icesktr189

What took me from being bed bound for over 8 months, loosing 30 pounds in a month and almost suicidal from being so sick was Lexapro. Dont dismiss an anti depressant because its used for depression. It made my POTS almost go away. No i was not back to normal, but i went back to work and school! It saved my life. i would advise you to give it a try :]

So I have been feeling horrible since birth, and i found out i have chronic Esptein barr virus..I think its been going on for the past couple months, but test results showed longer. I am crossing my fingers that it goes into remission. Now the next issue is my chronic sinus problems. They have been almost a year.. the symptoms go: very painful in nasal cavity and ears. hurts to clean out with a q tip. very dizzy all this pressure im going to an ENT and they are doing allergy testing. but i had someone suggest that i have candida overload.. is this real? I have heard both sides, and quite frankly i dont want to go on that strick diet for no reason, especially with POTS. please help! I feel like a mess :/

be very careful! on my 21st bday (in july) I had 2 beers.. I was in bed the whole next day feeling horrible. It made my symptoms increase ten fold. Have a couple sips, give it like 30 mins and see how you feel. Do NOT try shots. Stick with beer or very lightly mixed drinks. You have to be very careful not to overdue it.. it wont be fun at all if you do

Hi! I just gave birth in March.. My POTS was great the first two trimesters, but by the 3rd it was pretty bad. I was in bed most of the days. Postpardum was great until about 5 months, and i hate to say, its been terrible for me. However, I know a lot of women who had the exact opposite effect! good luck and i hope everything works out for you!

well it would make sense for me because I came down with POTS while I was doing drugs. (ecstasy.. yes shame on me :/) That drug makes your body release TONS of serotonin all at once.. hence the very good feeling of being high you get.

sorry for writing again after my last novel but your story is just like mine. i REALLY urge you to take those anti depressants.. i was just like you, exactly in your shoes. i would look at myself in the mirror, and see my face and everything, and not feel real. I would lay in bed look around, and everything was dream like. All this went away went i got on those meds. They actually keep your bp up too.

im really sorry your going through this.. i have had the same thing happen to me for the past three years. I dont really know what causes it, but like you i am prone to anxiety. Its a combination of POTS/anxiety all mixed together.. almost like a viscous circle.. Usually mines starts out with POTS and works it way to an anxiety attack, but i have had it the other way around. It is very hard to differentiate between adrenaline surges and anxiety. The "out of it" feeling is from anxiety. Its your bodies way of calming you down, when in fact it actually makes you more afraid. The worse thing you can do is make yourself more nervous. You will just add fuel to the fire. I know most Potsies don't want to say they have anxiety because doctors are always mixing it up with POTS, but truth of the matter is with any chronic illness can come Depression/Anxiety. We are very high risk for this. The adrenaline surges don't help our case either. You need to make sure you still force yourself out of the house, because if you dont you can develop agrophobia. I had that for quite some time, and its very hard to get rid of. I almost didn't leave my house for a year and a half when i was first diagnosed. You have to force yourself out of bed, keep on driving, and moving around. With the lexapro, i have had experience. I cant lie, it was very difficult for me the first couple weeks. I was very symptomatic with adrenaline surges/anxiety attacks all over the place. HOWEVER, after a solid month it was wonderful. I went from being bed bound for 9 months hardly able to walk and a mental mess to a full functioning human who could work, drive, and even laugh again. I got off of it after a year and it was great until i got pregnant. What kept me sane the first month was my klonopin. If you do try the lexapro, dont give up until you have reached a month. I know the beginning is very rough, but it is worth it in the end. My case might be different however because they started me off at 10 mg. I am too giong to get back on it, and will start at around 2mg and work up. Good luck and just know that you are not alone in this feeling! Tons of us experience it daily

I FINALLY GOT INTERNET! well i found out im anemic.. again. LOL go figure.. however i am trying to explain this thing i have with POTS to my new cardiologist. i have had this happen a TON of times, just never knew what it is called. here are the symptoms: heart racing (obviously lol), my skin hurts.. almost like pins and needs but more hurting type (hard to explain), get very cold and have adreneline surges (ice cold feeling all in my body that shoots), dizzy and cant see straight, vertigo, feel like i am going to vomit, and eventually i freak out from it enough it some times turns into a panic attack. i knew i over did it today but i was not feeling too bad before this hit. is there a name for this? also i was not passing out.. this actually started when i was laying down from running up stairs.. thanks again for reading!

First i just wanted to say thank you to everyone that replies! i do read every reply, but i currently dont have internet at my house so i rely on my phone which wont let me reply Basically my POTS is pretty bad. i have constant headaches, flushing, migraines, dizzy, the whole works. weird part is that my hr and bp are pretty stable. I am a SAHM and i love my daughter but i have been feeling so out of it. now that i dont work i dont force myself to get out of bed as early, and its making me worse. i would love to go for a walk, but here in AZ its around 106 out! i am just at my wits end. I feel depressed but im not sure if its because of bad POTS/taking care of baby, or actual depression. i have read the checklist for depression, but a lot of symptoms such as increased fatigue are common with POTS! i just dont know about the anti depressant. i worked wonders for me last time, but i did horrible the first couple months until my body adjusted. i just cant take the risk of not being functional with the baby here. i just dont know what to do! its a nightmare! and thank you all again! you guys truly are awesome! much more help from this forum than an actual doctor

just want to say i really miss coming here! My daughter is taking up so much time now but i love her so much! she will be four months soon! anyways.. I will be 21 in a month, so my mom thought that it would be fun to go to vegas with a bunch of my girlfriends. she even offered to watch my daughter while i go out. Now this seems like every 21 year old dream come true, but at last i have POTS. I have not drank since i came down with this, and I know i will not make it past midnight. she has paid for the trip and everything. All my friends keep saying how they can wait to buy me shots and drinks. I just feel depressed. I almost want to say the trips off, but i dont want to hurt my moms feelings. What can i say when they all take me out and try to force drinks down my throat. They know i have POTS but certainly dont understand it. Its just so frustrating!

hi!! its nice to hear from you! i feel bad i havent been on in so long its just im sooo tired but motherhood is awesome! basically its like flashes of white light in my eyes.. so hard to describe but really annoying. i havent been back to him yet, but i do have a cardio appointment coming up soon thank gosh! how have you been??

i just got over a horrid flu and went to the hospital to receive fluids which helped.. but i have a very annoying symptom.. now my eyes "flash". not like colored lights, but a very bright light when i turn my head. also i feel like death. everything i do is very slow and i feel very slow. if that makes any sense. i know the flu doesnt help but i cant believe its taking so long to get back to normal. its been over a week now. been drinking tons of fluids, trying to get sleep ( my daughter makes it very hard) how long is this going to last? and has anyone had that symptom before??

hi! i am too going to be starting lexapro again.. last time i took it was over two years ago and they didnt know i had POTS and started me off with zoloft at 50 mg. it knocked me on my butt. thank gosh i had klonopin! but i switched over to lexapro because i hated the zoloft. it worked fine after awhile, but the beginning was a nightmare. i am just so worried because i am a stay at home mom and have a three month old. i have no clue how i am going to start my meds and watch her at the same time.

my mom took that stuff and almost committed suicide.. it is pretty nasty stuff. but she is 100 percent back to normal after getting off of it.. but she had trouble putting sentences together and could not think most of the time.. and severely depressed.

In a week i am having the paragard put in for bc and they told me to take 900 mg of ibprofen before hand. Since my dx of POTS i have not taken this.. only tylenol. is there any side effects i should expect? thanks!

oh i know how you feel.. i just love it when it reaches 120 degrees in my car during the summer!

thank you for replying! only problem is is that i did just go in yesterday to my cardiologist and he put me back on everything, but at lower dosages again. i just dont want to spike my bp so i told him i would start everything one at a time to be on the safe side. im just frustrated because i might have to go back to work in a couple weeks because my fiance lost his job, but i dont feel exactly safe to drive just yet. (i have never driven without midodrine in my system)

now after birth my POTS has changed. i AM dizzy but its different. Before the pregnancy i took florinef and midodrine. I would get very dizzy and feel like i would pass out without them. But now with my POTS, i feel dizzy but just in my head. i dont feel like im going to pass out and my body feels fine. I used to get very weak, racing heart, ect. But now i dont have that. I am worried about those meds now that i dont pass out.. also i am afraid of those meds now because i dont remember how i reacted to them in the beginning because it was so long ago. what are some side effects associated with florinef?

one of the best hospitals out here is Banner Desert in Mesa. I love the cardiologists at that hospital.. i hope you feel better soon! o yeah the pollen out here is crazy and i have noticed that my POTS is acting up big time.

im not sure but i do know that one or two drinks are okay for me but anything past that and i have negative effects.

This is my worst symptom. I do have anxiety disorder, but i know for a fact i get this feeling when i have adrenaline surges. I can tell right before because i will feel very dizzy and have this icy cold feeling shoot through me. Other times i trigger it myself when i have a true panic attack. But one thing is for sure, i did not have ANY problems with anxiety until i came down with POTS. But we are at such a great risk for depression/anxiety because we have a chronic illness. You need to take care of your mental health as much as your physical health. POTS and anxiety are totally different things, but you can still have both. good luck! you can over come this trust me.. SSRI's truly save my sanity

i went back to my doctor for my stupid sinus problems and mentioned another problem i was having with my fingers. I have had trigger finger for a long time now.. probably a year.. she was worried that i might have rheumatoid arthritis. i have a lot of the symptoms.. i dont know what i am going to do if i have this on top of POTS. The drug treatments seem horrible and im so sensitive to meds. Does anyone have experience with this? i hate that i am only 20 years old and have to deal with this stuff. Sorry if im whining but i just want to be a normal young adult.

when you guys talk about the younger you are the better.. how young is young? I had symptoms (very minor) since i was 12 but i hit full swing when i was 18.

yeah after reading the very LONG list of flonase side effects I decided not to take it. Its just not worth it and even if i were to manage not to have symptoms my head would trick me into thinking i was LOL. i just worry because i have had this sinus stuff for a while and i hear those crazy stories of it going to your brain! i guess i am a hypochondriac but that seems really scary. And i dont feel comfortable to keep taking antibiotics because i have gone through 4 rounds in the past 6 months.

how did you handle this med?? i read some side effects were vertigo and dizziness..