Jenny

THank you both for your replies. I just don't know because it came on so suddenly. I had a wonderful childhood, had lots of energy, spent my highschool years in cadets and working, then I did a year of fulltime postsecondary. I know that a lot of people have said that they knew they were sick all of their life, but that isn't the case for me. I had the surgery, suffered from a pulmonary embolist and then I just didn't recover. It just seems that it came out of nowhere and the fact that they cut pieces of my sympathetic in order to fit screws into my spine has always made me wonder. It's just so hard to know because I am not a doctor and they have done this surgery so many times without POTS as an outcome. I fear that if it is genetic I will pass it on to any children that I have. I guess I just feel like I need to know but I don't know if I'll ever be able to know for sure.

Hi everyone, I was just wondering if there is a way to find out if POTS is genetic or not. I developed POTS after spinal surgery but the docs have insisted that they were nowhere near the area that controls heart rate. It's been 5 and a half years and it doesn't look like this is going away. I have improved since the begining but am still unable to work. I have been through a bunch of tests with a POTS doc but would like to know if there are ways to tell if it runs in the family. I was healthy before the surgery with no hint of any problems. (I used to work 13 hour days retail no problem). I know that it won't make much difference for me but I would like to know in case I ever think of having children in the future Thanks Jenny