The Anti-Catastrophizer

I went to the doctor yesterday to make sure I hadn’t caught Emma’s strep. Since my throat almost always hurts, I never know when I have strep. It has gone to my kidneys in the past because I didn’t notice a difference. Luckily, I don’t have it!

I also talked to my doctor about my experience at Mayo Clinic and how I’d been consuming so much salt and not seeing my blood pressure increase. If the top number of my blood pressure gets below 100, I get very dizzy. Lately, I am lucky for a top number of 103. We are trying a drug the doctors at Mayo Clinic recommended to raise my blood pressure, Midodrine. We are starting with just 5mg a day and working our way up to 3 times a day and as much as 10mg per dose. My doctor has asked me to log my blood pressure and pulse once a day and e-mail her the log once a week. What an awesome doctor, right? 🙂

I am hopeful because I’ve seen a lot of success stories with Midodrine. It won’t be a cure, but it can help with the symptoms low blood pressure is causing. So far, it hasn’t made a significant change in my blood pressure or how I am feeling. My lower number has increased (from the 50s to the 70s), but my top number has been between 101 and 106 all day. I also am feeling pretty sick from my flu shot since fighting infection isn’t really my body’s thing, but it is much better than getting the flu!

I was flattered because my doctor said she is surprised with how well I handle my illness with how much it has changed my life and impacts my day to day life. She said sometimes she will see on a patient’s psych exam that the psychologist says the patient catastrophizes their illness. She said I am the opposite, an “anti-catastrophizer”. Haha! I figure most people understand how awful my having POTS is, especially since I blog about it now. I don’t need to make it an even bigger deal than it already is or the focus of everything in my “real” life. I still have lots of awesome stuff in my life, POTS just isn’t one of them!