Pots Neurology Or Cardiologist

[Achilles2323]

Is pots a nuero or cardio disorder? Or both?

Does this make us higher.risk.during.flu.season

Or we don't fall underneath that category?

[imapumpkin]

POTS is a neurological condition because it is a dysfunction of the parasympathetic nervous system. It is a secondary condition-- meaning that it manifests as cardio and in the cardiovascular system but the underlying causes are most often neurological or inherited. My POTS specialist says POTS is not cause, it's a symptom...meaning your cause could be any number of things (viral onset, pregnancy/childbirth onset, trauma onset etc) and the syndrome, the collection of symptoms, are symptoms of the underlying cause.

Also, we are not nec at a higher risk during flu season, but for a lot of us, viruses hit much harder because of the POTS because we have compromised immune systems. If you put a POTS person in a public place like the mall or a doctors office we are no more likely to contract the flu from an infected person than a non-POTS person, it just might **** way more for us, especially this year since the strain is particularly bad this season.

[Achilles2323]

But if we do get the flu

Are we at higher risk for complications?

[Chaos]

Don't think we're necessarily at higher risk for complications other than it may take you longer to recover than a "normal" person and may exacerbate your POTS symptoms which will make you feel sicker than a "normal" person with the flu.

[arizona girl]

It really depends on the cause of your pots. If it's caused by an underlying immune deficiency or autoimmune disease, then I'd say yes. If it is caused by something wrong with your cardiovascular system, then I'd say no more then general population.

I myself have multiple issues with small fiber neuropathy probably as a result of several autoimmune diseases and I have something called common variable immune deficiency. Two of the three immunoglobulins my igg and igm are defective. My Iga is still in tact so I don't get respiratory infections very often, I do however get a lot of other kinds of bacterial and fungal infections and had severe mono when I was your age.

Your asking some good questions, with out really saying what specifically your dealing with, so it is hard to see what direction to point you in.

The pain in your legs you posted about can be the result of a few different things. I have had similar pain as well as in my arms. I would wake up with my hands fisted and my whole body rigid and in pain. In my case it was probably a mix of a few things. I was fighting chronic low grade infections, because of my cvid, so I always felt like I had achy muscles similar to the flu. BTW my fevers were always low grade even after a colon rupture. So no one realized I was fighting infections. The neuropathy also caused my bp/hr to go hypo and brady during sleep. So, I believe my muscles were contracting during sleep trying to get my blood flowing and raise my low body temperature.

With treatment this doesn't happen very often anymore. Are you fighting the flu right now?

[Chaos]

As for cardiology vs neurology as far as seeing specialists for treatment- when I've seen cardiologists they've done some of the the better evaluations/more thorough testing for things like blood volume,red cell mass etc, but also, once they get the HR and BP under control they have tended to think I am "cured" and ignore all my other symptoms. For me personally, a lot of my symptoms don't correlate with my BP/HR issues so I've found a POTS neuro to more willing to look at the whole picture. Also teh neurologists were the ones who ran the Qsart fro autonomic neuropathy, did skin biopsies for small fiber neuropathy etc.

[Monstrosity]

Lots of good posts already so I'll just say both!

[arizona girl]

As for the neuro vs cardio. I have a neuro and a cardio on my team, as well as other docs to treat the autoimmune issues.

I agree usually cardio's already have autonomic testing labs, as there are conditions of the heart that can cause dysautonomia's. I think though many of the members on here, have turned out to have pretty normal cardiovascular systems, except for the autonomic issues. My ttt and some other testing was done by a cardio lab. However, the only treatments offered in that environment were the basics, betas, salt loading/water and compression.

I knew I had more going on then that and a sudden colon rupture and my surgeon forced me to pursue cause again. It took another year, before I had some answers and thanks to my neurologist who treats autoimmune neuromuscular disorders, I was finally diagnosed an started treatment for small fiber neuropathy/cvid. As the other autoimmune's finally became diagnostic, I've had further improvements with those treatments, especially hashimoto, which has further improved the autonomic symptoms. I still flare though and am not strong enough yet to go back to work or have a normal life. But, I have hope that continued treatment will get me there.