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I struggled with low blood pressure my whole life. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but I also struggled with tachycardia (too rapid heart rate) my whole life as well. The two issues combined were a recipe for hypovolemic shock. When I went into hypovolemic shock, we called it bottoming out. It was one of the reasons I was admitted to the hospital so frequently.

“Any time you know you’re bottoming out, that’s an automatic 911 call”. Dr Oster had told me.

I could always tell when I had low blood pressure and a high heart rate and was going into shock. My skin would turn bluish-gray and I would alternate between having chills and hot flashes. The world would start trying to pin me down. Exhaustion would overwhelm me along with a pull towards the darkness of the unconscious.

No matter where I was when the low blood pressure hit, I would have to call for an ambulance. If I was at home it wasn’t the biggest deal in the world, but if I was in an embarrassing place it was awful. Pretty much anywhere in public fell under the category of an embarrassing place. The more people around, the more embarrassing it was. Sometimes I would need to call an ambulance from art class. Other times I would be at the mall or the park with friends.