Pots Acting Up

[carinara]

Hello everybody. My Pots has been acting up for a while now. I was so much looking forward to the colder months because this summer was very difficult for me healthwise. I thought that i would feel better in fall like i usually do. But this year everything is different. My body is acting up big time. Its such a struggle at the moment to go through a workday. I find myself sitting and hiding in the restroom at work in order to bring my body in some kind of balance again. This time i really want to get through this POTS hole without missing work for weeks and months. One thing that i thought i ask your advice for is, that i dont know what to eat anymore. I have to avoid carbohydrates because they make me tachy. I have to avoid food with histamin in it, because it looks like i have an histamin intolerance. I have been eating tiny amounts of chicken, a little peace of try bread some cucomber and olives each day for over 6 weeks now. Since 5 days it looks like i have gastritis as well, i almost cant eat without reacting to it in some sort of way. When i say eat, i mean not more then 4 bites at ones, because bigger amounts make me sick as well. Whilest i am at work, i must be so carefull with my food because i never know how it effects me, therefore i just take 1 bite every hour and eat a few bites more and a chicken soup as soon as i get home, because then i can lay down if my body acts up. Another problem is that i have to watch my bloodsugar closely because it drops fast. I already lost weight and i dont want to loose anymore. I was constantly gaining weight over the past 2 years after my last big POTS hole in 2007. Now for some reason my body is loosing it again. What do you guys eat in times when your body acts up? I miss eating fruits but they seem to hurt my stomach at the moment and bananas got histamine in it. Please let me know your ideas about how i can keep eating healthy food in my current situation.

Thanks a lot carinara

[Mrs. Burschman]

That sounds really terrible! I wish I had some good advice to offer, but I don't.

Can you take a multivitamin? If you're unable to eat much, it would probably be good to make sure you're getting the vitamins you need in other ways.

I hope you feel better soon -- and find something that agrees with you!

Amy

[prettyinpink]

could you eat carbs at times when you know your medications are the most effective so you don't get as tachy. Or can you eat carbs with lots of fat that way they'll digest slower and not cause a tachy rush? I have trouble eating too but, i know my pots symptoms are soooo much worse when i don't eat enough calories. Can you eat almonds, or other nuts? Cheese sticks? Rice with soy sauce is always a winner for me.

[potsgirl]

Have you tried something like an 'Ensure' drink? Doctors will recommend these drinks for people who can't get enough calories down because they have good nutrition and a decent amount of calories...

Hope you feel better soon,

Jana

[juliegee]

So sorry Carinara,

I will share with you what Mack ate when he was in your situation. He could handle turkey or chicken, no skin, just white meat. He could eat bread, a white crusty baguette was his favorite. NO DAIRY!!! Sushi, like a small california roll with white rice, was palatable. Vitamin water was what he lived on, not the low calorie ones, the high calorie ones (40 calories, I think). Glaceau is the brand name, not sure if you can find that there. Chicken broth and white rice was also good. He also tried to drink 100% pomegranate juice and carrot juice. And a big staple was fruit smoothies, made with any fruit (fresh or frozen) put in a blender with ice cubes and Rice Dream (rice milk.) Very yummy. He loved banana & blueberry.

Remember low fat, low fiber. WHITE is best- bread, rice, pasta. Everything pureed. Chew, chew chew what isn't pureed to give your body less to do- that GI tract is NOT moving well- make it easy.

If you really are sensitive to histamine (some with MCAD/masto are) be careful to avoid left-overs. Fresh food is much less likely to have histamine. I suspect that your body is producing histamine to certain foods rather than you reacting to the histamine in food. I know you had weird reactions t antihistamines so I'm not sure what to tell you.....

I'm sending big hugs-

Julie

[Tachy Phlegming]

A small amount of junk food with some protein (high fat [for calories -- but the total amount of fat will still be pretty low because of the small amount of food], low fiber) as well as salt soup with rice or potatoes or noodles (rice or wheat, whatever you can tolerate). If you really need the vegetables, you can have a 2"x2" square of lettuce once or twice a day. When I was super sick, I couldn't eat anything else for months -- I was worried about eating at all, not about eating healthy. Anything "healthy" or "healthier" than the above got me worse. I was usually able to eat a McDonald's Happy meal without dressings or toppings (daily) and another small amount of soup or one slice of pizza. A lot of water may also help ...