Archives for August 2008

Back in June I had a week or two where I was dizzy all the time. It happened mostly when I’d stand up from a lying or sitting position but sometimes I was dizzy even when I was lying down. I spoke with my doctor about it at the time (the pain doc) and she thought the dizziness might have been caused by a pinched nerve in my neck since the muscles on one side were really tight.

Well the dizziness is back again and I’m not convinced it’s coming from my neck. I’m thinking that it’s probably low blood pressure. When I was a teen I would get really dizzy every morning when I’d get out of bed. It didn’t help that I’d literally jump out of bed when my mom or dad would call me from downstairs to wake up and come and get breakfast. I’d jump up right into a standing position and promptly fall flat on my face! You’d think I’d learn to take it easy getting up after the first few falls, but it took a long time to learn to sit up slowly and then get up. Stupid teenager!

Good ol orthostatic hypotension!

Seeing as I’m a nurse I happen to have my own stethoscope and blood pressure monitor so I think I’m going to take my blood pressure a few times this week. Maybe even a few times a day – perhaps when I’m just sitting and then again if I stand up and feel dizzy. That will help answer whether it’s low blood pressure causing my dizziness or not.

Do you ever get dizzy for no apparent reason?

My dizziness might also be caused by my Crohn’s disease. I’m not sure how … but my Crohn’s has been acting up quite a bit lately so this might just be one more symptom to go along with the fevers, abdo pain and other nastier symptoms.

I hate being sick. I’d love just to have one day where I actually felt ok.