messed up from hypoxia or something. I've not been diagnosed with any mental health conditions and I'm not on any meds that would cause this.