I'm not looking forward to the tilt table test on Monday.  From what I've heard about it, the testee gets electrodes placed on their chest (not sure if they get put anywhere else), has a blood pressure cuff on and an IV in (loves the IVs!).  Then they lay down on a table and get strapped in place so they can't move.  Strap across the chest and legs, and arms and head too.  That in itself isn't sounding good.  I don't the feeling when I can't move.  The difference from the MRI is that I won't be encased like a sausage.


     Once the strapping is done, the table is moved so the testee is in an upright position.  The table is tilted to different angles.  Blood pressure is taken and the electrodes are read.  The reason that everything is strapped down is twofold.  One is kind of obvious.  If the table is tilted forward, no one wants the testee falling face-first onto the floor.  The other is with conditions like the one I'm being tested for, people will subconsciously move - foot tapping, leg crossing or jiggling, little things - that help keep the blood flowing which helps to regulate the blood pressure.  If you're strapped in place, you can't do that.  So during the test the testers are watching to see, both through the results coming from the electrodes and blood pressure, and well....if someone flat out faints, what symptoms the person has, both from postural (not moving) and positional (the table tilting).  There can be other effects - vomiting, dizziness, vertigo, headaches - nothing new but all can be more severe.


     The test is supposed to take 90 minutes.  I've heard that if you faint, they stop the test.  Part of me is hoping that I just faint right away so I won't have to go through 90 minutes of medieval torture.  Another part thinks that maybe other results might come from the test.


     I talked to someone at my doctor's office today and both my doctor and his assistant have been on vacation for two weeks and just got back.  They haven't got to my MRI results yet, so I get to wait until my appointment next Friday.  I figure if it's not important enough for anyone to look at or make a priority, it's going to be nothing or I get to add yet another pill to the daily pile.  I'd rather it be nothing, for obvious reasons and because the pills are getting to be damned expensive.