Weird Pots Symptoms

[SeattleRain]

Tonight and last night have been my first POTS attack relapses in several months. You know, the ones where you think you're going to die and need to get to the emergency room ASAP.

It's been a reminder to how horrible I can feel physically and how dealing with tachycardia and being lightheaded is a walk in the park compared to this.

I'm curious to know if other's have any of these symptoms:

1) Standing up, I feel light-bodied. Normally I feel light headed, drained from the waist up. With this, I feel like my entire body (excluding my lower gut, maybe) is lacking blood. My feet/legs start to tingle like they're falling asleep.

2) It feels almost like as my HR increases, my breathing rate decreases, which is really strange as they usually go hand in hand. This gives me a horrible feeling like things are not matching up. I have to purposely breathe a little faster and it feel like anxiety death is pulsating across my chest and head as I do this.

The anxiety seems almost entirely physical. It's almost indescribable --- like my body is tossing and turning inside trying to deal with something that's seriously wrong.

It's also important to note that the first attack last night (which is undoubtedly carrying on to tonight) was triggered by staying up 4 hours or so longer than I should have. I feel like I damaged something. The past 8 months I feel like my body's been repairing something really slowly and last night felt like I re-opened a healing wound.

[SeattleRain]

Supine BP right now was 122/68

Standing is 141/89

I should have took my BP while I was at the peak of the attack supine and standing. I'm feeling better as of now. The high blood pressure is happily welcomed as it feels like it's compensating for something. Before I felt like I had severely low BP but I can't validate this - could have just been a sensation.

[corina]

I can't help you figure out whats going on with you seattle, but am glad to hear you're feeling better!

[Angelaintexas]

I have hyperadrenic POTS, which is different than just 'POTS' -my blood pressure goes up like yours did where as a lot of POTS pts have the hypotension. :/ And I do get what I call feels like a 'fluid shift' when I stand I can just feel the blood draining from my entire upper body. -Alot of times the 'tingle' is associated with your blood pooling in your feet and lower legs. -do you usually have blood pooling in your lower legs? If you do, was this different? -Maybe you're causing yourself some anxiety, (we all do, right!) Heart rate and resperation rate do not always fall hand in hand. (I am a paramedic) -Are you feeling like you're having trouble breathing? Or do you just notice that you are not breathing as much as you think you should? A normal respiration rate is 12-20 times a min in adults.

[Angelaintexas]

Did you feel better after laying down? When I feel like that I put my feet up. ) it seems to help me. ) -hope I helped at least a little. And I am glad that you are feeling better. )

[angelloz]

Well, I get this too,

For me it feels like my body is draining away ...yet still fighting to stay alive. I have to make myself breathe in and out yet it seems like I'm not getting enough oxygen. Sometimes I must force air out. It will not go out normally. If I try to talk I go downhill fast. I usually just try to stay conscience and alive. It is a HORRIBLE feeling. I think the fear that comes with how bad I feel of course makes it worse. I want to ask my cardiologist about this at my next appointment. Sometimes I'm surprised I am still here.

Angelloz

[SeattleRain]

Thank you for the responses!

-do you usually have blood pooling in your lower legs? If you do, was this different?

It's hypothesized that I do. There's no visual evidence. My compression stockings seemed to have helped when I first got them but by the 5th use or so I couldn't tell a difference. It could have been placebo effect (although not sure if that's actually possible) or they lose their tightness really fast. This was very different - it felt like my legs were weak and no blood in them. The same feeling that was in my head which was a very light headed feeling.

Maybe you're causing yourself some anxiety, (we all do, right!)

That's definitely true. For me, the mental anxiety doesn't start to set in until after the peak physical symptoms of the attack. Once they're there and they don't go away after a certain time, I start to worry about it and get anxious.

-Are you feeling like you're having trouble breathing? Or do you just notice that you are not breathing as much as you think you should?

I feel like I am not breathing as much as I think I should. If I let my body breathe as it wishes I feel more light headed. It feels like whatever controls my breathing rate is slacking.

Thanks again for the responses everyone. Much appreciated!

[Statix]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that BP raise sounds normal to me as BP fluctuates minute to minute. I mean, I checked my BP standing over and over in a 5 min stand and it went anywhere from 118-140 over 70-88. I think the act of standing up affects everyone's BP, and generally does raise (unless you have hypo pots). When I was at the doctor one time, I asked him why my BP seems to be everywhere after checking it a few times, and he said that your BP will change all the time. 10-20pts is nothing significant to be concerned about.