Tag hormones

The heart all-clear, but what about the orthostatic hypotension?

Angel Ackerman Leave a comment

I am so sick of medical-related posts. I want to get back to the silliness I enjoy everyday, and straighten out the mess my finances are in, and get back to work before the mortgage is due. But there’s so many questions I have– and have to admit– that idea of taking another fall like my last one is terrifying.

My normal, stumble-over-my-own-feet kind of falls are scary enough. But these… the sensation of suddenly being in the air with no tactile connection to the mechanics of the fall… are different.

The brain fog is still heavy, and I think most of what I am struggling with now are side effects from the beta blocker, or potentially hormonal, and I thought I had a TSH check today at my local quest. It was part of why I didn’t go back to work today, I wanted to discuss the heart monitor, my TSH levels and my orthostatic hypotension with my doctor. (Orthostatic hypotension means blood pressure that drops too low when you recline or lie down.)

I’m going to tell the story a little backwards…

Tuesday Morning

I originally set my alarm for 4:45 a.m. I planned for today to be a practice wake-up day for work tomorrow and I have a 6:40 a.m. appointment for a TSH blood draw at Quest. Then, I would hopefully discuss with my doctor today the state of my orthostatic hypotension (confirming that it is orthostatic hypotension and that I am not at an increased risk of falling since my work involves standing all day), the results of the Zio heart monitor and my TSH levels.

The cardiologist sent his report last night — the Zio patch heart monitor did not detect any afib, and he would like to keep me on the beta blocker as long as I tolerate it.

And again, if I’m honest, I think the beta blocker is causing the orthostatic hypotension, but in general, I think it has helped calm my system down a lot.

I woke at 2 a.m. I’ve been drinking electrolyte water in the evening and in the morning as suggested by my doctor, which meant it was 2 a.m. and I really had to use the bathroom. But, being the neurotic little patient I am, I had to take my blood pressure to see what happened when I moved around in the middle of the night.

When I woke up, my blood pressure was 96/56, when I arrived in the bathroom it was 113/80, after I relieved myself it was 118/74, and when I woke up at 5:45 a.m., it was 100/56. I had changed my alarm in the middle of the night, forgetting I wanted to take a shower and do stuff. When I realized in the Quest parking lot that my appointment was for tomorrow and not today, my blood pressure was 111/73. So I came home, made coffee, had breakfast (see the brioche bagel at the end of this post) and my blood pressure dropped to 103/64 by 7:30 a.m.

I am trying to incorporate more of my stretches into my daily activities, especially when transitioning from standing to sitting and vice versa. My physical therapy is going very well, but I feel bad that I don’t keep up with it nearly enough at home, but I have so much on my mind with my hand, lingering bruising from the fall which I can’t believe it’s been a month, my blood pressure, and lightheadedness.

Luckily, I try to get to the gym between physical therapy appointments and I try to do balance exercises and finger stretches as part of my day-to-day.

Some random fun food stuff

Yesterday, the Teenager gave me $100 and asked if I could do her grocery shopping for her. Because it’s Easter week, a lot of her pet sitting clients need her. She has almost 20 visits a day most days. I went to Grocery Outlet and bought things I knew she would eat and from her list. For breakfast: muffins, Morningstar breakfast patties, Danish banana pancake balls (which are so good), brioche bagels, orange-pineapple juice, Cookie Crisp, milk. For lunch: salami rounds from Hillshire, snack packs of cheese and meat, precooked bacon, pepperoni sticks. For snacks: salad fixings, bananas, clementines, baby carrots, hummus, diet sodas, Dr. Pepper, and sweet tea. For quick dinners: ramen broth, spaghetti, pasta, red sauce, sliced black olives. My total came to $84. Teenager said she might send me grocery shopping all the time.

The banana pancakes are very good in the air fryer.

I had one of the brioche bagels. They are fiendishly soft and freakishly just a brioche with a hole in the middle.

Disability Update: Weight training, the warehouse job and unboxing of CBD cream

Angel Ackerman Leave a comment

A mish mash of disability related updates related to my life with cerebral palsy

I’m somewhere around week seven with my weight training with Apex Training and dreaming of a day when my stiff limbs might become those of a Paralympic powerlifting. I want to be a barbell athlete.

I missed Saturday’s session— I normally train 45 minutes on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. But I picked up an overtime shift at the Stitch Fix Bizzy Hizzy.

I told Dan, my very talented and diligent trainer, that I would do a home workout over the weekend. I did not. And the lack of long hours and the mix of chores and resting I did over the weekend meant that I was not tired nor was I sore for Tuesday’s workout.

And he says he went easy on me, but he had me doing incline bench presses with 25 pound dumbbells. Now, for comparison, about 4-5 years ago when I was lean and strong, I was just ready to make the jump to 25 pound dumbbells but I couldn’t afford to buy them.

That’s when the teenager and I joined Planet Fitness, which lasted until the pandemic. Almost two years.

Yesterday was upper body day at the gym. That’s probably a good thing as my premenstrual hormones left me so stiff today I couldn’t bend at the waist or walk well. It also might have been impacted by the severe thunderstorm we had.

But somehow I hit 129 in QC at work. 130 is goal. At 11:41 p.m. my supervisor stopped by for an observation. I told her I almost called out but I knew she had to see me on a bad day. But when I started folding the clothes, I hit 35 in the first two hours (goal would be 32.5). But then I slipped and only got to 64 by lunch (goal is 65).

By third break I was at 97, which is shockingly on point. And at 11:41, she rolls up with her laptop. I’m both relieved and terrified.

She needs to see my struggle.

The cart I was working in had 3 refixes— out of 8. I don’t know why they call them refixes. They are fixes that are messed up and need fixing. So I guess the fixes need to be fixed again.

It was arduous. I was tired, sore and stiff. I had two damaged items of clothing and I wondered if she would think I damaged them. (Yes, I know I am insecure. My therapist says I “sell [myself] short].”)

I QC’ed in my observation at a rate of 115%.

And my boss had a suggestion to alleviate my struggle.

When I hurt I need to ask for refix carts. Those are the fixes coming out of the refix department once they are corrected. They come boxed on top of the cart so I don’t need to bend to get them.

They really do want to help.

And finally…

A few weeks ago, I asked the teen how her dad’s arthritis was. He has a club hand, so his left hand does most of his daily tasks. As a result, he has bad arthritis between his thumb, wrist and forefinger.

Turns out, his mother gave him Charlotte’s Web CBD cream and he swears by it. So I ordered some. And I ordered the CBD Medic Arthritis Cream as well.

They arrived today. So I took a shower, suffered through the contorting needed to shave my legs, and upon return to my room, I slathered the Charlotte’s Web cream on the knot in my back. The relief was instant, and I don’t want to think it had anything to do with the gin and limoncello cocktail I am drinking.

More details to come on the creams but it is so nice to go to bed without pain. And I think the knot in my back is loose. But I also must remind you—cocktail.

Can I touch my toes?

Yes.

And I didn’t even bend my knees.

This might be the best thing since Epsom salt.

Sweet sleep

Angel Ackerman Leave a comment

It’s 6:25 a.m. and I just poured a mug of my favorite coffee—Archer Farms Cafe Mosaica from Target. I haven’t made any in days. As part of my quest to lower my stress, fix my blood pressure and start sleeping better.

Before recent stress and life changes, I knew the routines of my body. I need at least eight hours sleep. As I get closer to my menstrual cycle, I may need more. It is typical for me to get so tired I sleep ten hours without moving in my bed. Usually only one day a month. But that hasn’t happened in a while.

For counterpoint, I usually have three days around the middle of my cycle where I’m high energy and extraordinarily confident. That hasn’t happened for a while either.

Both can probably be attributed to stress and hormone changes now that I am in my mid-forties.

There was a period for a year or so when I had insomnia once a month.

But now most of my issue is life. I think that’s how you know you’re getting older. More things disturb your sleep,

The garbage man arrives at 5:15. The cat has a hairball. The kittens decide to ricochet off my bedroom door. My personal favorite this week— the cockatoo has nightmares and calls out gently in her sleep.

So my typical sleep pattern is to collapse in bed between 9 and 10:30 pm, sleep like the dead for about 90 minutes, take about twenty minutes to fall back to sleep, get several hours good sleep before waking up briefly in the wee hours, drifting off again, and waking up when something else happens or one minute before the alarm.

(My superpower is innate time sense so I don’t often need my alarm.)

Thanks to the cockatoo’s rough night coupled with a 5:15 am visit front the garbage man, I got about six hours interrupted sleep Wednesday night. So yesterday—a long work day on top of it—I reneged on my caffeine abstention especially when I discovered my blood pressure had jumped to 153/98.

I had two cups at the office and a diet soda with dinner (that I used to wash down half a pizza) and I slept 7.5 hours last night and, according to the scale, lost a pound.

So today I am enjoying my favorite coffee and back to aiming for moderation.