Hi, my name is Sara and I'm a 24yo female nonsmoker. I've always been moderately fit and very slim. I'm a professional dog trainer full time and also do dog grooming part time (I did grooming full time until I got sick). I've always had trouble with illness. Any time someone else got sick, it seemed like I would catch it and my symptoms would be worse than other people's. Last July/August, I got a really bad cold that turned into bronchitis. At one time I was coughing so hard that I had to go to the ER because I couldn't breathe, and later that week I coughed hard enough that I cracked a rib. In September my rib was still very sore, and I started getting flu-like symptoms. I was throwing up, running a fever, and just generally feeling crappy. Then I started fainting anytime I would throw up, and then for no reason at all. Just standing up would cause me to get lightheaded and faint. It felt like my heart was racing all the time, and it also didn't feel like it was beating right. My doctor at the time thought he heard a heart murmur and ordered a Holter moniter. It came back with periods of up to four hours at a time where my heart was going in the 170's, and I was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia. The doctor prescribed beta blockers, which made my fainting much worse but helped with the feeling of racing heart and irregular heartbeat. The doctor told me that I had anxiety which is why I was fainting. He prescribed klonazepam, which didn't help at all. He wanted to prescribe different anxiety meds and didn't believe me when I said that I wasn't feeling anxious about anything but my symptoms, and I only felt anxious about my symptoms when they were happening. Luckily my mom came with me to an appointment (I wasn't driving at that point) and chimed in that she didn't think my problem had anything to do with anxiety. My doctor referred me to the Mayo clinic. Over the rest of 2009 I had multiple EKGs, an echo, one regular holter moniter, one 12-lead holter moniter, an MRI, a tilt table test, and an autonomic nerve test where they did sweat cell testing, tilted the table up, and had me do deep breathing exercises/blowing into a tube. I was finally diagnosed with POTS by Dr. Goodman in neurology, although I also found Dr. McLeod in cardiology to be very helpful. I've been on propranolol and midodrine since January and have seemed to do okay. I'm careful to drink at least 3 Liters of fluids a day. Dr. Goodman also recommended 8 grams of salt a day, but I just can't do that so I just eat as much salt as I can. I've never been someone who really likes salty foods. A nutritionist friend recommended that I buy empty capsules at the local health food co-op and fill them with sea salt, which I've been doing and found to be really helpful. I've been hanging on okay, but this past two weeks my symptoms have flared way up and I'm not sure why. I can't go to the bathroom or stand up without almost fainting, and I've been up until 5am most nights because my heart is racing so hard I can't sleep. I've also been really nauseous, and ended up in the ER yesterday because I couldn't eat anything and would faint whenever I stood up. They did fluids immediately because my blood pressure was so low, but when they did a urine test they could tell that I wasn't lying about keeping myself hydrated and quickly pulled me back off the fluids. I was given anti-nausea meds and sent home. Today my primary doctor prescribed different nausea meds, which have allowed me eat some food. I've also gained some weight. Initially when I got sick I went from 115 down to almost 100, now I'm up to 127. I feel fat! I know this is because I'm not eating enough. It's hard to even get 1000 calories in some days, and not uncommon to only be able to eat 750. I'm looking forward to participating in this community and maybe getting some ideas. How does everyone else handle nausea and sleeplessness? I know that these two symptoms are making my lightheadedness much worse. I go into my primary care doctor again tomorrow (a different one then I went to last fall, since I dropped Mr. "It's Just Anxiety"), and going to the nutritionist on Thursday.