January 18 - “Tilt Test”

I woke Chris up at 5 a.m.  She had to be at the hospital by 6:15 to get checked in for the infamous “Tilt Test.”  In a nutshell, they strap her to a bed, hook up leads to monitor her heart, and literally tilt the table to where she is standing (but still strapped in).  The Doc was great with his questions and instructions. My favorite? “If you pass out, let us know.”  Wait … what?

 

She seemed to be doing really well. Except she wasn’t passing out or anything. And then … it struck. Oh, she still didn’t pass out, but she came really close. Nausea. Dizziness. Darkness. Just what they’d hoped for, I guess. The doc stood staring at the screen. The nurse was frantically typing away. Finally, after what seemed like a few very long minutes, the doc said to lower her back down. All done. He didn’t need to see any more.

 

From what he saw during the test, and what he expected from any further tests he could think up, he came to the tentative conclusion that she probably suffers from Kitchen Krash Syndrome. No, really. Something technically called P.O.T.S.  No idea what those letters stand for, or why they didn’t figure out an acronym using P.A.N.S. as well. Basically, she has to drink more water, eat more salt, drink no alcohol, don’t eat heavy meals, and exercise sitting down or swimming. Yeah. Sounded kind of strange to me, too. She said she can’t have salt for blood pressure reasons, so that’s strike one. And she doesn’t intend to stop walking. Strike two. No problem staying away from the booze though. Home run! 

 

1 John 5:14 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”

 

Father, give these docs the wisdom to wade through tests and results and hospital craziness to figure out what to do with us. Amen.