Official Diagnosis
Hi everyone! Today I'm going to share about my most recent visit to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Since my appointment was early on a Friday morning, we decided to go the night before and stay overnight in a hotel. The roads were icy, so it took us about 3.5 hours to get there. After waking up early Friday morning and having breakfast at the hotel, we drove about 15 minutes
to the clinic. We then made the long walk to the Mayo building and went up to the 16th floor to the pediatric department. After meeting with the doctor, we decided to stay the say and become a checker to see if I could get fit in for a tilt test. Being a checker means that you don't have an appointment for the test, but they often have extra time between other appointments and can fit you in there. The tilt test took about an hour, and was comprised of many smaller tests, starting with laying me down on a table and connecting electrodes to my shin, back, wrist, and abdomen, as well as a heart rate monitor to my finger. Capsule stickers were then placed on my wrist, shin, and foot. These contained a neurotransmitter in them that was then activated by a stimulus (I believe this was an electrical current). This was to test how my body reacted in terms of sweating. Damp pads were also placed next to these areas. Next, they tilted me up to about 30 degrees and tested my ability to blow into a tube to a certain pressure, while recording my heart rate along the way. The final step was tilting me all the way up to standing, and periodically taking my heart rate and recording symptoms that I was experiencing. About a week after my appointment, my doctor called to inform us that the test revealed I have postural orthostatic tachycardia symptom. This is a disorder concerning the central nervous system, which does things like signal digestion, control nerves, and constrict blood vessels. I go to see a specialist in February to learn more about how to control my symptoms caused by this disorder. I hope to find more answers there!
to the clinic. We then made the long walk to the Mayo building and went up to the 16th floor to the pediatric department. After meeting with the doctor, we decided to stay the say and become a checker to see if I could get fit in for a tilt test. Being a checker means that you don't have an appointment for the test, but they often have extra time between other appointments and can fit you in there. The tilt test took about an hour, and was comprised of many smaller tests, starting with laying me down on a table and connecting electrodes to my shin, back, wrist, and abdomen, as well as a heart rate monitor to my finger. Capsule stickers were then placed on my wrist, shin, and foot. These contained a neurotransmitter in them that was then activated by a stimulus (I believe this was an electrical current). This was to test how my body reacted in terms of sweating. Damp pads were also placed next to these areas. Next, they tilted me up to about 30 degrees and tested my ability to blow into a tube to a certain pressure, while recording my heart rate along the way. The final step was tilting me all the way up to standing, and periodically taking my heart rate and recording symptoms that I was experiencing. About a week after my appointment, my doctor called to inform us that the test revealed I have postural orthostatic tachycardia symptom. This is a disorder concerning the central nervous system, which does things like signal digestion, control nerves, and constrict blood vessels. I go to see a specialist in February to learn more about how to control my symptoms caused by this disorder. I hope to find more answers there!
Wow! I'm glad you finally figured out what was going on. There has to be some relief about that. Now, onto the next phase....good luck with everything!
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