Help Me Think This Through - Experience Needed!

[runningshoe]

Hello

I try not to over analyze my pots these days. I have had it for 2.5 years and I learned how to manage things pretty well. However, I have been experiencing a real flare and I just want to learn from it and so...let me know what you think.

The past month has been very very busy and stressful. A tragedy struck in our town and I found myself very overextended with care giving, attending to details, pushing my body with late nights, lots of standing etc. There was also incredible grief. I was able to get through - just a bit tired but I was grateful that I was able to do the things that were necessary to help out. I also worked and took care of my family as usual during this time. A few days after things started to settle down I noticed major blood pooling (blue feet), dizzy sick feeling, tired, etc. I even slept through the night two times and that hasn't happened in over two years. I must have been super tired. I have had low bp days and now am having headachy high bp days. Is this from over doing it? What happens inside our bodies that makes too much activity lead to an increase in symptoms? I understand that we get tired, but why the other things as well?

Thanks!

[juliegee]

Hello

I try not to over analyze my pots these days. I have had it for 2.5 years and I learned how to manage things pretty well. However, I have been experiencing a real flare and I just want to learn from it and so...let me know what you think.

The past month has been very very busy and stressful. A tragedy struck in our town and I found myself very overextended with care giving, attending to details, pushing my body with late nights, lots of standing etc. There was also incredible grief. I was able to get through - just a bit tired but I was grateful that I was able to do the things that were necessary to help out. I also worked and took care of my family as usual during this time. A few days after things started to settle down I noticed major blood pooling (blue feet), dizzy sick feeling, tired, etc. I even slept through the night two times and that hasn't happened in over two years. I must have been super tired. I have had low bp days and now am having headachy high bp days. Is this from over doing it? What happens inside our bodies that makes too much activity lead to an increase in symptoms? I understand that we get tired, but why the other things as well?

Thanks!

Hi Lina-

Stress or a major disruption to my schedule can cause my symptoms to go wacky too. Time, rest, and a return to normalcy usually seems to be my answer. I'm deeply sorry for your town's tragedy and commend you for stepping up when you're so fragile yourself.

Hugs-

Julie

[firewatcher]

lina,

I am learning, again, that emotional stress is just as great as physical stress on the ANS. Remember, it governs our fight or flight response, so it is intimately tied to our perceptions/emotional reactions to our environment. Emotionally, you have just run a marathon, and now your body is reacting as if you physically have. I'm going through a tiny bit of it myself with several family situations at the moment. Take special care of yourself and unwinding. Whatever you find soothing, being alone, music, friends, whatever, do it! Sleep is a great healer as well. It is the "shut off" for the sympathetic nervous system and the reboot for the ANS. Take care of yourself.

Jennifer

[ramakentesh]

Its interesting you say that you noticed symptoms AFTER the stressful event and not during. Im happy in that my body most of the time is like that - i can deal with things at the time but i get a POTSie payback after the stress has started to settle.

I can give you a number of theories:

In autoimmune POTS - autoimmune illnesses are often triggered or worsened by emotional stress

Also in the autoimmune variety of POTS you may have partial denervation reducing the ability of nerves in certain parts of your body from producing norepinephrine meaning that if you use up what is already a limited supply POTS gets worse because there is less vasoconstriction.

In the hyperadrenergic theory it would go that stress may worsen the impairment of norepinephrine reuptake.