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Teenagers
with Chronic Illnesses A website for teens and young adults with chronic illnesses |
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The Tilt Table Test Now, those of you who have never had a tilt table test (TTT), are probably thinking, what the heck is she talking about!? Furthermore, those have experienced a TTT, but DON'T have NMH, POTS, etc, are probably thinking, oh come on, I've had one of those! It's a piece of cake! No Sweat! Bring it On! First of all, let me explain what a TTT is. What happens, is that you go into a little room where there are a bunch of monitors and machines, and one nurse. In the center there is a table. Your parents aren't allowed to stay in the room with you, because they want you to have no other distractions. But, the TTT isn't scary or anything, and the nurses are all usually really nice, so you have nothing to worry about- You go into this room, not really knowing what to expect. You change out of your clothes and into a hospital gown. I wasn't going to change into one at first, but she told me it was probably a good idea- Which later turned out to be a very good thing. So you get dressed and lie down on this table. You are then hooked up to machines that monitor your heart rate, blood pressue, etc. You lie there for a couple minutes just to breath and relax, so that they can get your normal heart rate and blood pressure. Sort of as a starting line. So after taking those things, the nurse then puts velcroe straps around your chest, legs, stomach, etc, and then she goes and sits behind a computer at the other end of the room. All of the machines that are monitoring me, run into the computer as well, so that all of the data gets sent into there to check at the end. Now, the nurse presses a button, which raises the table up almost so that I am standing straight up, but not completely. On my TTT, just from her pressing that button and making me go from a lying down to standing position, my heart rate went from about 70 to 154. So, now all you are doing is just standing up, and you can't move at all, you just have to stand still. As time goes on, you tell the nurse symptoms or other things that you start to feel. She types all of that into the computer. In my TTT it was so amazing, because all of the symptoms that I had been feeling for the past 6 months were being re-produced! My legs got purple and itchy, my feet started to feel like knives were being put in them, I got VERY nauseous, I thought I was going to throw up, and I got very very dizzy, lightheaded, and tired. I also got very very hot and sweaty, I mean I was practically DRIPPING with sweat (attractive, huh?) So, its a good thing that the nurse made me put on a gown! After only 15 minutes of standing there like this, the room started to spin, and everything went black. I could hear the nurses voice in the background saying, "It's okay Lauren, I'm right here with you..." But it felt sort of like I was in a dream, or in a tunnel or somehting...it's sort of hard to explain. I didn't feel like I was actually in my body, I just felt like I was floating somewhere in the room, hearing the nurses voice. The next thing that I remember, is that the table started going down really fast, until I was lying down again, but my head was a little lower. I started coming to. I didn't actually faint, but I was like RIGHT there on the edge, like one more second and I would have been gone! But, i had a really nice nurse, who stopped me right before i passed out, and she fixed the table so that the blood would go back up to my head. It turns out that my blood pressure went from normal, which is about 120/80 to 70/40. That is a HUGE drop, considering the fact that all I did was stand there for less than 15 minutes. THe fact that my blood pressure went so low, was a positive NMH reaction, and the fact that my heart rate went so fast so quick, was a positive POTS reaction. After the TTT is over, they sit you down in a really comfy recliner chair that rolls around on wheels, they then wheel you into a consult room, hook you up to a saline IV, give you some salty crackers and a sandwhich to eat, and you wait until this nurse comes in to explain the results of the test to you, show you all the data from the computer, and tell us what comes next. That's pretty much the gist of it! Ok, just reading about the TTT, doesn't give it justice, its awful, horrible, TERRIBLE, and I never want to have to go through that EVER again! It's like my doctor said, "if you DONT have NMH, then it will be the easiest test ever, and you will probably fall asleep, but if you DO have NMH, it will be the WORST test of your life!" |