Bending And Stooping

[lieze]

I decided to start new post with rather than hijack Simmy's but even prediscernable POTS when I had my day off that involved picking all the toys up off of our hard wood floor and cleaning it. By the end of the day I felt physically ill. I would get nauseous and I guess a tad lightheaded and want to just lay down and sleep. It sapped me of all energy.

I literally dreaded my days off because not only did I not really get to rest this activity was incredibly hard for me and I guess at the time I didn't know why.

That is my work out now is the bending and stooping to pick up anything and everything. I try to just do at as I go so it's not all left for one huge cleaning-I don't think I could do it.

I really should make the kids do more of it. They just throw things down and I am left to try to pick it up and it's so difficult for me and has been for years and then I get in a huge guilt trip about how our house looks

[potsgirl]

Lieze~

Put those kids to work! They're old enough to at least help out...bending and stooping are some of the worst things you can do to exacerbate your symptoms. Now get on those kids!

[the4richards]

I consider myself to have very mild symptoms lately, but bending over will get me every time.

I have two 8 year olds and THEY must pick up their own stuff from the main rooms. I have them put it in baskets that they then take in their rooms. I can only stand the clutter for so long. (I don't even look in their rooms any more!)

[juliegee]

Makes me VERY symptomatic too.

[toddm1960]

Bending gets to me also, but also when I'm bending over it feels like I'm being choked. My face gets very flushed. Most times it makes for an early bedtime

[firewatcher]

It is just easier for me to get on all fours and crawl.

[Birdlady]

Bending down to pick up laundry off the floor is just awful for me. Even carrying hampers down the stairs is enough to keep me on the couch for an hour. Some days are worse than others! The laundry tends to pile up because I never feel good enough to do it

[blueskies]

After my grandchildren have visited I get to pick up all the toys I keep here for them to play with. I couldn't bend and stand or I'd feel pretty bad. I get down on the floor and either crawl or sit on my bum and scoot around to pick them up and put them back in their baskets and containers.

Someone mentioned a choking feeling when they bend. I can get that at times too. Also I can grey out when I do it. I've been known to drop change on the ground when I'm out and left it there at times because it was one of those days that I knew if I bent over and then straightened I wouldn't feel too well afterwards.

blue

[futurehope]

Bending and Stooping, Does anyone have difficulty with this?

Yes, me. I avoid it at all costs.

[Tachy Phlegming]

I never understood that the reason I hated the way I felt when I did that had anything to do with a medical condition. I thought everyone felt awful when they did that.

If I have to do anything low to the ground now, I sit on a low stool. You might try to find a way to get one with wheels (I've never seen one but if you can think of a way to get one ...) if your "job" is to pick up things on the floor. Otherwise, it sounds like either delegating the job to those people whose heads are closer to the ground or sliding on your backside to get to each new object is the way to go.

(For anyone who gets greyed out, honestly, it's better to have only the floor look bad than the entire world).

[lieze]

I had one of those garden weasels on wheels and I did use that and my little guy would get on the back of it with me and squeal as we went. The other thing I started doing was just pushing everything to one spot and then it made it easier to get it all up even if I did just get down the floor and load it in a tote.

I guess at some point I came somewhat to terms with it and have just done what I can around the house. I'm not sure other non POTS citizens would understand out willingness to surrender.

[bizbiz]

Bending over makes me feel like either my head will explode or I will give myself an anuerism. I try to avoid as much a possible.

[Guest tearose]

Yes, I must be careful too. Bending and stooping are fast ways to bring on POTS symptoms and so I try to tighten muscles before bending and tend to avoid stooping all together.

[tinkerbella]

I tried to do what simmy did with my BP CUFF on and it and myself was not a pretty picture. That is strenuous exercise and exherterting yourself...I always sit on the floor to do all activities.

Be well all.

[mynagirl]

Just to add my voice to the chorus, this is my least favorite activity and the most likely to cause me a problem. Before I was diagnosed I just kept telling the doctor I "got headaches" if I had to search around on my closet floor for a missing shoe.

WOW, amazing to see what a universally awful thing this is for us. Sorry it happens to everyone but it's nice to know I'm not alone!!

[lieze]

I purchased on of those grabbers at Walmart for about $12 and it has to be constructed really cheap because it keeps breaking. My suction cups keep popping off and it doesn't really work without them.

But it is a god send and I'm pretty fast with it.

[Mary P]

I have learned not to bend over very far at all or I will fall forward and heaven only knows what can happen. I learned this when I was looking at some items in the bottom shelf of a store. I was able to grab a metal post and prevent a complete fall and perhaps a break or a lot of bruising. Even when I'm on the floor I have to be careful not to fall forward and wind up flat on my face. So much of life seems to be a balancing act of some sort.

Mary P

[iheartcats]

I just came here annoyed because, while picking up some socks, I 'fell forward' and bonked my forehead on the bed frame. Ouch.

I'm OK (no more dizzy than usual), but it still hurts. And is annoying. It didn't feel like clumsiness so I'm glad I'm not alone. I'll have to be more careful bending (not 'lean over' but squat, I guess?).

[Simmy]

Interesting topic lieze, and definitely true. I also get very dizzy when I bend over to pick something up, that's one of the reasons I squat instead. When I bend over, my legs are still vertical so the blood pours down and the symptoms worsen. When I squat, my leg blood vessels squeeze tight and instantly force the blood back up, which is why my heart rate drops so dramatically. I haven't found anything that can drop heart rate faster, not even lying down, although ultimately it ends up at the same place. I can usually stay squatted for up to five minutes or until my knees give out. Up is the only real problem and I normally do it slowly and gradually.

Sitting on the floor for me is almost as bad as sitting in a chair - not as bad as standing of course, but way worse than squatting or lying down, I guess because the leg blood vessels are wide open when my legs are straight out and the blood still falls into them. Unfortunately, I've never been able to sit genie style, but I imagine that would help tremendously from the constant squeeze.

[DizzyMe]

Yes bending over makes me very symptomatic. I feel okish while bent then when I return to upright I feel short of air and tachy for a good few seconds. It is accumilative,I have 3 children 5 and under and if I bend a few times in a row thats it I trigger symptoms for the next hour or so.

Even my 2 year old twins are used to me asking them to pick things up off the floor and my poor husband!

Melanie.