Vertigo...POTS...But There Aren't Any Pans

Last week was my appointment with the ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) doctor to find out the story behind my vertigo. My surgeon figured that I had Ménière's Disease (a disorder of the inner ear that causes spontaneous episodes of vertigo along with fluctuating hearing loss, ringing in the ear, and sometimes a feeling of fullness or pressure in your ear.)--something that had been ruled out years ago. Another thought was Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (the sudden sensation that you're spinning or that the inside of your head is spinning)--something else that had been ruled out years ago. Or it could just be plain ol' fashioned vertigo. It was just a matter of getting the ENT's opinion. 

After explaining to the doctor that there are no hearing changes--she used her little device that rings and she checked if I could tell where sounds were coming from--telling her about my fluctuating blood pressure (two weeks prior, within twenty minutes I had two appointments, my blood pressure went from 120/75 to 95/75. Normal numbers, but a significant drop), having her lie me back and tilting my head from side to side and watching for the reaction of my eyes, and then sitting up and tracking my eyes. She looked in my ears and declared them "beautiful" and that my vertigo-like symptoms are not from my ears, but sounds more like something related to my blood pressure, something postural, like something called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). 

With this new suspicion comes mere doctors and new tests--YAY! The ENT says that I need to most likely have a tilt table test to see how my body reacts to the changes in location and all that. If it is POTS, then my blood pressure and heart rate will be all over the place--at least that's my understanding. If it is POTS, I don't think that there's anything they can do for me. It's just one more thing on the list of strange illnesses Christine has. While my blood pressure is still, technically, considered normal, it's weird that it fluctuates so much. 

I don't understand why I have these strange illnesses that cannot be cured, cannot really be treated, but can only be monitored. But I don't have to understand it. If it try to, I'll go crazy. The only thing I have to know or understand is that God's got this. He's got a purpose, a reason behind it and I've just got to trust in Him. It's difficult sometimes--no lie--but He'll get me through.