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Question from Doc Got me thinking


blackwolf

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I had a Doc ask me if I had any trouble exercising as a child or growing up. It got me to thinking, Why? I never liked to run, but could. I would however, prefer to take a rotation in the weight room. Does any one now why they might ask this?

Mostly just curious. The only exercising I so now iis light weights and swimming. To cold for that right now, here in South Dakota the HIGHS are upper 60's and low 70's. I can't say I don't like it, in fact it's perfect. But it is August, it should be upper 80's low 90's. Our corn looks down right yucky.

Woops rambling again. :P

Blackwolf

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I don't know why your doc would ask this, but I definitely had crappy exercise tolerance growing up. I often would not be able to finish the 600-yard run we were required to do when I was in fifth grade. 600 yards isn't even that far. I never gave much thought to it, but I guess I have lately because of my health problems. I am guessing maybe it gives the doctor insight into possible cardiovascular issues.

Amy

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Exercise intolerance is a common POTS symptom. If you were talking about your health history and s/he were trying to assess how long you've been suffering from POTS symptoms, s/he would likely have asked if you had that particular symptom growing up. (I remember that this topic was part of my initial interview with a cardiologist; I've had exercise intolerance all my life, or starting in my teens--tho I wasn't dianosed for 30-some years.)

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I couldn't handle the heat at all...not since I was a baby.

BUT...I could exercise at least until I hit the "wall" and then I was completely spent. I did have a ton of energy, probably all that epiniphrine surging through me until a certain point and then I was just done...end of exercise for that day.

As for the heat, I remember being more sensitive to that than any of my siblings. Before AC was common in cars, I would sit in the back seat and beg my dad to open all the windows when we were driving. It now makes much more sense to me why I used to cry about going in the outside in hot weather...and why I used to dream of swimming pools :P

Nina

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How strange... My sister and I were discussing just last week how I always seemed tired even as a child. Our Dad was a basketball coach so naturally we were all expected to participate in sports. I was so "lazy" it was a joke in high school that I could shoot a basket from almost half court; that way I didn't have to run all the way to the end of the court!

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I never could run "the mile" in middle school or high school, I always just ran a little and tired out and walked the rest of it, coming in last...I never even thought of this as being a possible cause for my bad grades in gym class. Hmmm.....

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that is really interesting!

i was the same with running as many of you...i would get side aches...and when i pushed it to run "the mile" for the presidential fitness award...well, i puked at the end.

my dad sooo wanted me to be more into sports...

i needed a LOT of sleep always too...but i managed to get through college until it hit like a brick wall....

but my endurance was definitely never that of my friends!

emily

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For me, a more pertinent question would have been, did you have average ENDURANCE? I was able to run or do things but my stamina was not average and I seemed to require more of a recuperation period from normal life than other people did. That did not stop me from living a normal life up until 2 years ago. What I am saying is, if I had the beginning of POTS from, say age 11 (change of life) up until recently being diagnosed at 51 years old, the effects did not impact me in any great way. But, looking back on everything, my stamina was below average and I seemed to require more sleep. I have mentioned this to some of my current physicians and to Dr. Goldstein who does the NIH study I'm in. There may be something to it. Someday they'll piece it all together.

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I guess I'm not quite like what the rest of you describe...

I could run, and run, and run... I was slower than everyone else, but I could go longer. I was a distance runner, 5 and 10k races until my 20's. However, after every race, I would be wiped out for days and sleep 10 to 12 hours easily...and need naps too. I suppose it's very telling of my personality that I would plug along even though my body was saying STOP!!!!!

I can't say that running was EVER easy or effortless--actually, it was gruelling and the first 1/2 mile I always felt like I was going to die as the adrenline rush from the start of the race wore off and my body would ache everywhere. I'd have all the classic symptoms of the "coat hanger" phenomenon that some ANS docs speak of--a feeling of crushing ache in my neck and shoulders. I can't say that the sensation ever completely went away during the races I ran, I just learned to ignore it and keep going.

As I got older, it would take me longer to recover from even what was a short race for me (5k=3.2 miles). By the time I hit 22 or 23, I had to stop running competetively as I would get really sick afterword, needing much sleep and often getting something akin to a flu like feeling that would last for a few days.

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I also had exercise intolerance as a child. It was mild, but I never excelled at sports, much to my father's frustration. I remember in elementary school the only one of the physical fitness tests I could come in at at an above-average level was "sit-ups"--I guess now they're called abdominal cruches. Whenever we went hiking as a family, my parents have told me I always complained about being tired. (In fact, I remember them comparing me to my 18-month younger sister, who was "so much more hardy and not a complainer"--I took it like a personal attack--it never occured to them or me that there could be an underlying physical explanation for it.) I was ok at running longer distances--never had problems with the mile and a half run in high school--but horrible at sprints and horrible at basketball or anything like that.

I've thought about that in relation to POTS and do believe there is a connection--in that, I probably always had POTS at some level, it was just not detected or detectable.

Katherine

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Guest Julia59

I could never run long distances, but I could dance. I remember my 7th grade teacher was doing a health project with the whole 7th grade class. Part of it was measuring our pulse. This was done in a lying down position. She took mine and consulted with the nurse there. My pulse was always high. But I don't remember being very symptomatic until my 20s. Even then my symptoms were mostly mild and the main symptom was always tachycardia and IBS.

I don't suppose all my partying antics helped in my younger years. I'm sure it just aggrivated things all the more.

Right now I can't even dream of running. I try to walk, but it has been difficult lately. Exercise intolerance seems to be part of many forms of dysautonomia.

I'm not clear on the reason why this is though----meaning many different factors can mess with out ability to exercise. I do know one woman who continued to run long distances after being diagnosed with POTS---but her HR was way beyond normal. It really ***** when I have adreanaline surges from ****---but yet I can't exercise. It's more or less a living ****. I'm one who likes to push also--just like Nina. I'll usually push until i'm ready to drop. I stay pretty active, but I just don't have the ability to do any kind of Aerobic exercise---not much more then 5 min. if that. Before, I could at least speed walk up to about 3.5 miles, and I could dance for around a half hour, and also stair step. This all ended in Dec. 2000.

Even though I stay active, i'll get exausted just going to the grocery store. I guess it depends on what kind of day i'm having. Some days are better then others allowing me to run errands, and keep up the house and i'll not feel too bad the same night. But lately i'm having a bad run of things---just a wiped out feeling.

Discouraging.

Julie :0)

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Interesting idea and one I have wondered about.

Before my body totally gave out I put myself on a diet and started jogging for the first time. I lost 18 pounds and experienced a big increase in energy but although I "jogged" faithfully every other day for over three months, I was never ever able to go farther than one mile--and it took me 15 minutes!

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Guest veryblue

Ha now this is my topic. When I was a kid, you cound not wear me out! I had an abundance of energy. I played baseball with the boys and was an all star for 4 years (9,10,11,12 years old) I also played soccer. At lunch time at school I would play football, come home and go to baseball pactice and then run out and play soccer with the boys on my street. Oh and then I went to bed at midnight. In middle school, I we had a one mile race I took second both years...1st time was 7:16 and the next year 6:32. I was fast and had too much energy. The same thing happened in high school. I played club soccer and tennis in the fall, basketball in the winter and softball in the spring and travel softball in the summer. I never slept much...I would say in high school and college I got about 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night, and still played sports and got straight A's. In college I play soccer, but I lost my scholarship now and only play softball cuz its not as much running. So you can see how devestating POTS (or whatever it is) is to someone like me. I love sports, riding bikes, surfing...just being active and I was active right up until the day I was hit with whatever it is I have. Hopefully this will all go away and I will be back to my wild and crazy self again.

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Veryblue, you sound a lot like me, I was a work-a-holic. I had a fulltime CNA/Med-Aid position in a nursing home about 30 miles away from where we lived. I worked nites and evenings when needed, 7 to 12 hour shifts, 4 to 7 nites aweek. I also has 2 part time jobs, one cleaning a laundromat 3 times a week and the other cleaning and minor maintance for some appartments(3 buildings with 8 app. each) in the town we lived by. My husband and I also "subsistance farmed" we grew enough food for ourselves and our livestock. We had chickens, rabbits, a few milk cows(we milked by hand), and 2 mares and a stallion for breeding and riding. We had about 3+ achres in garden plots and about 2 more in hay and small grains, we did all the work with a small tiller and by hand, LOVED IT! Over the period of about 2+ months, I was barely able to make it around the house.

Blackwolf

P.S. I was never fast, but I got the job done in a reasonable amount of time.

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Guest veryblue

My symptom was one night when I came home from school and basketball practice, I was just watching TV (ER of all things :) and my heart stared beating 200 BPM! See this just hit me over a second. I had no clue up until that time!

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I was the one everybody always told, "I don't know where you get all your energy. Just hearing about your schedule wears me out!" I guess I had an overabundance of adrenaline but my body handled it well back then. I thrived on being busy and loved every minute of it.

As I got older, I would have bouts of lesser energy lasting days to weeks. They became more severe and more frequent until finally about 3 years ago I was nearly debilitated with chronic fatigue for months. Yet, typical of my stubborn personality, I wouldn't give in and just kept pushing myself - a full-time job plus 3 part-time jobs and I couldn't call in sick. Of course, I didn't know about dysautonomia at that time (POTS is not my main problem, although I do have the low BP, inability to stand very long, etc.). If I should ever again get that sick, I don't think I could keep going as I did the last time.

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Veryblue, I was sick in almost the very same way, it was overnite, two anyway. I was a work(Cert nursing aid) and felt like my heart was going to pound right out of my chest. It was going to fast to count, the pulse/oxsimator said 220. I thought I was going to die. It lasted for 2 hours and I ended up in the local hospital for 3 days. It happened about 6 more times. After I went home I just felt like I had been hit by a car. A few days later, I started the fainting and racing heart rate. Opps, rambling again.

Blackwolf

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