Any Tips? Going To A Concert Tonight & Pots Is Very Bad

[sisblostg]

My husband was trying to be sweet and bought concert tickets 4 months ago to a band that I liked as a teenager. In the last year I have not done much besides, doctors visits, going to my kids school activites, and a few quick shopping trips. I am nervous to go for many reasons. On top of my POTS issues, my possible EDS or whatever hyperflexible issues I have got horrible last week. Both my feet are flat and it caused my knees to swell up and my hips starting popping so I'm in a ton of pain. I have both me feet taped and I can barely walk because of the pain(forget back my pulse going 160!) The concert is outdoors. My orginal tickets were near the front, so I would have to walk down 43 flights of stairs (and back up! no way that could happen). I traded them for the handicap back row and they said I could bring a folding chair. It is still a pretty long walk for me at least from the handicap parking to the place I can sit. The venue is outdoors so the tempature will change from 75-55 during the concert and I'm tempature sensitive so I don't know what I should wear. The biggest concern is the noise. I have not been able to go to the movies for the last 20 years. The noise from the movies "rattles" me and makes me feel so bad. I actually saw this band when I was 12 and was fine but by the time I was 15 my friends would tease me because I would sit as far away from the stage as I could because concerts made me feel horrible. From what I have read the concert is 100 minutes long with no intermissions.

I have been able to sit at my kids school performances for about an hour. My pulse usually averages about 95-100 sitting down for the first hour. After that it starts to rise and I usually feel to bad to stay out any longer. I can sit in a chair at home and talk to a neighbor or friend for 100 minutes(I have always wondered if being able to sit in the same chair at home longer then at an event is due to aniexty(I have H-pots) or that being at home is usually pretty calm and quiet compared to 600 school kids performing and the principal voice so loud via the microphone?

My husband has not pushed me to do anything this past year. He has done the grocery shopping, picking up the kids, driving me everywhere and working 2 jobs. I offered for him to take out daughter but I really think he wants to go with me. He grew up in a rural area and never got to go to a concert in his life, I grew up near a city and it was no big deal to go to concerts because there were so many.

I'm already anxious about this so that isn't a good start. I thought about taking an extra klonopin(my dr has encouraged this but I rarely do, I always take it after I have a huge adreline surge and feel bad). I am trying to eat very carefully today and rest. I also want to not tire myself out so I can be functioning for easter.

[RockiesGirl]

You might wanna buy some ear plugs so that everything isn't so loud. It helps me sometimes. Good choice on the seat arrangements too!! Sometimes raising my feet a bit helps so you might wanna consider a big blanket or 2. 1 blanket to prop your feet on and 1 in case you get too cold. Also, do compression hose help you?

Keep water with you.... Just some random thoughts, hope they help and you enjoy some date time with your hubby

[juliegee]

I feel for you. I end up doing lots of concerts as my son is a musician. EARPLUGS- even before you leave the car to acclimate yourself. Layer your clothing and/or blankets. Plenty of water. Remember, this is supposed to be fun. We can so psyche ourselves into a bad place with worry about how things will go. Try to relax and remember how you felt as a teeny bopper when you heard this band. If you make it for an hour- fabulous! Your seats are in a perfect place.

What a sweet husband- who's the band? Pretend that they're young Close your eyes- it helps.

Have fun-

Julie

[sisblostg]

Compression socks don't help. I seem to have blood pooling more in my stomach then legs? Right now I live in fuzzy socks. My toes pop out of the socket alot so and we have mostly hardwood floors so my fuzzy socks make me not feel my funny toes. Actually right now my fuzzy socks are glued to my feet. I went to the podatrist to get my feet taped really good while I'm waiting for my special shoes to come in and they used glue and put my fuzzy sock back on so I guess my wardrobe tonight will include my mutlicolored fuzzy socks!

I had a wide variety of musical tastes as a kid. I'm going to see air supply, which you would think would not be loud but the singers walk in the crowd during the whole show. When I was 12, I had gone to see Alice Cooper on a friday night and saw air supply tickets for sale for the next night. I loved the soap santa barabra and air supply had been on several episodes so my friend and I got tickets. The maintaince staff decided to go on strike after the Alice Cooper concert and they turned off the heat to the building (this was new england inJan). I wore like 6 layers to the air supply conert and got to sit in the front row because not many people braved it. Russell the lead singer had the spotlight turned on me and was signing every women in the world. One of my many layers got stuck in the chair and I was trying to get the layers off and get on stage and everyone was looking at me in the spotlight. I never made it on stage. That is why my husband got seats right near the front because the 2 singer are known for singing to the women in the front rows.

I was trying to keep my stress low, but my son just dropped one of the rare earth magents from his science project on his sister's laptop and it is not working now!

[Tachy Phlegming]

I know your story too well. I remember going to an outdoor concert and it wasn't some rock band -- but when the drums started, my heart rhythm changed (happily for me, I didn't get any surges from that but it was still awful). I was so horribly uncomfortable, I had to ask the person I was with to sit way farther back. This type of thing predictably happens for me with very low sounds which produce vibration (some high sounds which are loud enough can make me uncomfortable and did more when I was extremely sick but I can often take them now). I can otherwise generally tolerate a fair amount of loud noise.

[ramakentesh]

Same thing happened to me a few years back. I felt totally POTSie and warn out and had to go see a band.

I tried gatorade but no joy. In the end I drank two cans of coca cola and the caffeine got me right for the night. That being said its important to be used to caffeine or you might get a rebound.

So my advice - try gatorade, if no joy, try caffeine or licorice lollies. Should get you through.

My last resort is a small amount of beer. Dont ask why but it often helps particularly with the overstimulation

[sisblostg]

I survived! Getting from my car to the ticket office to my seat was probably the hardest part. I got to ride to the seat on a golf cart so I bypassed the security check so I was able to take in my water, powerade, salty snack, sugary snack, and bland snack(covering all the bases). They had these weird high folding chairs but I lucked out being next to a support column so I leaned back on the column and put my legs across my husband so I was reclined as possible. My pulse stayed steady at about 100-105 the whole time. My O2 was 97-98 but that noise still rattled my body and I felt light headed. I think because I could see my heart rate and O2 wasn't worried. Just curious what my BP was.

I was proud I made it through the whole concert. It was 100 minutes as I had read before I went. I'm not sure I would have been able to make it much longer. I can't say I 100% enjoyed myself because I didn't feel terrific and I got a little down because the band let every one come up on stage a few times and go up and meet them afterwords and I just couldn't make it that far but I proud I made it through without leaving. It is my biggest outing in over 1 year! Today I am pretty worn out, the worst is my achy legs and feet.

Every year this same venue has a christmas nativy show. Christmas 2010 was the first year we did not go because of my POTS. I think going to this gave me confidence I'll be able to make it to the Christmas show this year.

Thanks for all your support and suggestions!