What happened to me last night??!

you can read about orthostatic hypotension here:  http://www.medicinenet.com/orthostatic_hypotension/article.h tm

 

I checked my blood pressure and it was 110/68, which is normal for me.  But my pulse was only 50, which seems rather low. I'm still feeling a tiny bit light headed when I'm upright and walking.  I probably will call my doctor on Monday just to play it safe.

Try checking it when standing and lying down. 

Is your urine dark yellow or amber? 

Some Signs of Dehydration:
dry mouth
tiredness
headache
dizziness
muscle weakness
skin doesn't bounce back when pinched

 It's yellow, but not amber.  My mouth has been unusually dry this week, but I thought it was because I turned the furnace on and it is forced hot air, which is very drying.  But my mouth has been so dry at times that it gets hard to talk without taking a break to take a sip of water or put some gum in my mouth.  Super dry mouth.  Also, I have noticed that my facial skin seems more fragile, paper thin and easily abraded and bruised.  But my skin does bounce back ok when pinched.

I just read the Medicine.net guide to dehydration. It could be that I am dehydrated.  I will increase my fluids.  Thank you for your concern and help.

Kathy 

I had a similar experience a couple of times.....though probably not as bad. It happened two days in a row, then never again. It was suggested to me that it could be dehydration, but I wonder about that. I've never been dehydrated in my life, so why now? Do we actually malabsorb water (I heard that once)? I really think mine was a fluke blood sugar thing. Hope it doesn't happen to you again!

There have been a few times in my life I can remember being a bit light headed after standing up in the heat of summer, and I'm pretty sure that is a sign you need more water, but that's about it.  I will increase my fluid intake and see if things improve. I seem to have a lot of the symptoms of dehydration that Prancer listed.  I have not been pushing water as much as I'm supposed to, so I might as well increase my intake and see what happens.  It can only help in other ways anyway.  

I don't know about malabsorbing water!  The nuts, nurses and surgeons sure seem to preach the sip sip sip mantra. Now I'm curious about why we need so much more.

I kind of hope my incident was related to the sugar.  I want to have physical reactions to the foods that could make me fat again!  I need a consequence.  I haven't dumped yet.  Have you?

It definately sounds like dehydration to me.  If it were hypoglycemia you would have still had the symptoms while sitting.  Bet you solve this with forcing the fluids.  Let us know.  It must have been scary....sorry it happened to you.

Jane,
I think you hit the nail on the head. I have been pushing fluids since yesterday and I have not had any more light headedness.  You and Prancer were right on.  It did not even occur to me because I was too quick to connect my symptoms to the sugar in the kettle corn.  It was definitely scary and something I will take seriously from now on!  Thanks for your help.
Kathy