That's Me!!!!

[Apolojedi (Daniel Eaton)]

This is a bit self-serving, but I'm excited to find this and wanted to share it. I've mentioned a couple of times that I'm disabled. My brother-in-law saw this and contacted me saying it sounded just like me. It was! The Mystery Diagnosis show on Discovery Channel recently aired an episode on the condition that I have. Luckily, I found the very doctor interviewed in this episode, partly with the help of the organization/web site that this lady set up, and spent two weeks as his research patient there at Vanderbilt where I was officially diagnosed. Watch the episode here (about 20-minutes total):
Part One
Part Two

Luckily, I have never actually passed out. By the time I was strong enough to get up and move around after this suddenly hit me, I knew enough about my condition to immediately sit or lay down when things started going black. When it first hit, it was kinda like this lady's lawn-mower story. I was too weak to stand or walk for three days. Slowly got some better, as long as I didn't stay up very long. This lady's symptoms developed during puberty. It's a lot more common with young women that age. That is one reason why the researchers at Vanderbilt was so interested in me. It is rare that it comes on suddenly and out of the blue like it did with me, and rare that it hits people of my age and gender. The doctor said it also seemed to make me weaker than most patients with this. I also found it interesting that they talk about this lady's heart rate going up by 30 bpm or so. Mine goes up by that amount at a minimum. It has actually gone up by as much as 70-75 bpm (virtually doubling my resting heart rate) when I don't stay hydrated or am up too long (like a shower long enough to shave).

Interestingly enough, I saw an episode of Mythbusters the other day that accurately reflected what happens to me. I get "tunnel vision" sometimes and things start going dark, particularly if I am too hot and walking. They graphically represented that on the show as an example of what happened when you are in a fighter jet and pull too many G's and your blood leaves your head and goes to your feet. As soon as they showed the tunnel vision thing, I said "That's Me!" Made sense when they then said what caused it.

Anyway, this is of great interest to me. Probably not so much to anyone else. Thought I'd pass it on though just in case. :) You can even humor me and watch the video if you want. LOL

Daniel