pulp

Have you tried any benzodiazepine drug? Phenobarbital is some heavy stuff, especially if you are taking additional heavy duty painmeds at the same time. Betablockers not helping you?

Maybe you could try it a couple more times or maybe split the pill in half? I usually settle for night with 2,5-5 mg of zopiclone which is a low dose. Usually take it standing 5 mins before I go brush my teeth and then go to bed. If I don't actively try to sleep I can quite easily stay awake but it really helps me with falling asleep as I usually have adrenaline rushes throughout the night. I can sleep some 4-5 hours quite soundly without waking up which I usually do 10+ times per night.

I take zopiclone which is a similiar z-drug as ambien (zolpidem). They work great for me, I get a somewhat good nights sleep and never feel drowsy day after, zopiclone has a 6 h half-life which is quite short but zolpidem has an even shorter half-life of about 3 hours. So it shouldn't affect you that much, I think. But far as I've noticed all people with dys react quite differently to drugs than "normal" people do.

Derekliz: The information is from the ambulatory 24 h bp measurement I had done through the primary care office, I ordered my journals sent home. I put the values into an excel sheet and made the linear graph from that. potsgirl: thank you again for the reply. I really hope the appointment I'm waiting for will be a positive one, it's in a neighbouring country and I live in Sweden but that's just about the only doctor I found through searching on the net that has anything to do with dysautonomia in this area of the world. I think what really got me thinking that something might be wrong with my body is that during the summer I was on my feet each day for maybe 10 hours and don't even know how many thousands of steps it was per day but my fatigue just kept getting stronger and I just keep getting more and more out of breath and lightheaded. I can still work but it takes every inch of willpower to do it and it does feel as if it's just getting worse and worse. The propranolol has helped with the tachy but it does make me really cold and more weak, bp around 85/60 erect.

Thanks for the feedback! I did do an orthostatic test at the hospital some weeks ago. Dont have the numbers with me but if I remember it correctly something like Resting 99 HR 97/75, upon standing 123 HR 102/75, 2 min 143 HR 95/72, 4 min 163 HR 102/72. Sat down then. 142 HR 130/75 after some minute sitting/lyinh down. This was on one of the bad days. I guess i wonder if anxiety can really make the body behave like this.. The GP wouldnt even look at this test but simply dismissed me cause he said the ambulatory was normal.

Thanks! Green is heart rate blue systolic bp, red diastolic bp

Ordered the charts home from the rude physician I saw couple of weeks ago, the journals he had written made me feel so sad and they were incorrect from the information I had given but I just put them away (basically non-stop psychiatric talk from his side). I got the numbers from the ambulatory blood pressure I had done and since they left out the chart I know is included I put the values into excel. Shame they didn't send my own notes with it (I was quite thorough writing them!) but I remember the day somewhat - I was at home all day when values were taken sitting/lying down except at one time when I was picking up my kid from school. I don't have the the education to interpret these numbers and apply them to anything but maybe someone here would be interested! I've felt so bad lately, maybe it IS all in my head. I feel my heart pounding all the time, especially when I'm going to sleep and no matter how high the HR is, the propranolol made my tachy brady so I lowered the dosage a bit. Can't sleep due to the adrenaline rushes I get and I'm totally exhausted but I'm still somewhat managing my practice at the hospital, maybe I'm too functional to be suffering from dysautonomia? Since just about every doctor except one has said it's due to anxiety I feel so discouraged. Cause I do have anxiety, but it's like it comes from inside my body and not from anything mental. I'm doing something I think is actually fun but I can't wait to get off from work every day so I can just lie down cause I'm so tired. It's like I'm shoveling snow ahead of me and the more snow piles up the heavier the pile gets to shove ahead of me but I just have to keep going, there's no time to stop, rest and shove it aside. Wonder when it will stop..Feels as if I will go crazy. The anti-anxiety meds don't help. I contacted a doctor who specializes in dys. but now I'm actually afraid of that appointment, how crazy is that? I'm scared it will show it's just in my mind. Love to you guys! pulp

Maybe I'm missing something out of the bigger picture cause you do sound very upset about it, I think the Dr sounds quite supportive and polite towards you.

Thanks Sue! Glad to hear northerndarlene: That's a too difficult question for me, I actually don't know what's done to make albumin get higher. I think it all depends on why the albumin is low.. ie if it's due to the kidneys leaking albumin into the urine (a sign of failing kidneys) then something has to be done about the kidneys or it can be due to liver failing so then they have to focus on that. An infection can also be a cause. There's many reasons for albumin being low so the treatment depends on what the reason is. If you are concerned about it I def. think you should speak to your physician about it and maybe check your albumin again and ask him to explain it to you, he might have a reason not to react to the albumin being on the low end.

Albumin is the most common protein you have. If it's low it can be a sign of malnurishment or other disease. It has many functions in the body and is very important, for example it's an important transporter protein (it binds calcium to give one example) and it also binds to medications so low albumin can affect how big of an effect the medications give you ie Low albumin = less of the medication gets bound and the levels of it in you get abnormally high. Albumin works to keep homeostasis. It makes the water in your body keep in the blood instead of wandering off out into the surrounding tissues (edema). Albumin is made in the liver. Excuse my rather struggling English, I'd so write this much better in Swedish

"Glad" I'm not the only one! I am quite thin in weight and when I think of it I was hungry when this happened and eating an apple made me feel better after a while. My blood sugar is far as I know normal, took my value couple of times and it was okay. So not sure if it can be applied to that. Really weird stuff though! 6 months ago, bit more, this happened and I was knocked out for over 12 hours. Simply couldn't move cause I felt so weak and eating then didn't help.

UTI's are a pain! I collect them. Almost at least. If I have a sexual partner it's very common that I get it. Important as the others have said that get in and get the urine sampled so they can decide on the right kind of antibiotic to use to maximize the effect and vs the multi-resistant bacteria. Was sick like a dog last year, urin turned orange and all muddles (not sure if this is the correct word). Hope you get better soon!

I've had this happen a couple of times, out of nowhere I start sweating, ALOT - like it goes through my clothes. Hands and feet go colder than they usually are and totally pale, I feel as if I'm about to pass out, whether if I'm standing or lying down (standing is totally out of the question though) and I get very very weak. Last time it just built up more and more and I had two waves of this sweating during the hour I was lying down. My heartbeat wasn't "that" high, it was maybe 110 or so when lying down when this happened, standing heartrate I don't know and I'm not sure of what my blood pressure was when it happened but it felt horrible. Anyone have this? Gotten any explanation of what it is?

Metoprolol can cause weight gain and depression, it's known side-effects (read some in my pharmacology litterature). Take it up with the doctor I would say!

the GP's office today and he said he had looked through it and said nothing was important. I wrote down what I was doing during most of the readings. He said went along well yeah it's normal. Highest pulse it recorded 139, I was at home then - maybe making coffee. And he said it's normal? Really? Sleeping I had a pulse of 80-90 if I read it right (have requested copies to be sent home) . Asked if he had read the orhostatic test I did last week and he replied with "We'll we're out in the reality now". Told him I want the TTT and he said "basically you'e just done it". - meaning the 24h bp measuremt. Also asked if he had read about postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome like I suggested he could do before we met and his reply was "orthostatism or what postural whatever - you don't have it". I just looooooove Drs. There's nothing wrong with me he says. Wish I had some kind of that'd handle me all the pressure of trying to get ahold of doctors, again explaning my symtomsl Would be awesome having a #Next and the doctor ported into my livingroom instead.

I havent had a good day in a long time, but I think if I lower my sense of what a good day is (feeling 100% normal etc) I have some better, some worse. 1 day last week I actually felt rather allright so I even took my first blood tests on a person (hooray me who's been a phobic vs needles and blood a long time!). Had declined the other days cause my anxiety levels can get really high so then blood all of a sudden makes me queezy. The weird spacey feeling is almost always constant, except in the morning - then it's just the fatigue.

Yeah I figured as much too - if there's allready troubles getting the blood to go where it's supposed to when there's even less cause it's going to the digestive system it should aggravate symptoms. I'm gonna try out having a little sugar. I'm a student at the heart medicine clinic at the local hospital right now, I might actually steal the glucose meter and try what values I get before and after (can just say I wanna practice! ).

Okay, thats understandable Corina. That's great that your cardio knew all that and that your neuro was so close! I tried to tell my GP about POTS/dysautonomia over the phone but he wouldn't talk unless face to face - both good and bad I guess but I wanted him to read up before we met. pulp

Thanks Anna, I hope so too! (I share your name btw!) Sue: Maybe 20 so minutes after I've eaten something (eating big meals usually is worse but sometimes small meals can be as bad) I get fatigued, lightheaded, clammy cold hands and feet (most of the time they are cold but not always sweaty) - sometimes sweaty all over, have strong palpitations and HR shoots up. Laying down helps with the dizziness but the rest remains. Lasts 1-2 hours usually.

I thought the test did too! At least after I looked at the criteria again. If it was anxiety my BP imo should've moved quite alot cause a panic attack with 163 in HR should in my opinion be a quite good one. But I guess I have selective panic attacks cause my hr dropped 40 points just by lying down. (bit ironic). I tried to find another doctor, just ANY doctor to be honest who might know something about pots here but I don't find anything at all in Swedish. I read just about all here in DINET, I'll see if I can print some out. The GP just seems quite non open-minded and is rather dismissive. If he starts up next week with talking about anxiety I think I might actually go crazy for real. So horrible thinking about how many people are in the psychiatric care who actually have an dysautonomia. If I manage to get a diagnosis (I'm sure I will eventually - the when is taking a toll though) I'm gonna start translating all I can about this into Swedish and try to inform people. I know that my issues are NOT mentally induced, it's just a feeling inside my body that I will try my best to trust. It seems quite many people here see cardiologists, I thought neurologists would be the speciality for ANS issues - but maybe it's not?

I don't have a diagnosis (just gonna say that first) - but I always feel worse after I've eaten. So I've lost some weight cause I really don't like the palpitations and high HR I get after eating.

I am on my phone so a bit awkward to write. Thr psych suggested 24 holter yeah. I think if they put it on they would be quiet. I wont see the doc until next week I feel so bad and as if all is unreal. I am a nurse student and at the hospital training right now and today I just got some kind if attack again, just overwhelming fatigue and palpitations. My cognitive mind feels so far away and it just echoes in my head. I barely comprehend what anyone says. Do any of you experience this? It is like my whole body thrums, very surreal feeling. I want the blockers but it seems so far away. I have to make 175 hours in 5 weeks else I fail, have no idea how I will make it. I hope the doctor will help me. I tried lyrica which I have vs anxiety but it did not help. It used to when I had normal anxiety or how to put it. Hugs, pulp.

I'm sorry you've had to go through it too Wyoming. I'm rather frustrated cause the psych doc said today that she tends to agree that it is anxiety. Don't really know what to say or do at this point. I'm a calm person who's never had problems with panic anxiety, not even at the worst times (If this is anxiety I guess I didn't know what it was until now, that it could make me so horribly exhausted and affected. I'm just so sad.

Thanks for the warm welcome guys. Unfortunately I'm in Sweden so there's not very much around, I found some articles written about orthostatic hypotension written here but that was about it. I will try to press for a tilt table no matter what the 24h check says, just not sure which hospitals carry it. I've been told so much that it's just anxiety that I until lately was shrugging it off with the same thing but I've turned much worse so I can't really ignore it anymore - working is exhausting and at home even making food is postponed as long as I can cause it's so uncomfortable. I did call psych last week after being so frustrated and got an appointment today, the doctor was an absolute angel. She listened to me and took 1,5h of time to do that + examine me more properly than any of the GPs have. She sent me for an ecg and orthostatic test at once and had me come back. The ecg had elevated pulse as it has been before but normal. The orthostatic test was an experience to say the least, they couldn't get a manual reading (don't think I've met anyone who can get one on me, bah!) so they took out the automatic cuff. 5-10 mins of rest had me 99 pulse 100/75 bp, upon standing 123 pulse 102/75 bp, 2 mins 142 pulse 93/72 bp, 4 min 163 pulse 101/77 bp. It was supposed to go on but I was about to faint so I sat down. I don't really trust that automatic cuff but no one seems to be able to do it manually. I've never been this close to fainting, uncomfortable. Was surprised that my BP didn't drop. Don't know what this exam says, the doctor said that it's difficult because anxiety could show itself like this too (though wouldn't my bp go up too?) and was a bit at a loss cause she's at the psych and can't really do very much but treat that. She did send the test results back to the GP though + a suggestion to start betablockers and also try some other heart monitor. It felt really good to have someone actually making an effort for you. This site is amazing, I think I read just about all I could find here and alot of topics Hugs to you!!

So guys, I'm new around here - gonna start off by saying I don't have a diagnosis but I just started the fight to get one. Slightly frustrating. But yeah, I got my bp measured in-office by a nurse and it showed resting 90/65, sitting up 75/65, standing 72/? after standing 3-5 mins 70/?. She didn't find the diastolic pressure. I got it measured later at uni and it was about 70/30. They keep insisting that it's all normal (oh hey you're a young woman), nevermind that I have alot of symtoms of hypotension and the anxiety I feel after my heart has raced all day with me at work is according to them causing the tachy and not other way around. Hen or the egg kind of stuff right now. I really want them to take me seriously, I do not have an anxiety disorder. Any tips from you with experience? I sort of broke down after the dr last week said I have panic attacks, I'm a 100% sure it's not that. He agreed to do a 24h BP/pulse measurement, I think I will have it tomorrow. Did any of you get any diagnosis from this? Or did it help you in your struggle at all? ECG has been normal. pulp