Horrible Night

[yogini]

I haven't posted in a while and things were going pretty smoothly for me until last night. I woke up in the middle of the night burning hot, drenched in sweat. I was semi-delusional and it took me a while to figure out that I needed to check my pulse. When I checked it, it was 130 lying down. I took some extra beta blocker and it went away. I managed to fall asleep and when I woke up this morning, I was burning hot and drenched in sweat again. This time I had a mild fever - I didn't have one in the middle of the night. I feel exhausted and, needless to say, am not going into work today. It's been a while since I've had an episode like this. I At least the tachy seems to be under control right now and I'm also lucky that this happened to me at home, instead of at work or outside on the street. I had almost forgotten what it was like to have a bad POTS attack - and now I remember, it *****!! I'm so dissapointed and upset, because I feel like I'd made so much progress and this is a step back. My doctor doesn't have any openings today, so I am just trying to hang on until tomorrow.

I am going to try and catch up on old posts. Hope too many of you aren't with me in the POTS hole.

[mom4cem]

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully this is a passing thing and you will be feeling better soon.

[MomtoGiuliana]

Probably it is a passing episode. Perhaps you have a virus. I get worse POTS symptoms when I come down with a cold or any infection. Hope you feel better soon!

Katherine

[Guest dionna]

i too hope this is just a temporary thing for you and that soon you will be back to 'normal'---- whatever that means.

dionna

[calypso]

Rita, how are you feeling today? This sounds to me like the beginnings of a virus. But hopefully you fought it off and are back to work today. The other possibility is hormone fluctuation. I sometimes get what are like hot flashes, and I'm only 30!

Amy

[Maxine]

I hope you feel better------hormones could be it----your temperature can fluctuate a little also with hormones changes.

I'm sorry you had to deal with that---it's so scary to wake up that way---I had it happen to me also.

I did the same thing---extra beta blocker. I always thought I could never have tachycardia as long as I took my BB, then when I did is scared the you know what out of me. I've been on BBs for 16 years now, but didn't have break through tachycardia until Dec. of 2000.

When I was diagnosed with POTS---at least I knew why this happened, but it still scares me when it happens.

I handle it better now, but I do notice things get worse around my cycle, stress---and especially a virus.

I notice a lot of folks on here get more tachy when there is some kind of outside stress in addition to their POTS.

Sending a BIG HUG-----and sending positive thoughts/prayers to keep those spells away from you........

Maxine :0) Sending a little get well flower-----

[yogini]

Thanks so much for all of your responses. You always help to reassure me and make me better.

Luckily I don't have a virus and I'm feeling much better...not quite back to my baseline, but at least up to walking around and (unfortunately) going back to work! What happened is that I tried to wean of the last of my atenolol (I have only been taking 6mg or 1/4 pill for the last 2 months). You would think that such a tiny amount of medicine would not make such a difference. I did fine for several days and then it caught up with me. I haven't felt that bad in ages, but at least it was short-lived. I just got back from the dr's office. He said he thinks I need the atenolol, but that I should try again in January. I am disappointed, but also relieved that I don't have to think about this again for another 4 months.

My dr did say that some of his other patients take small amounts of betas like me - I wonder whether I could have gotten away with a much lower dose to start off with, and whether a smaller dose might work for others with POTS who can't tolerate the normal dose.

[mom4cem]

I take 12.5mg. I was taking it 2x a day then I cut the p.m. dose out. I certainly noticed it in the beginning. Rebound tachy I think, until your body adjusts to life without it.