Think of you often.
And so appreciate the updates.
A virtual smile and hug to you and your husband.
You will continue to be in my thoughts.
1 Like
Ok, the hospitalist who finally saw me at 8:00 pm released me saying that he thinks my big problem was maybe low salt or a migraine. He is another doctor making a guess. I asked him again why I collapsed on the treadmill and he said well maybe you need a Pacemaker if you are going to be doing exercise.
I felt like this doctor,who has been listening to strangers all day, missed every other word I said. I have been ready to go home since the last blood test was run at 5:00 am. Man, I was much more impressed with the two other hospitalists I met here. They rotate.
He said that it doesn’t happen often but some people have confusion problems with migraines. I had 3 different migraines several years ago. I saw auras and had pain but never had any confusion.
I would rather it have been a migraine than a TIA, even though what I experienced matches what the Mayo Clinic says except for the drooping mouth.
This all is so darn confusing. Weirdest migraine I ever had. Anyone here get migraines? Do you lose your ability to speak, understand and use an insulin device before the pain sets in?
I used to get migraines from the age of about 5 until menopause. In my 20’s it was sometimes 5 days a week. My whole family got them except for my Dad, so obviously we inherited them from our mom.
Sure auras, sometimes, rarely in my case. Mostly I would have issues with depth perception, I would get phenomenal hearing. nauseated, light and noise would bother me and misc other things.
However never did my mom, my sisters, my brother or me be able to lose any actual abilities to do anything. We might not have wanted to, it might have been painful but we could actually do whatever was required. I worked all through my 20’s with constant migraines that as soon as I would get home after work I would shut myself in a dark room with a pillow over my head and take pain medication.
It might be harder to concentrate, but not actual confusion. We certainly could always talk.
Now given that, that’s our family. I have known a few people that used to get them too, but never confusion and not being able to speak that I know of. But I guess I wouldn’t know if other people have had those symptoms?
Red wine
Marilyn,
It sounds like people are still struggling to understand what’s been happening.
Regarding the episode of decreased level of consciousness you had the other day, whether it was a migraine or something else, can you live for the time being without knowing exactly what it was, but remain open to piecing it together gradually? Did anyone think it could be a particular type of seizure?
It won’t be surprising for you to read this, but I continue to hope you will be able to see a good endocrinologist, as I feel that endocrinology, maybe in conjunction with cardiology, is the specialty that can put the pieces in place together with and for you the best.
Saying something was caused by low sodium is unsatisfactory. Why the low sodium? They still need to drill down to root causes, which can be done.
The talk about cholesterol in the face of some clear cardiac imaging tests didn’t really compute in my mind. You have been having acute episodes lately – so the talk about statins just didn’t seem to match up with the remedy. I mean, statins may be warranted, but what’s been causing these mini crises? Lack of statins? If they say yes, ask how so.
Again, me in your shoes – I’d be researching topnotch endos, and the tests that I’d need to run. And something else - can you request that the cardiology appt you have for later this month now be bumped up? That is, if it is still needed and wanted.
Hopefully the heart monitor will give someone some needed input to work with.
Best of luck, and thanks for keeping us posted.
4 Likes
Marilyn - glad to hear you’ve finally been discharged.
With respect to what the 3rd hospitalist told you (the one you suspected was just making a guess and being dismissive), I’d remind you that doctors are no different than lawyers: Get 10 of them in a room and you’ll have 10 different diagnoses.
Stroke symptoms that are different from migraine include:
- Face drooping
- Uneven or lopsided smile
- Difficulty speaking or slurred speech
- Sudden confusion or difficulty understanding speech
- Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
- Sudden loss of balance or coordination, or trouble walking
1 Like
Hi Senator,
I don’t understand why I would want to see an endocrinologist at this time. I saw one about 5-6 yrs because my then GP wasn’t at all comfortable with how low I kept my A1c. It was about 5 at that time.
The endo was very impressed with my diabetes control and health. What could an endo do for me? I will be trying to see a
Neurologist, cardiologist, and nephrologist but an endo? I don’t understand what I am missing.
I have to be ok with all of this taking a long time to figure out. Specialists are few and far between unless I go to Seattle or Portland, and with an elderly dependent dog, it is very hard to get away.
One good thing about the “migraine” with extreme confusion, it seems to have taken away the rolling lightheadedness I had experienced earlier in the week.
For now I going to work on feeling calm and being happy. I am so glad to be back home.
Believe me I would move up the cardiologist appointment if at all possible. These medical professionals are swamped
.
Really?
Senator, no, thank YOU for reading and commenting. I wouldn’t be putting my experiences out here if it didn’t serve me well. Writing helps me work my mind around all these odd things that are happening to me. I feel somewhat selfish posting here, but I love the ideas and warmth expressed to me. It helps me feel less frightened.
No, no one has mentioned seizures.
I received all kinds of welcome and unwelcome advice from the hospital staff.
My glucose levels were on a bit of a rollercoaster without being in charge of my own insulin. I was quizzed endlessly about my diabetes and my cholesterol levels.
A 70 reading was considered dangerously low. I hated having to ring and wait to have my insulin pen brought to me, but since during the “event” I had no idea what an insulin pen was, I really couldn’t fight with them about keeping my insulin.
I was told that my diabetes needed to be controlled better. I was supposed to be at 100 at all times. I know a couple of the people here have achieved that but with stress, different food, no insulin for corrections, little exercise, very little sleep I couldn’t come close. Also I like my level in the 80’s and I don’t mind it rising after meals as long as I am back down to 140 within 2 hrs.
An impossible task for a T1.
Hi Jim,
Some of those symptoms fit my experience and some didn’t.
Yes, with doctors there is a lot of room for error and some are very bright and some just aren’t. I have walked away from several.
Truth!
But a endo isn’t just for the diabetes, although nowadays that is probably a majority of their patients. They study the whole endocrine system and the hormones that are released to control different functions.
" Hormones regulate metabolism, respiration, growth, reproduction , sensory perception, and movement . Hormone imbalances are the underlying reason for a wide range of medical conditions."
Hypothalamus and possibly adrenals etc could really play a part in how you feel, energy, movement etc The link above gives a good description.
I think the @The_Senator_From_Glu might have a good point because no one else has figured out what is wrong. There are all sorts of weird things that can happen from some of the hormone glands going wrong. Look what menopause does to some of us!!!
I know it’s difficult, it’s just maybe a possibility.
1 Like
My thyroid condition and diabetes are well controlled. Insomnia rears it’s ugly head occasionally. My brain gets in gear if I wake up in the early morning and I have trouble shutting it down. I am vigilant of my surroundings perhaps because of being dx so young, or perhaps because I had a very ill child for 2 decades. I have difficulty relaxing. So could an endo help with that?
I have a slew of docs I have to see. I will add endo to the list if I can find a good one. I am beginning to think I should go to a famous health center of some kind.
Meanwhile i got myself into a nephrologist fairly nearby in about 2 weeks. They can sort my problems with electrolytes and kidneys.
Sorry, I know I am pushing back at people.My family has been through so much in the last 4 decades that I can’t really believe that all this is happening. We do everything right. We can’t seem to get a break. Nothing has killed us yet though, so we are more fortunate than many.
My husband keeps telling me that if I hadn’t worked so hard our family members would be in terrible shape, and I wouldn’t be in such good health. Well I was until June anyway.
Whine, whine whine
4 Likes
Marilyn6. My husband wondered why I was snorting, I read him the following.
“I was told that my diabetes needed to be controlled better. I was supposed to be at 100 at all times.”
4 Likes
Drinking can be a slippery slope so not trying to recommend it, but, yes there does seem to be some kind of HDL-increasing effect from red wine. So it may boost the ‘good’ cholesterol. Lots of ‘mights’ in this article though: Red wine and resveratrol: Good for your heart? - Mayo Clinic
Good luck with the TIA situation. Dealing with all the medical apts and uncertainty and the focus on health can be exhausting but sounds like you’ve got it well sussed.
1 Like
Snorting what? Coke? 
3 Likes
Yes, regarding seeing the endocrinologist, Marie’s got what I was after, very generally. The low sodium, for example, may be related to a hormonal issue. At any rate, it’s great you’re going to see a nephrologist, and two weeks is like 2 days in doctor time. I would be unpleasantly surprised if, after telling the cardiologist that you’d recently been hospitalized for cryin out loud for what was originally thought to be a TIA, he/she didn’t bump you up. Oh well, it’s so easy for me to type that in, isn’t it?
Regarding your recent hospitalizations and the focus on BG and cholesterol - well, I’ll put it this way, my mind definitely goes other places. Your BG control seems fine and while cholesterol may or may not be something to tackle, in the short term I don’t see how it accounts for the recent urgent problems, but obviously I do not have nearly the same information in front of me that your recent doctors do.
2 Likes
@Marilyn6 I’m so glad you’re home and I’ll continue to send good thoughts and prayers your way that you get this all sorted out in short order!
3 Likes
The doctor saw very, very few of my glucose readings. He was alarmed by the reading of 70. Normal for me, alarming to him. He didn’t want anything below 100. He was impressed with my low A1c’s but considered 70 way too low. I don’t agree.
It was very hard for the staff not to believe that the incident that brought me into the hospital wasn’t hypoglycemia.
If I am not hypoglycemic at 70, I am certainly not at 122.
My GP can fit me in because he knows me. I will see if he will call the cardiologist’s office and try to get me in. I could get into the cardiologist I saw after the treadmill fall, but he wasn’t concerned with the report and just figured I was dehydrated. I wasn’t impressed.
The cardiologist who wrote the report is about 2 hrs away and is in a busy practice. I will become a new patient.
The dx from the hospital is an unusual migraine.
1 Like