This is kind of a scary thing to comtemplate. Am I having heart problems? The answer is probably yes, but to what extant?

About a year ago I was in my bathroom. I had just finished shaving and I dropped the plastic head protector of my electric razor. I bent over to retreive it, stood up, and promptly dropped to my knees. My head was swimming. I felt like I was going to throw up. Only through an act of will did I retain consciousness.

My doctor diagnosed vasodepressor syncope. Basically, he said, there was nothing to do but let him know when it happened again (not even if it happened again, but when). He put me on a high sodium diet and told me to check back in six months.

I did, and he took me off the high sodium diet and suggested my blood pressure had improved so much, I was now at danger for high blood pressure.

Yippee!

I'm not on medication. Yet. I exercise regularly and I try to watch what I eat. Vegetables and I have never been friends, but I'm beginning to realize I will have to enact some kind of truce with them.

Yuck.

But yesterday morning I went to the gym, ran two miles on the treadmill and walked another half mile to cool down. Everything felt fine. I rinsed off in the shower and hopped into the whirlpool to try and relieve a pinched nerve in my neck. After only a few minutes in the tub I hopped back into the shower.

Now it gets scary.

I was washing my hair and all of a sudden I started to feel like I did at the onset of the vasodepressor syncope episode. I fought the sensation, but just felt odd and wobbly as I dried off.

Like an idiot, I drove to work (an hour and twenty-minute commute), only to realize I wanted to be home. So I drove back home. I told Jon I wasn't feeling well and went back to bed.

Today I'm feeling much better, though my blood pressure feels a little high to me, like I'm in a state of constantly blushing. The sensible part of me (which has a voice that sounds startling like my mother's) is yelling at me to call my doctor and set up an appointment. The less sensible part of me says to ride it out and see how it plays.

I'll let you know.