I Find It Interesting That ....

[cardiactec]

Interesting that it seems like sooooooooooooooo many people I meet online that have POTS or some form of dysautonomia work in the medical field ....

just curious, how many here work or have worked in the medical field?

[miranda]

Not me unless you count being a Carer for the elderly as such.

Interesting tho cos my friend works as a nurse and she has dysautonomia.

[summer]

I'm an RN.

[firewatcher]

I think it is more of a reflection of the "gumption" of the people on the forum, rather than the dysautonomiac population as a whole. Most of the people here have stuck with it and insisted that there was something PHYSICALLY wrong rather than "attention seeking" or anxiety and accepting psychoactive drugs and shutting up (like someone who believes that they don't know better would do.)

[cardiactec]

good point firewatcher .... it is odd though, i have met LITERALLY so so so many people (both in trips out to mayo, in person and here on the forum or other places online) that are in the medical field. most RN's .... I myself am in cardiology and though I get suspicious that maybe there is some sort of pollutant or cleaning agent or SOMETHING within medical facilities that we'd come in contact with that would CAUSE POTS, MY POTS in particular started long long long before I was ever in cardiology - actually started when I was in diapers (well, the GI part of it anyway!)

.....I guess if there WAS a link, doctor's would have POTS and have it to more of an extreme than us (as they spend far more time in medical facilities than we would/do as RN's, etc). ...

[summer]

I get suspicious that maybe there is some sort of pollutant or cleaning agent or SOMETHING within medical facilities that we'd come in contact with that would CAUSE POTS

.....I guess if there WAS a link, doctor's would have POTS and have it to more of an extreme than us (as they spend far more time in medical facilities than we would/do as RN's, etc). ...

I have to say that I have wondered at times about my exposure to medications as an RN. In the course of my career, I have inhaled so many aerosols, and crushed medications, not to mention the meds that could have been absorbed through the skin such as pastes, powders, and injectables. I really have wondered if any of these things could have damaged my nervous system. Of course, I think we would have to be predisposed somehow or this would effect all nurses etc. in the same way.

I also think it makes a difference in being able to understand the physiology of POTS and articles that we all read here. Not to mention knowing that doctors really are fallible, because we see it all the time at work.

Kudos to anyone without a medical background who has been able to wade through POTS articles and stand up for yourselves to doctors... I'm not sure I could have had I not been a nurse.

[Tachy Phlegming]

Kudos to anyone without a medical background who has been able to wade through POTS articles and stand up for yourselves to doctors... I'm not sure I could have had I not been a nurse.

It would appear that "falling" for doctors would help more than "standing up" to them.

Right, nurses are better "predisposed" to get medical care for dysautonomia(s) than other segments of the population.

[lieze]

Me-and my exposure was from a patient with shingles.

I went right away to ER when I broke out with my first blisters and they would not treat me.

I thought that they would give me Acyclovir or something and he did not.

I have wondered if it would have helped prevented the POTS from developing.

I did okay with the chicken pox. Then when my 2 yr old broke out too I got fever again and felt crappy and it was when I attempted to return to work that my first episode occurred.

During this time I got very very paranoid about being in a health care facility at all and the exposure that happens there.

I was very fatigued when I was exposed to the shingles. I had been around it for 18 years and never got it-I think my immune system was just worn down and boom I ended up with chicken pox.

When I went back to work the patients seemed to be dropping like flies. I was having them pass out on me I got to where I could see them start to go and would get them wheeled down to their rooms and into bed. I felt like a sitting duck!

lieze

[lieze]

And the other thing that freaked me out was the lady that got the shingles ended up dying right afterwards. She started having tremendous pain and they treated her for it and she died. Her daughter said that the same thing had happened to her sister who was much younger-she broke out with shingles and then died not much later.

I guess my mom's cousin who is a nurse also just had a case of shingles herself and now she is tachy.

She is only in her 60's I'd say.

lieze

[toddm1960]

My vote.......nothing to do with the medical field. I can feel a poll coming on

[nforste]

Do you think it has anything to do with working the night shift? My mum (a nurse) has IBS and she swears it's from her body clock being forced out of whack so frequently. My first flare up with dysauto came after a feral stint of 12hr night shifts and I've always thought that was exacerbated by my cortisol and adrenaline secretions being stuffed up. I'm not in the medical field - BUT have been exposed to numerous chemicals.

[firewatcher]

Do you think it has anything to do with working the night shift? My mum (a nurse) has IBS and she swears it's from her body clock being forced out of whack so frequently. My first flare up with dysauto came after a feral stint of 12hr night shifts and I've always thought that was exacerbated by my cortisol and adrenaline secretions being stuffed up. I'm not in the medical field - BUT have been exposed to numerous chemicals.

Dysautonomia CAN actually occur from circadian misalignment. Many disorders from breast cancer to heart disease are being found to have a circadian component. I have a circadian rhythm disorder and I have noticed that my POTS is much, much better when I am allowed to follow my body's natural schedule. I also think that the opposite can also be true: that circadian misalignment can occur from dysautonomia through the messed up HPA axis.

[Noreen]

Interesting that it seems like sooooooooooooooo many people I meet online that have POTS or some form of dysautonomia work in the medical field ....

just curious, how many here work or have worked in the medical field?

Does Public Health count?

[erikainorlando]

I am a programmer...............

[Angelika_23]

I am/was an HR Coordinator for a home healthcare organization.

[Brye]

ER nurse!

Brye

[CharmedLinz]

Yup it sure is interesting to theorize all these possibilities.

I worked as a vet tech so I was around most of the same cleansers and chemicals as those in medical facilities.

I also worked as a Lab Courier transporting human specimens so I'm sure I came in contact with alot of things doing that as well.

As for the circadian theory, I've worked 2 graveyard shift jobs as well.

My Cousin with Dysauto is an RN but she was diagnosed when she was 15, long before she knew she wanted to be a nurse.

[wareagle]

I'm a Speech Pathologist...was working in hospitals when I got sick. Pretty sure it was exposure to the epstien-barr virus.

Although I've had lack of energy issues since I was a child.

[Tammy]

I got sick after getting a really bad cold virus, but worked in a school setting, so no medical facility either. Definitely was exposed to illness in that setting, but no different then everyone else that I worked with and they are all healthy.