Pots For A Year And Flushing For The 1St Time

[abbyw]

Hi,

I have had POTS for a year now, and have never experienced flushing. I had lots of dizziness all day, pre-syncope, fainted once, exercise intolerance, feeling jittery or wired all the time, and I was always freezing in my bones, no matter what I did.(It was winter when it started.) My BP would go up more than 30 points when standing. But that was it. (As if that's not enough!) I know a lot of you have it much worse. I was doing well on Lexapro - I would say 90% back to myself other than getting worn out much more quickly than I used to and not doing well after a lot of walking. I am 3 weeks in to switching to Effexor due to ridiculous weight gain on Lexapro. When the Lexapro was out of my system, I immediately felt POTsy again, but I upped my Effexor a bit, and I was doing OK. Not as well as on Lexapro, but it was only a few days into the new dose, so I was being patient.

Last night, I came home from an exhausting day with lots of travel. I ate some hot soup and it was pretty hot in my house. I felt really hot, but that was normal. Until everyone in my family started asking if I was in the sun all day because my whole face was red like a tomato! I felt "fuzzy" ish ( I know , not very medical - but I can't think of another word - a bit dizzy, and woozy, but I was OK). The redness did not go away for 2 hours or so. Then I noticed that my legs were all red and blotchy as well.

I assume that this is the "flushing" that a lot of you had spoken of. (There were reasons to flush - it was warm in here, and I did eat hot soup - but no one else in the room was bothered by it other than me.)

Can this indicate what kind of POTS I have? ( I don't have any other indicators of any auto-immune problem or MCAS/MCAD.) I am not overly flexible, I would say the opposite .

Thanks for reading all of this and the help. I don't have a doctor who knows anything about POTS. This forum is where I get my info and I go to my dr. with what I find out!

Thanks!

Abby

[Kellysavedbygrace]

Just pulled up this post after a very severe flushing episode this morn. I'm still fairly woozy like you said. Mine don't seem to be precipitated by food or stress, rather upright posture. This morn I was feeling really good and decided to go shopping. I realized I wasn't feeling well and went to checkout. By the time I was w the cashier I had to sit on floor to keep from fainting and reassure her that I was not having a life threatening attack.

I've had pots for a yr and a half, recently diagnosed w MCAS but just recently started w flushing. (last few weeks have had occasional flushing episodes). I wonder if it isnt fairly common to have this symptom come on 1-2 yrs into it.

I have not been hypertensive at all but today noticed an elevated Systolic BP w it. (30 Pt jumps- erratic). No wonder I feel so good.

For anyone out there w this experience- are there life threatening warning signs associated w flushing?