Does This Sund Like A First Pots Crash?

[ana_22]

Well if you have read my previous post, im waiting to have a TTT, and i guess im getting a little anxious as to whether my condition is not POTS, because if this is not POTS then after many blood/urine/stool tests, ct's, ultrasounds mri's, im not too sure where im going to go to NEXT!

SO it happened on a Thursday afternoon, i was at a shopping centre all of the sudden my visual field went blurry and started moving from side to side, i felt as if i was going to faint, so i sat down. Luckily a friend was with me and proceeded to get me water and some food. After not feeling better, she drove me home, there i still felt the dizziness and afew hours later i started getting flushed with feelings of hot and cold and my heart was racing. I called my sister who took me to emergency, who diagnosed a UTI (if only it was going to be that simple).

Over that weekend the dizzyness constitantly persisted, so did a high HR (90-115) then came the no appetite and feelings of nausea and urinating everything i put in my body. This is also the weekend my insomnia started.

FIVE days after the innitial episode i saw my family DR, who was shocked as i was severly dehydrated (eventhough i was drinking 2litres+ per day and anorexic (i had lost 4 kilos off an already slight frame) She sent me off to get IV fluids and then thats when the gazzilions of tests started.

Since then (its been 3.5 months) i have dizziness on a daily basis (sometimes watching tv makes me dizzy), feelings of being unsteady on my feet, feelings of the ground or things moving around me, find it hard to read or concentrate, blurry vision, nasea all the time, have not had an appetite for 3.5 months, an inner tremor most days, insomnia, numbness on the top of my head sometimes, frequent urination which now looks like its turning into hesitation!, a constant dehydrated white tongue, weak legs, muscle twitches every where, a higher resting heart rate (80-95 sitting).

Doing things like showering or going for a walk to get the newspaper became almost impossible, and for the first 2 months i was almost always in bed as the dizziness and nasea were unbareble. (they still are but i make it to the couch most days!) i figured out i felt much better lying down than upright.

What made my cardiologist think i may be pots (apart from exhausting all otherr tests) is that my standing HR would be 95-115. So we booked the TTT, which we had to wait 1 month for. Within that month when checking my HR it doesnt seem that high anymore even though my symptoms are still there in full force.

Now keeping all this in mind: QUESTION: the other day i had managed to walk to the supermarket and saw a friend, i stood and spoke to her for about 15 minutes, at the end of the 15 minutes i felt very hot, like i was going to pass out and my heart was beating very fast, i had to quickly sit down. THis also happened to me the next day at the chiropractor while i had to stand very still for 10 minutes while he was taking an exray.

SO getting to the question. with POTS are you always tachy on upright position? can the amount of time till you get tachy on upright position increase over time?

Thanks for reading and sharing your responses!

BTW im a 28 year old female.

[MightyMouse]

Has it been warm and humid where you live? That can make you vasodialated and more symptomatic than usual--during days like we're having now, I can only be in the warm temp a few minutes and I feel like I've run a marathon, on a very badly rocking boat --unsteady, dizzy, sick to my stomach, vision greying out, etc. Take a look at the typical symptoms of POTS on the main DINET site and you'll see that much of what you described appears to be a symptomatic episode.

Also, look at the list of things to avoid on the DINET main site b/c possibly you were doing some of those-- things like standing for long periods, bathing or taking a hot shower, being out in very warm weather, etc.

[Ernie]

Hi,

Depending on the severity of your case, you don't have to be tachy every time you stand up to have POTS.

[nunibenuni]

I have POTS and I don't get tachy every time I stand up. And the weather really effects me. My POTS is worse on hot, humid days and it is also worse when I'm under stress. It totally depends on the severity of your case.

[masumeh]

DId your docs try an adrenal function test yet? Sounds like your salt wasting (i.e. peeing every drop of water out for no particular reason) is really severe and causing a lot of secondary sypmtoms due to dehydration (i.e. nausea, muscle cramps, can be from simple dehydration). Maybe what you have is POTS. But maybe it is Addison's Disease. To check this, they give you a shot of a hormone that the brain produces (ATC), and take blood three times to test the reciprocal hormone released from the adrenal glands (cortisol).

You will probably need florinef to hold some fluids in, whether you are a POTSer or an Addisonian.

HOpe you get answers and help soon!