Running to go nowhere.

In the never ending search that is the solution to my health issues, I went back over to Gloucester for an ETT (Exercise Tolerance Test). This involves walking on a treadmill that increases in speed and incline while you are hooked up to an ECG machine. Needless to say, I walked it. Although I felt completely wasted at the end, there was no significant result. So, onwards and upwards. Bring on the next one!!

Its all gone a bit lopsided.

As part of the ongoing investigations into my blackouts, I went to Cheltenham today for a tilt table test. This involves being strapped into a table and connected to an ECG machine, heart monitor and blood pressure cuff. They then tilt you at 70 degrees and monitor your levels. After about 20 minutes (which feels like an hour when you can't move, talk or walk) they induce an episode by giving you GTN (glyceryl trinitrate) which makes your heartrate increase about 3 fold so you feel like your head is going to explode. I didn't have a full blackout but I think they got the readings they needed. Before giving me the GTN the doctor said "it may give you a bit of a headache". Suffice to say I was ill from the moment I left the hospital and have had a serious episode all afternoon flipping in and out of consciousness. It was a good job Tree was with me all day to manage the episode as I was originally going to take the train to Cheltenham!!

I see now what the consultant meant when he said "No one likes a tilt test".

Me and Vincent Vega

In respect to what Tree said about seeing the doctor, I booked an appointment and we both went along today. I was half expecting to feel stupid as I prefered to stay in denial about my health and thought the doc would say there is nothing wrong. As it is, he has diagnosed, subject to confirmation, that I suffer with neurocardiogenic syncope or vasovagal response. I won't bore you here but, in brief, a nerve, controlling involuntary actions of the heart, etc goes a bit A.W.O.L from time to time caused by certain triggers. This causes blood flow to the brain to plummet and a blackout follows. In my case it is triggered by fatigue or changes in temperature, which explains episodes in the sea, on a hot day on holiday, coming out of the steam room at the gym,etc. I now have to have a bank of tests done including ECG's, an X-ray of the heart and blood tests. In the long term it means I will have to adapt my lifestyle and practice certain routines to implement at the first signs of an attack, to avert it. I am just relieved to know I am not going mad and imagining it all. It could have been far more serious and I am lucky in that case.
On a lighter note, Tree says it sounds like Vincent Vega out of Pulp Fiction and it could end up as my nickname - Great!!