Do You Think This Is Progressive?

[icesktr189]

I have always known since i can remember that something was wrong. There were subtly side effects that i had always experienced like if i out did myself i would feel light headed or if i was too hot my heart would beat pretty fast but other than that i had no brain fog or severe fatigue/weakness when i was younger. i was able to go to movies or pretty much whatever i wanted to do. I drank alchohol when i was 16 (i know im dumb!) It seemed as soon as i hit 18/19 it hit me hard. I was in a car accident but my symptoms did not come on for months later. Now i have POTS symptoms 24/7. They are always present where as before they were so small that i never thought twice about them. I do remember that when i was around 8 through around 17 i would see colors if i stood up too soon but nothing bad. My point is is that i thought that most grow out of it when they end their teenage years. I am 20 and it seems to be getting worse. It came on so quickly it seemed. Like one day i was fine and felt i was coming down sick and then the POTS journey began. Sorry this is so long but im just so afraid im going to keep getting worse to the point im bed bound. I have so much i want to do in life that i dont want to miss out :/ im not trying to be pitiful but i see that some of you got worse and worse

Thanks for listening!

[carinara]

Hi Dani,

I can relate. When i was a child and a teen, i also remember that i got dizzy spells and that something wasnt quiet right. Back then i was a member of a orchestra and i couldnt play my flute whilest standing up.

There were many occasions were i didnt feel right but nobody took me serious and somehow there were times

In between were the symptoms were gone i guess.

When i was 25 years old i had my first child. Soon after i noticed more dizziness, lightheadedness but i tried to

Ignore it . But after a while it got so severe that i couldnt stand up anymore without getting severe symptoms. My heart was pounding fast and strong, i was lightheaded and couldnt think straight, i got scared as well because i had

To look after my little one and there was no way, i could even hold her up myself anymore because of all these weired and strong symptoms. There again, no doctor could help me. So i tried to go trough this phase on my own. I was

Bed bound for a few weeks, but slowly my body got more into balance again, and the severe symptoms dissapeared again. Dont get me wrong, i still felt dizzy and sick at times, but i tried to ignore the symptoms again.

I always knew something wasnt quiet right because there werent many things i could do without getting dizzy and tachy, but sometimes i felt ok, so i pushed myself to do sports again, even went on a marathon (which made me sick, but i thought everybody would feel like this).

For years later, the same thing happened again. All of a sudden i was bed bound again for a few weeks. I went to the hospital, nobody could help me, they said everything ist fine. So i had to fight this one out on my own again. And after a few month my body got more in balance again, so that i was able to manage my life again (like my job, houshold stuff, looking after my daughter and so on) There again, i was never symptom free, but the symptoms were lighter and not so severe, and i tried to ignore them again to an extend were i went on a pilgrim trip in spain in a hot summer walking with a heavy back pack miles and miles. Even tough i felt so sick all the time, i tried to practise mind over matter and remebered that all the doctors told me, that it is just in my head....

Then in 2007 it happened again. I went back to being bed bound for a few weeks with the same severe symptoms again. There again, doctors told me, that there is nothing wrong with me,

That was the time when i searched and found this wonderfull website. With the help of Dinets physicians list, i got diagnosed and iam now in contact with great POTS specialists. They all told me that POTS is not progressive.

The severity of POTS symptoms change from day to day, sometimes from hour to hour.

Knowing and finding out about POTS made all the difference to me. Now i do as much as i can to try to control my symptoms, and as long as i stick to my routines and tricks, i can manage ok. I look more after myself.

I adjustet my lifestyl to my condition and i hope that if the symptoms ever get as bad as they were again, that i

Can stop some of the severity by knowing what iam dealing with now.

Iam happier now then i was in the past 10 years because of what i know now.

POTS is normally not progressive, it wont kill us and who knows, maybe one day the symptoms dissapear again.

I wish you all the best

carinara

[mancmm19]

I have always known since i can remember that something was wrong. There were subtly side effects that i had always experienced like if i out did myself i would feel light headed or if i was too hot my heart would beat pretty fast but other than that i had no brain fog or severe fatigue/weakness when i was younger. i was able to go to movies or pretty much whatever i wanted to do. I drank alchohol when i was 16 (i know im dumb!) It seemed as soon as i hit 18/19 it hit me hard. I was in a car accident but my symptoms did not come on for months later. Now i have POTS symptoms 24/7. They are always present where as before they were so small that i never thought twice about them. I do remember that when i was around 8 through around 17 i would see colors if i stood up too soon but nothing bad. My point is is that i thought that most grow out of it when they end their teenage years. I am 20 and it seems to be getting worse. It came on so quickly it seemed. Like one day i was fine and felt i was coming down sick and then the POTS journey began. Sorry this is so long but im just so afraid im going to keep getting worse to the point im bed bound. I have so much i want to do in life that i dont want to miss out :/ im not trying to be pitiful but i see that some of you got worse and worse

Thanks for listening!

Hi Dani,

I know what you are going through. I am only 22 years old myself, and started getting severely sick my junior year of college, when I was 20. I had always felt weird symptoms before then like when I was in high school, but they were never so bad as for me to think something was seriously wrong. I remember in high school getting lots of palps and lightheaded a lot, so my doc said I had low blood pressure and hypoglycemia, so I just needed some salt and sugar and I'd be fine. This did not help and then I began having "episodes" as I like to call them. I was diagnosed with panic attacks and no one believed that this was not being caused by panic! I saw a psychologist in May and June before I left for college, and he taught me some breathing techniques to help "calm me down." None of this did anything for me. However, I seemed to get a lot better after I left for school, and I would definitely notice that I felt out of it at times or didn't feel quite right, but since I couldn't put my finger on it and it would always go away, I ignored it. I joined a sorority my sophomore year when i was 19, and needless to say, we drank alcohol (I was dumb too!!!) I was ALWAYS fine, up until my junior year. What seemed like from out of the blue, my whole world as I knew it came crashing down. I had an episode after drinking, and then noticed that I wasn't feeling like myself anymore EVERYDAY. I was noticing all of these new symptoms and needless to say, they scared the heck out of me. I would notice that I could no longer tolerate drinking alcohol because within 24 hours after I did, I would go through these horrible episodes where I felt like I was just dying. I was diagnosed with Lyme disease and thought this was the answer to all of my problems. However, after being on antibiotics for a year and 3 months and seeing no improvement, I stopped. I was FINALLY diagnosed with POTS a month ago, and am still trying to figure everything out. I too, like you, don't understand how my life seemingly changed over night. How I could always do these things when I was younger and now I can barely so much of anything. I think that all of this started when I was 16 or 17...it explains a lot of the symptoms I began noticing my junior year of High school. I don't think that we will ever have the answers but I too pray that this will all go away. I am only 22 and have SO many big plans in life. I just need to feel okay to do them! I urge you to read my story, I have a post that I wrote today called "Symptoms" and another where I outlined my whole story called "Strange Symptoms, POTS? Please Help" located here http://dinet.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=11760. I think you might find some similarities to yourself.

Do not hesitate to contact me...I know what you are going through! We are both young and I pray that we both feel normal some day, hopefully sooner than later!!

Michele