pat57 Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 do stairs make you legs feel like dead weight? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masumeh Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 YES! Stairs are particularly hard on my tachy. Doesn't help my knees much either. But the pots really comes out when I take the stairs. It's something my husband noticed before I discovered pots info, when I still didn't know what was wrong with me. I would faint almost predictably coming home. I didn't figure out until after the diagnosis that this was due to the climb to the apartment. At the time, I actually thought I might have some kind of subconscious psychological aversion to my house! Hehehe. Anyways, the only thing worse than stairs (other than changing posture) is raising my arms above my head. The heavy feeling in your/our legs is because the blood pools there. It can also feel painful. I get vague pain in my calf muscles. Then my legs just stop working. That's usually right before a full faint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sushi Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 After a hurricane knocked out our elevator for over a year I had to climb to the 5th floor with groceries, building repair supplies--everything! I had to stop and recover on each floor and I think this experience brought on months of heavy duty symptoms. Whew! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawn Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 Yes,All of our bedrooms are upstairs. I avoid going up til bedtime. My 15 year old dog and I go up together at the same pace. I figure if she can do it, I can. We look pathetic.When I get up there it is so hard to get my teeth brushed as I feellike I have run a marathon, sometimes I just sit on the bed and brush.Dawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P SUDIK Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 My bedrooms are also upstairs. Usually when I go up at night,I have just straightened up the downstairs,so when I get to the top of the stairs, I am tachy and my calfs feel like I just cannot go anymore,I have to sit or lie down. P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willows Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 Both going up and coming down for me guys.Going up my legs feel like lead then my whole body feels like I'm an elephant , if I stop on them ( upright this is ) I tend to sway about a bit , which is very worry for hubby , so now I've learnt to go up them on my hands as well as feet , rather like a monkey climbing them Coming down If I go to quickly I'll pass out or stggerabout and slip to my bum , not a good idea as I've found out before now , so I tend to slip down the wall with my body , does wonders for the decorating .We were promised stair lift as hubby and I both have terrible problems with the stairs but after 3 years of trying and getting put to the bottom of the list each year we told them to 'GO AWAY' I just got fed up with every year getting all the paperwork filled in , the bank statements to prove that I dont have millions stored away and the same medical reports over and over again.At least we have a loo upstairs and down so If I have a really bad day I'm upstairs all the time or downstairs if its hubby.Ami. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pat57 Posted March 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 thanks for the replies- guys.Sushi - what a nightmare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bttrflyamby1981 Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 yes me too.....I avoid them if I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tessa Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 YES! Stairs are particularly hard on my tachy. Doesn't help my knees much either. But the pots really comes out when I take the stairs. It's something my husband noticed before I discovered pots info, when I still didn't know what was wrong with me. I would faint almost predictably coming home. I didn't figure out until after the diagnosis that this was due to the climb to the apartment. At the time, I actually thought I might have some kind of subconscious psychological aversion to my house! Hehehe. Anyways, the only thing worse than stairs (other than changing posture) is raising my arms above my head. The heavy feeling in your/our legs is because the blood pools there. It can also feel painful. I get vague pain in my calf muscles. Then my legs just stop working. That's usually right before a full faint.I have the same problem, Masumeh. I do not faint, but my hr increases (have not tried yet after the beta blocker and I do not know what will happen now if I do it) and I feel all the symptoms increased... It is horrible. Furthermore, I get out of breath, exhausted, dizzy, chest pain, etc.Similar reaction when I have to raise my arms above my head (or keep them at the level of my head)... Love,Tessa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 The first time I ever fainted in my life was down a flight of stairs. I hit my head off a door handle To this day stairs give me a hard time- even if I'm in remission they're not as easy as they were before POTS. Every day that I am able to go up to the reading rooms in the library, I end up so breathless I can't speak as I go in. So I have now taken to stopping half way up, and just catching my breath for a moment.I am better with stairs now- they don't tend to make me faint anymore, but they make my heart go bananas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizb Posted March 2, 2007 Report Share Posted March 2, 2007 Hi yes I have the same symptoms, my legs feel like that there are lead weights tied to them. Some more identification! Tonight my arms feel the same, think that might have been caused by carrying shopping.take care LizB x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tearose Posted March 3, 2007 Report Share Posted March 3, 2007 "stairs"Could be a chapter in a book for me!We were living in a house where you had to go up a full set of stairs to enter the kitchen from outside. Inside the house you would go upstairs to the bedrooms and then downstairs and downstairs to the basement to do laundry. With two kids and shcool, and laundry and shopping and going in and out and up and down...I was always so wiped out that I too would just try and stop to catch my breath while on the stairs. It was dangerous and exhausting. My heart rate constantly went up to 145-165 just ascending those stairs!!! (Also, both my knees have tears and this adds pain to the scenario!)We actually decided to leave that sweet little victorian charmer for a "no step ranch"...because of the stairs and how hard they were for me!It took nearly two years but we found a no step/ no stairs home!!! I sometimes now forget just how much energy I spent doing stairs!!! It has been a major energy saver to move here!I hope you can limit your need of stairs and someday, at least in your home...be stair-free!best regards, tearose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanzanite Posted March 3, 2007 Report Share Posted March 3, 2007 I can't do stairs so I'm stranded on the first floor of the house. My breathing is so bad I can barely get any oxygen in if I do the stairs and I feel as if my breathing will stop and this carries on for hours and hours after. My legs are heavy, weak and shaky too. It takes me a week to recover after using stairs. I really need a stairlift but it's not possible where I live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwen Posted March 3, 2007 Report Share Posted March 3, 2007 was visiting my kids at univ. and my son parked in a garage on 5th floor. yes there was an elevator, but stairs were closer, so i went along with him, and really didn't feel so hot. then walked 6 blocks to clerks office. by then felt horrible. i dress in layers and i imagine that they thought i was a stripper because i was pulling off one layer after another doing thehuff and puff. so after the meeting i walsked back to stairs with son and i thought after 3 floor he was gonna have to carry me!! i had felt fine when i left home!! i know i need exercise but i don't think stairs are gonna do it. our family always took stairs because it was easy way to exercise. for me i guess no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flop Posted March 4, 2007 Report Share Posted March 4, 2007 I find stairs a problem too.The house that I am living in with friends has one flight of stairs to the bedrooms which I can manage if I take my time and don't carry anything. We are lucky that there are bathrooms upstairs and downstairs so if i am really organised I don't have to go up and down too much.At work there are lifts but they are very slow. Often my collegues think that I am really lazy as they will only use the lift if going 3 floors or more (28 steps per floor) but I use it for even one floor. Even when I have explained to close collegues about the POTS they still regularly forget that I can't race up and down like a normal person. I've even had people tell me that I wouldn't be ill if I just took more exercise and used the stairs!Flop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunfish Posted March 4, 2007 Report Share Posted March 4, 2007 i can't do stairs in any sort of normal fashion or on any sort of regular basis anymore period. earlier in my dysautonomia diagnosis (~10 years ago) i actually lived on the tenth floor of an apartment building with an elevator that was out-of-order way too often. i did okay with it at the beginning but toward the end of my time living there it was quite an ordeal.over the years i've blacked out on stairs several times, one time leading to an injury that later necessatated spine surgery. not fun.now i'm largely relegated to the upstairs of my house (and often just my room/bed) b/c to get up and down i have to scoot and crawl and it simply isn't doable on a regular basis. since early december i've conquered the stairs only six times - for appointments, to get to the hospital, & for christmas day.so yep, stairs are definitely an issue.physically the stairs in the house have been the toughest part of having to move back in with my parents. even though my health made the move home a must, on good days i would be able to do at least a bit more for myself if we didn't have stairs. melissa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_dancer_grl Posted March 5, 2007 Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 yeah, hate stairs... i think i've actually developed a minor phobia of staircases (ones more than 10 steps scaring me they most) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dionna Posted March 5, 2007 Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 UP AND DOWN! i hate stairs with a passion. it could just be 3 or 4 steps and i will do anything i can to avoid them. my legs feel heavy, my chest feels like it is going to cave in, my knees kill me, and i pass out a lot after going up or down them. even hills give me a hard time. please, please just let me have a flat place to walk!!!i understand everyone's pain!!!dionna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flop Posted March 8, 2007 Report Share Posted March 8, 2007 Really dislike steps but beginning to hate lifts too! The lifts in my work are crazy, you can STAND for ages waiting for a lift to arrive then like busses 3 come at once. I had two odd experiences today. Got into a lift on the groundfloor whilst talking to a friend, pushed the button for the second floor. The doors shut and the lift felt like it was moving but when the doors opened and we stepped out we were still on the ground floor!The second was later on when I got in the lift on the second floor to go up to the third floor - I got taken via the ground floor and then the basement before going up to the third floor!Am I going mad or do lifts just not like me today?Flop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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