As you know, I’ve been falling a lot lately… Besides getting bumps, bruises, blood and chipped bones, and having to stop training for days, I got worried. Well, mostly upset, frustrated, and full of WTF?!?!?!?!
I am not distracted, slipping, tripping, I just PLOP. Big big mystery.
So, after going each episode over and over like a maniac, and noticing I never really knew I was falling until I was bracing for impact, I decided maybe my blood pressure was dropping too low. I have low blood pressure, and I like to run hungry…
I went to the cardiologist. He said he was sure I was fine as usual but he scheduled me for a stress echo so we could figure this out. They are HARD! Still, I passed with flying colors, got to 14 minutes and 190 bpms and my blood pressure actually went up when it was needed. That’s not it.
We then worried WTF, and I mentioned “someone” had mentioned falling is an early sign of MS (thank you anonymous blogger for that, you pushed me to get this all checked out!). He said I should go to a neurologist right away. He called his friend and had me visit him the next day, all the hassle scared me a bit.
Mr. Neurologist with the strangest office I’ve EVER seen asked me a trillion questions, did an electroencephalogram and told me “you have a beautiful brain!”. That wasn’t it either.
Mr. Cardiologist called me: “well, we decided we’re going to put you in a holter”, which is like a portable electrocardiogram you wear for 24 hours and don’t shower. He pops in and says “it’d be great if you could have another one of those episodes in the next 24 hours!” I asked how?? He said: you figure it out!
Well, so for the last 24 hours I did all the crazy things I could think of minus running, it was 22 degrees out and it’s not comfortable to run with this thing attached. I can’t wait to see his face reading this thingy.
Stay tuned…
runningandthecity 
Hope you get to the bottom of it soon! All the best, hoping it’s not serious and just a byproduct of being too fit.
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Definitely not too fit right now! But thanks, it’s quite annoying!!
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Liz that is so scary, please let me know if you need anything, help with groceries, a running/walking buddy whatever, I have a flexible schedule.
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Yes to a running buddy!!!!! I want to run, but I am THIS close to blaming the frigid weather for my falling!!! Thanks hon!
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What about inner ear/vestibular issues, or something related to sinus in some way. That could be sort of tilting you off balance and then you fall. Saw this piece and thought of i
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/science/where-has-my-equilibrium-gone.html?ref=science&_r=0
(I know my husband is having odd episodes of dizziness that we’re trying to figure out. Sometimes he gets queasy. I am having odd moments of queasiness only sometimes accompanied by dizziness. Not sure what his is, think mine is salt/electrolyte imbalance.)
Hope you get an answer soon!
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Interesting idea… I do have some mild vertigo, but it’s all over my family, they get sick in all sorts of moving things and stuff like that, it can definitely be something related to that. But I haven’t felt dizzy or anything like it, I just “unplug”…
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Hi, anonymous here 🙂
If your Holter doesn’t show anything, you might want to continue with the MS investigation. An EEG is done to catch seizure activity, which some with MS have, but most don’t. So maybe they were just looking for seizure activity in general.
My husband has MS. It can only really be diagnosed with an MRI of the brain (and spine, if the brain shows MS-type lesions). The first neurologist my husband went to said he was fine–that maybe had sleep deprivation! The second (and third) diagnosed him with MS after doing MRIs.
Anyway, I hope you get to the bottom of this soon! And that it turns out to be something totally non-serious.
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