So.
On the way back from my little touch-up boob surgery on Thursday, we stopped by the pharmacy to pick up my meds and some other stuff. I don't remember much of Thursday afternoon/evening due to a seriously kick-ass Demerol high but there's a bunch of junk on my bathroom counter proving that I'd apparently made logical, memory-based decisions while at the pharmacy; all ephemera we needed and/or I can understand/justify now. I do NOT remember doing the cha-cha in the toothpaste aisle to Barry Manilow that Chris insists I did (much to Julia's embarrassment...score!) but whatever.
Anycopacabana, one of the items purchased was a blood pressure cuff, mainly for the sake of watching Chris's BP. Chris's father, Jack, was diagnosed with high BP several years back and was told he needed to go on meds for it. Being the type who would have to be bleeding out of his eyes before even considering taking an aspirin, Jack decided to combat his high BP with exercise and actually beat it. In recent years, Chris's BP - upon being taken under the duress of rushing into the Dr's office, usually late, usually nervous, and almost always with a fair amount of caffeine running through his system - has been inching into the "high" zone. We've been suspicious of this though, for the reason cited above; a rushed, stressed, caffeinated BP is not going to be indicative of one's true, resting BP. So we decided to get the cuff to see what it REALLY was at certain times of the day when it wasn't artificially/unnaturally jacked up.
Along this vein (har har), when my own BP has been taken in a Dr.'s office, rushed and caffeinated, it's been low-normal...or "PERFECT!" as the nurses like to say. In numbers, that would be around 110/60 or thereabouts. Again, if the above logic holds true - that stress, rushing and caffeine would raise BP - then one might likely assume that MY BP would be even lower than "PERFECT!"
Still with me?
Moving on to Friday afternoon.
So, apparently my low blood pressure is a LOT lower than "PERFECT." Like, not even "low-normal." Like "if-it-got-any-lower-I'd-be-in-a-coma" low. Enough low that between the anesthesia on Thursday and the Vicodin I took afterwards, by Friday evening, I'd fainted twice. Full-on blacked out/lost consciousness. And not after doing something stupid like bouncing on a trampoline or scaling a ladder...both times while sitting up in bed. Just minding my business, resting as they'd told me to do, then everything got swoony, then grainy around the edges and then SNAP...the shutter of the cam taking vid for my brain closed. First time it happened I was alone (late afternoon) and just remember coming to and thinking I should lay down. Took a nap and woke up a couple hours later. Took about 30 minutes after waking for me to remember that I'd felt funny and then "lost time" before my nap. At that point, I IM'd that information to Chris and we both called it just "freaky." The next episode, however, happened that evening right in front of Chris. Was typing away on the laptop, realized I was starting to get dizzy and haze around the edges so I sat back and I guess I just blacked out. He said I was "unresponsive" for about 15-20 second before I heard him saying something. Said I drew my hands up to my body a bit and for a second thought I was having a seizure. My BP AFTER these episodes were in the 81/47 range, with pulse rate in the high 90s; obviously trying to compensate for the low BP. I wonder what the "dip" BP was...
He called my surgeon who told him to get me off of the vicodin and the antibiotic she'd put me on and to call my regular doc on Monday if the fainting continued through the weekend. It didn't, but we continued taking my BP throughout the weekend and, even after doing household junk, it never went above 101/60. Common resting average was around 87/56. I'm self-prescribing caffeine and sodium (yay...water-retention). License to ingest sodium. I'm on it.
The fun never stops.
