Blood Pooling

[erikainorlando]

I know this probably sounds stupid. I can see that my feet turn purple/red when i stand and they swell...so I know that blood pools there. But...my hands and wrists hurt...my butt hurts...the muscles...and my legs...it is not always there but frequently enough...and sometimes it is bad.

I just started putting two and two together...when I sit in my recliner my butt muscles are my lowest point.....and that is where it really hurts... I am not sure if this makes sense to any of you...

Thanks...

Erika

[ramakentesh]

i dont experience obvious pooling other than possibly in my stomach so Im not sure. Discolouration, hot, walm and swollen extremities would be obvious signs due to increased filtration.

[potsgirl]

Erika,

I get blood pooling in my feet like you do, but usually it's much worse in my abdomen. I'm always 'bloated'. How lovely. I think part of it is also from my whacked-out digestive system. My feet do turn red and purple when I stand, though.

Cheers,

Jana

[toddm1960]

I'm a stomach pooler and my belly will distend over 6" bigger during the day then I am in the morning. When I eat or am active it gets even worse, hard to miss this lovely symptom.......lol

[bjt22]

I can see it. When my arms or legs hang downward, I can literally watch them turn blotchy and purple/bluish. They also swell. I can hold my arm down for just a few seconds and it will be a completely different color than the arm that is not down. I can tell I'm pooling into the abdomen by swelling alone.

Along with the pooling, I have just plain old edema. No one is really sure why...lot's of possible answers. If I have a day in which I'm up and about more than usual, I can hold onto 10-12 lbs of fluid weight. Doesn't help me as it obviously isn't staying where it could do me any good.

[Broken_Shell]

Hi,

If I sit up or stand my feet are either blotchy red or purple. It corrects to a normal color when I lay down. I have wondered the same thing because I think that based on the symptoms I get I experience inappropriate blood pooling in my GI tract and other places, but I don't know if there is a definitive way to verify this. I do often have a blotchy purple or red pattern on my abdomen though, similar to my feet.

~ Broekn_Shell

[ramakentesh]

When symptomatic Im the opposite - my hands and feet are white and there is obviously decreased filtration and excessive vasoconstriction/increased peripheral resistance.

I think other forms of POTS may result in pooling exclusive to the stomach region through a variety of suggested mechanisms.

[kjd111]

I wanted to bump this up to see if anyone has experienced the number 1 symptom that my daughter has. She has been diagnosed (finally) with orthostatic hyotension but not specifically with POTS. Her blood pressure without meds is pretty low lying down (90/65? ish) and standing is 60/40 with a rise in heartrate of usually about 20 bpm. When she was originally diagnosed, they tested her catecholamines both lying and standing and they were low in both with virtually no change to the standing position. For whatever reason, she also makes 0 (that would be zero) aldosterone. All of this started after she fell in her bathroom and hit her head, although i suspect she may have had some problems beforehand - thus the blackout and fall. Our endocrinologist called it sympathetic neurocirculatory failure and also mentioned bradbury-eggleston.

The biggest, strangest symptom she has had though, is a "generalized" edema that affects mostly her butt, thighs, stomach and for some strange reason her breasts. It is definitely improved since they put her on florinef, midodrine and dextroamphetamines, but by no means controlled. Whenever she is tired, stressed or exercises, its like she's not on the meds at all and her body swells - a lot. Because she tries to stay active to avoid deconditioning, and because she was/is an athlete, she ends up carrying approximately 10 pounds of water around constantly and it makes her really uncomfortable. We have been told that the norepinephrine that she lacks is important for vasoconstriction and i am assuming this is where her problems lie, but in all the reading i have done on these boards (love, love these boards), i haven't seen too much mention of this kind of edema. Does anyone else have this? If so, do you do anything that helps, or have you been given anything that helps? Thanks so much.

[Janey]

Hi KJD111 - I would post this as a new topic so more people will get to see it!

[carinara]

i just made a test and let my right arm hang down for a minute, when i compared both arms afterwards, my right arm was much darker and swollen. I then asked my daughter to do the same thing and her right arm looked also darker and swollen. Then i asked my boyfriend to do the same thing and even though his right arm just hung down for about 30 seconds, when he compared both of them, the right arm was also darker and swollen. I wonder now, if this is just a normal response everybody has because my daughter plus my boyfriend both dont have POTS.