I refer to this a lot, so I guess I should tell you what happened. I won't explain the test because you can look that up online.
I was told to fast for both food and fluids prior to the test. The test was supposed to start at 10:30am, but it was delayed. We finally got started they ran an IV, taped on a gazillion electrodes, slapped on a blood pressure cuff and strapped me to the table. Then they tilted it to almost upright. My heartrate began to go up, at 7 minutes, it dropped from 127 to 57, and jumped right back up again and I had a fit, -or maybe the fit started before jump back up. I'm not quite sure, I was a bit distracted right about then.
So they called it a positive test, and told me I was to meet the doctor i.e. the rock star of electrophysiology and discuss the results (how excited was I?!). They unstrapped me and I was allowed to take a long gulp of water (I later realized that this was my undoing) and -after everyone had gone and left this poor unfortunate nurse alone with me, I started to convulse violently. She was trying stop me from falling off the table with one hand and reach for the phone with the other so she could call for help. I really felt badly for her, but there was nothing I could do
I kept having fits one after another so they took me down to the ER.
Long story short: The fits kept coming back, so I was admitted and kept overnight. That was the first test.
So I eventually (after three weeks) saw the rock star to find out what he thunk and he said that there had been no noted blood pressure drop and I had a choice: start meds to see if that helped, or do another tilt-table test with an arterial implant to measure blood pressure on a constant basis. Well, I have had some scary stuff happen with medicines, and I don't like the "throw shit at the wall and see what sticks" approach (for medicines, anyway), so I chose to have another test.
The second test, I didn't fast so long beforehand and it started on time. Except no-one had a record of the arterial line, and there was a scramble to get all of that set up, which took FOREVER.
The arterial line was a feckin nightmare. I really don't recommend it. Later I found out that they usually do it to people who are unconscious, sedated or in a coma. Nice. I was wide-fuckin-awake. Now, I have bad veins, it took a few attempts to get a regular IV in. It turns out that me arteries are just as bad as me veins (at least I'm consistent!). They finally got it on the fourth attempt (two in each wrist), and it bloody hurt. My wrists were a mess (sore, swollen and badly bruised) for almost two weeks afterwards.
So after all the palaver with the lines, we finally started the test. They tilted me up and nothing happened. Eventually after 24 (I think) minutes I convulsed again. My heartrate had been in the 130s and my blood pressure had dropped 40 points from 146 to 106. But only for a single beat.
They called this a negative test and kept me around for ages in recovery to ensure no repeat of the post-tilt-table-fits. I ate/drank nothing and there was none. I was discharged and told to "drink more water and eat more salt".
They told me the rock star would call to follow up with me. He didn't. I wasn't surprised.
Hi, I love your blog. You are such a talented writer. I'm cash71 on ASAP. I have a tilt table test upcoming and for some strange reason I am more nervous that it will be normal. I guess it b/c all my NS/NL up here in Canada keep telling me there is nothing wrong with me so I feel like every test feels like it is high stakes. I have been diagnosed with tachycardia based on my holter and am on beta blockers now which are really helping. I guess the tilt table test will give me a firm POTS dx. It sounds like yours where pretty traumatic! Thanks for sharing your experience.
Caroline
Posted by: Caroline | November 23, 2007 at 12:21 PM