# Chateau de la Tobler

## Wednesday, August 20, 2008

### Health woes

OK, I am going to start at the beginning to catch everyone up on my life.
I think everyone in the family is familiar with the symptoms of low blood pressure. Cold hands and feet, and the slightly dizzy, graying feeling if you stand up too fast. Well, for the past several weeks I have noticed a few things. Mostly that the dizzy, graying out was starting to go to the extremes. It was happening every single time I stood up. Add to that that I actually had to sit back down several times to prevent more than just graying out. So I decided it was time for a doctor appointment. I went in yesterday and explained what was going on. They also managed to connect the increasing number of headaches I have been experiencing with this problem as well. Anyway, I guess there are quite a few things that could be causing these symptoms. High blood pressure as well as low blood pressure, artery clogs or anemia, etc. They decided to check on the low blood pressure first because that is what I had mentioned. They laid me down for five minutes, took my blood pressure, stood me quickly, and took it again. Apparently, my pressure dropped quite a bit when that happened, from 108 to 96, whatever that means! They took six of those vials of my blood and set up the first elimination tests. I guess they want to rule out the scariest of the possibilities first, so today I had a carotid artery ultrasound, which came out normal, so yea! The next step is a cardiologist. My appointment is Sept. 5, their first available appointment. I was actually thrilled to be in so soon, considering the retirement population in Phoenix, I think two weeks is not bad! I promise to keep everyone updated. For now, the best advice they could give me was to hang on to something when I stand up, and not to lean over to pick anything up, to squat instead!
Love ya all!

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