Lemons2lemonade

You know what's weird, and I can't believe that I had forgotten this, is that 3 days prior to my onset, I remember we went to the local animal shelter and I was holding a bunch of cats. There was also a sick.cat there. He looked like how I look now The tachycardia started the next day.

Maybe for those who didn't work in healthcare they can say so on the thread.

Only problem I see with the poll is you can't choose never worked in healthcare as an option because it says you have to answer every question in order to vote

good point...

There are links between EDS and certian personality types (would have to google to fine the paper), but competitiveness is part of this particular personality type. Type A?

Serbo, i would LOVE to read that...

I read somewhere recently that hawaii is supposed to be the healthiest place to live.

I am right handed, but right before i got sick i was playing frisbee golf a lot with my left hand.

Nice job! Keep it up!

I'm proud of you jangle! Good luck! Remember to take it slow to begin with. I walked around all day without my compression socks

Is it possible that our propensity to exercise relates to our condition?

Anyone had this? I did in high school felt just like pots only pleasant instead of unpleasant. Same out of.body type deal.

I have learned that going to sleep will skirt a pots episode. The more I fight to stay awake the more violent my pots symptoms become.

Thanks Jangle, will read

This is my first poll, so don't even know if i'm doing this right...

I know, I am skeptical of Levine too. It doesn't make sense as far as onset. As in active people get this while they are active..if activity helps there is something missing here with onset.

I am reading up on on aerobic exercise and its effects. I know Levine says it "makes our hearts bigger" but I think there is much more to this. Consistently performing aerobic exercise is supposed to increase your blood volume and also your oxygen carrying red blood cells. (Hello florinef/aldosterone). Maybe our brains are used to having these extra red blood cells around. Also something to consider is the nature of aerobic exercise. Energy is created during the krebs cycle and mitochondria plays a huge role in this (hello co q 10) I'm pulling out my biology book to look at this a little closer.

If so, how athletic? I used to lift weights in the morning and do two soccer practices along with extra cardio 5 days a week. When I got into college I used to run 5+ miles 2-3 days a week. When I first got sick I was put on a beta blocker and during that time I had to pass a "work out on your own" class. For the first 2 weeks I just went in and stretched. Then I slowly progressed to jogging and got back up to 5 miles. The next quarter, I did not take the class and that was when my pots hit hardest.

Yes it happens to me from time to time.

Is this normal for patients with pots? Also, what exactly does it mean...I am confused on how the rythym of my sa node is made not just fast but abnormal by pots.

Dani, what do they do for you?

Lilly when you say weird hearing what do you mean by that?

Christy, did they get his temp up, or did his body do it on its own?

Do people with pots faint/ near faint even when hr is not into tachycardia?

For those without full syncope, what is your presyncope like, other than hr and bp readings. As in descriptive symptoms?

Depending on how bad it is they admit me and do nothing or give me a bag of fluid.in th e.r. and send me on my way. If there's vomiting they give me zofram and that's about it.

Abby, like everyone else said keep pushing for answers. Another funny thing about stress is that sometimes you dont realize how much stress you are under. I didn't "feel" stressed but when I got sick I was working 30 hrs a week (and competing strongly for my position), going to school full time, taking care of the house, dealing with relationship problems, and was staying out past 2 am over 3 nights a week and trying to do it all perfectly. When I read that now I say, "wow, that is a lot of stress!" But it didn't feel that way at the time. I realize now that most people don't load their plates that much. I don't think I had even sat on the couch and just relaxed for over a year. Guess I'm making up for it Another good story is my withdrawal from 3 months of taking lorazepam 4 times a day, cold turkey for an eeg. It was then that I truly learned how powerful my mind can be. I was seeing flashes (like lightning) every 20 minutes, I couldn't focus on a rock if you asked me to. I was sweating profusely. I'm pretty sure my heart is still running laps around that block, because of how many times it leaped out of my chest. If I thought about my arm it would hurt, if I thought about my ear it would hurt etc. Essentially, pretty much anything I could imagine being wrong was turned into a reality by my mind. I took 25 showers that night, talked to 5 nurses on the phone, urinated probably 100 times, and didn't sleep the entire time. It truly let me know what my mind was capable of.