Best Friend Sick

[porque]

Hi again,

I am posting here for my best friend. I think she might have some autonomic issues going on but I'm not 100% sure. Way back in high school, when she was 16...she started having seizures...and fainting/blackouts, which resulted in her loosing her lisence for a year. Meds didnt seem to help too much but in a little over a year they went away. A cause was never found, after vials of blood and tons of MRIs. Now they are back with a vengance. Meds not helping hardly at all. She seems to have problems when she is in heat...like a shower or outside in the summer...(she lives in Arizona). I told her to check her HR and BP laying down then standing and also when she starts to feel lightheaded. I told her about the mechinisms of POTS. She had no idea what POTS was (and she is studying to be a nurse!) I never tell people that I am sick because I lead a very near normal life...I mean POTS never hit me heard at all...I was never beadridden or even close to it...I guess thats lucky for me cuz I will most likely recover completely...but I am scared for her. What sould I do to help her? Could she be experiencing autonomic dysfunction?

[Gena]

I think you were right in telling her to check her BP and HR lying down and standing. She may want to mention the possibility of autonomic dysfunction to her doctors and have them check her BP and HR and maybe do a TTT. There are so many things that can be causing her symptoms. It sounds like the doctors are doing many tests to rule other things out. Just be supportive of her and hopefully the doctors will test for autonomic dysfunction or other possibilities and find the underlying cause soon. You may want to tell her to increase her fluids just to see if it helps at all.