Brwneyedchica

I'm starting to feel better, a little more everyday. I thought he helped me to be strong when I was sick, but he started cheating THE VERY FIRST WEEK I was ever sick. Prior to that I was sick a day here or a day there. So he must have been talking online before that time. Turns out I was the strong one after all. We went in February and picked out a ring, but he never bought it. He kept saying that we were "engaged without the ring." He told his coworkers and his family and mine that we were getting married so I had no reason to doubt it. I wish he really had bought the ring, i'd definently sell it and use the money. Before I found out about the lies he had told me that he was buying the ring when he came home from being on the road for work, at the beginning of November. Something will happen and my first instinct is to call him, because before everything else (I thought) he was my friend. But then I remember the way he treated me and remind myself that he wasn't even my friend after all. He said he would stop cheating when we got engaged. When I feel sad I remind myself that it would always be some excuse, that it would never stop. What next, he'll stop when we have kids? When we buy a house? When he's bald and gained weight? He cheated because he wanted to and he thought that he could do it without getting caught. I guess he underestimated me. If I hadn't been sick, or there would be some other excuse as to why he would stray. I see that now, there were many excuses, and not so much truth. My mistake was dating someone my own age, instead of someone older who is mature.

Thanks everyone for all of your comments! I guess the worst part is all the long talks I had with him when I was crying and upset and frustrated about being so sick and trying to struggle to work and to go out every once in awhile. He told me all the time how much he loved me and how he would do anything for me...anything except be honest I guess. He would always tell me how proud he was of me for coming so far and doing so much despite the challenges i've had in my life. It's just really hard because he promised to help me, and was always talking about how he wanted to make my life better. We had all these wonderful plans for the future that after awhile I started counting on....Now I'm stuck in my mom's dank dirty basement, where they really don't want me to stay, about to sell my car and few meager possessions I own. I had to let my ex's parents keep my dog because i'm not able to and I won't be able to see her because that would be wayyy to awkward. I guess the worst part is that I feel like it's my fault. I know logically me not going out everynight doesn't give him a free ticket to lie and cheat, he could have said it was over and let that be that. But he told me all the time how wonderful I am and how wonderful our relationship was and how much he enjoyed spending time with me. I guess I'll know for next time

So i've finally given up and have started the ball rolling and am filing for disability. I'm kinda at a loss here because I currently take Inderal, Florinef, Zofran, Zelnorm, Salt tablets and potassium and I'm not sure how I will pay for them. According to the social worker I spoke with you are unable to get medicaid or any other type of government assistance until the disability decision is determined. What am I supposed to do in the meantime?

I posted in the chit-chat section about my boyfriend whom I just found out was cheating. He had one of the girls he was cheating with send me an email tonight and tell me it was because he got bored and I never wanted to go out. I never wanted to go out because I have been super ill and devoting all of my time to work and being well. I am SOOO upset. All the while (6 months of cheating) he kept talking about getting married and took me to pick out a ring and told me to quit my job and he'd take care of me so I wouldn't have to struggle to work sick. How hard is it to say hey this isn't working??? I just need some support right now. This is making me physically ill and I just wish I could crawl in a hole and die

I'm going to try and sell my car. I don't even know where to start with that. I signed a cell phone contract for two years so unless I pay some huge penalty fee I can't break it. I'm going to try and call someone and see about medicaid, maybe even some kind of other govt assistance.

So I thought I had this "wonderful" boyfriend and this great support system. My boyfriend of longer than a year has been my "rock" or so I thought, and sat by my side while I was in the hospital, and at home with me when I was sick and paid my bills when I couldn't. I had a falling out (I later found was due to him) with my Dad and he helped me move back to my mom's house. We picked out an engagement ring and started making plans for a spring wedding.More recently, he told me to quit my job and that he would take care of me because he's tired of watching me struggle. He convinced me to renew my cellphone contract another two years because he's on the road and it's easier to talk with him. He convinced me to buy a newer car when I had problems with my almost paid off car. Now I have no job, no health insurance, no way to pay my car payment, car insurance, cell bill or the COBRA payment to keep my benefits. I found out that while we've been together a little over a year he's been cheating for AT LEAST 6 months. I feel so sick physically that I can't eat, I can't sleep. I slept only a few hours and feel so very sick in all sense of the word. I feel sick to my very soul and I just want to crawl into some deep dark hole. I found out for certain that he took someone else out to bars and to gamble and to "hang out" with when I was sick. This was more than several times a week, not to mention that obviously they were more than friends. I pray to god for the strength to make it through this. I am now living in my mom's musty icky basement with spiders everywhere, I thought it was a short term thing being that we were supposed to get married this spring. I believed that my struggles to just live were over. How do I go on? What do I do about all of these bills and health insurance? I know I need to file for disability, i'm too sick to work. I feel like i'll never be happy. My last boyfriend prior to this ended it because he couldn't deal with my being sick and my "life style." I thought I was doing great this time around, giving this boyfriend space and not minding when my boyfriend went out when I was sick, and as it turns out he was cheating. I let him be my best friend and I let him literally be "my rock" and get me through hard times, I don't know how to do this alone anymore.

So I've been working at a large hospital for 3 and a half years and the last year and a half or so i've been ill off and on....but mostly on. I cut my hours down to part-time and was doing fine until a new administrator came along and made me work full-time hours again. Basically I've been able to work anywhere between 1-3 weeks at a time without missing but then i'll get really sick. Nauseated around the clock, vomiting, having weird irritable bowel type symptoms ect. Just not able to function at all, this last time I lost 7 lbs off my 5'3" 102 lb frame. The past several months the administrator has been threatening me about firing me and threatening me and I know if I would have stayed there it would have come. I decided to quit on my own terms. Tomorrow is my last day. I am 23 years old and I quit a very well paying job due to POTS. I sold my house, gave my dog to my boyfriends parents and moved into my mom's basement. My boyfriend is taking my car for awhile and will pay the payment for me as well as my other bills. I'm feeling very very sad right about now, but I know this is the best thing for me. Work has become very very stressful and alot of the staff have become very resentful of my being ill and leaving them to fend for themselves. I can't help but think that such a stressful work environment is contributing to my illness. I've been working on a medical transcription class slooowly for about a year now but could never really do that and work. When I worked that was my life, I didn't go out with friends or shop or anything I just worked. And now I can finish my class and get a job working from home. I thought I would be so happy and maybe I will be eventually. It's just really hard to move on and to kinda admit defeat. You can only fight your body and make it do what you want it to for so long.

Just a little Clarification: The way the doc described it was that, my blood pressure is relatively good with my current medications and my heart rate was a little fast but that was okay. He said he wanted to continue my taking the medications i'm on in that regard. And he said that trying a steroid is just a "shot in the dark." The way I understood it was that Autonomic Neuropathy is something I may have in addition. And for whatever reason he seems to think that if I respond well to a steroid than that will lead him to believe that I do have Autonomic Neuropathy. I had no idea what that even was until I came home and googled it. So perhaps I do have it and it actually caused POTS? I am only taking the Prednisone for a week. I've lost so much weight and been so sick lately that i'll try anything. Prior to posting anything I did search through the old posts but I was still a little confused. This is all very confusing. Thanks for all the input though!

I've been ill with intense unrelenting nausea for about three weeks now. I've also lost 7lbs from my 5'3" 102 lb frame. I am having such a hard time eating anything. I've been drinking lots of gatorade and carnation instant breakfast and eating sandwiches and toast. I went to see my POTS specialist today and he mentioned that since my blood pressure is stable and that I don't have the dizziness/passing out that perhaps I have Autonomic Neuropathy in addition to POTS. He wants me to take Prednisone for a week and see if the nausea lessens. Has anyone taken Prednisone before? I'm always a little afraid to try a new drug. Does anyone have Autonomic Neuropathy? What symptoms do you have? As much as I hate to have another diagnosis, I want to know why I feel so sick all the time, even though my blood pressure is decent. I'd appreciate any info!

I'm so sorry for your loss. I lost a baby a year ago this month, and it was the hardest thing i've ever had to go through. I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers. (((((((((Big hugs))))))))) Alicia

I woke up sick on the first day of 10th grade...I was 15. I've had POTS for 8 years now.

Cardiactec, I've been dealing with nausea on and off for about 8 years now. It seemed to get worse this past year with me doing several stints in the ER... with unrelenting nausea and vomiting (think neverending stomach-flu). My GI doc started me on Zofran and it is the only thing that works for me. I know how you feel, it's a terrible feeling and I hope you find some relief.

So i've made several posts in recent weeks about how my job was trying to fire me because I worked 1059 hours in the past year instead of the 1250 you need to qualify for FMLA. My doctor provided written documentation that I was only able to work part time hours since the last time i'd been so sick and that had been going okay, though I was still barely getting through that. Then they decided that I HAD to start working full time hours again at the end of july. So I made it through 2 and a half weeks of full-time hours and now I'm just feeling very very sick. I went to work sick monday and tuesday but I called off today, and this was the first time i'd called off almost 7 weeks. They give points for every time you call off, or leave work sick, so i'm sure that I don't have much to go. This could actually be it. I'm almost relieved that I won't have a job to worry about getting to. I moved back home with my mom and am thinking that if I let them fire me that I can collect unemployment. I've been trying for almost a year now to complete these medical transcription online classes but I'm giving my all to work and I am just not physically able to do anything else. I'm just very very sad, I feel like if I could suck it up a little more than I could make it to work. But I was so nauseated lastnight that I couldn't sleep until 5am and that was after taking 3 zofran. I guess i'll just feel like a failure if they fire me irreguardless of the fact that it's not my fault. I'm not able to do anything but work when I am working besides a load of laundry. And I'm usually really sick on my off days. I did sign up for LTD last january at work, so they've been taking money for that out of my check. What should I do? Let them fire me? IS there anything else I CAN do? I'm going to be 23 years old at the end of this month and I seriously don't know how i'm going to make it through the rest of my life if I have to go to work and feel this awful all of the time ;(

Babs, The days I missed were paid and also unpaid...they paid me when I had the actual sick time and vacation time available and then it was called "non paid FMLA" above and beyond that. I believe the 1059 was the actual amount of hours that I worked and the 1200 is the amount of hours you have to work to be eligible. I am an hourly employee and there was an employee handbook given out when I first started my job. I'll have to dig it out but I know it doesn't get specific about all these little regulations about hours worked and such.

I posted several months ago about how I've been feeling poorly and how I've missed alot of work and that my boss had mentioned that i'd missed more than the allotted FMLA time and that I should have my specialist fill out new more in depth paperwork. So of course I breathed a big sigh of relief when he filled out my paperwork stating each specific symptom and how I'm not able to work more than 20 hours a week at this time. I got a notice today that my FMLA was denied because from last July to this July I've worked 1059 hours instead of the needed 1200 hours. So it looks like they want to fire me on a technicality and say that all the time i've missed is not covered and fire me. Can they do this? It makes me furious that I have a legitimate chronic illness which is well documented that I told them specifically about when they hired me and they want to fire me. I guess the administrators are having a meeting about it on wednesday. I'm so tired of getting punished for being sick.

I was on Ortho Tricyclen Lo for a long time and had no bad side effects and no problems whatsoever, I timed it so that I took the pill in the afternoon at the same time everyday. I got pregnant on the pill last September, and though not planned I was sad when I had a miscarriage a few weeks afterward. After that I was switched to the patch (Ortho Evra). I've been using that for almost a year now and for the first few months didn't notice any side effects. Then I started having this weird feeling in my chest like someone was squeezing my heart and making it skip beats. I had it off and on and it increased in the past few months. I stopped using the patch in May and have noticed that since that time I have not had the strange heart beats at all. I've made an appointment to see a new OB/GYN doc (mine moved away) and I want to change my birth control. I'm really nervous about a low dose of any kind of pill ( I want to physically feel better and be off meds before having children), and the patch irritates my skin and more importantly seems to make me have strange palpatations. I may have something else going on, I'm not sure i've had very abnormal periods for the past 3 or 4 months, mostly they seem to never stop. I'm just curious what works for other people. I'm not all about putting anything inside of me so I wouldn't be able to do the Nuva ring or anything like that. I'm thinking more along the lines of another type of pill. Maybe even just the normal Ortho Tricyclen. Anyone have any recommendations?

I've had pretty severe nausea on and off (mostly on) for about 8 years now. I've tried Phenergan, compazine and reglan and they did nothing. Zofran is the only drug that works for me, and thankfully my insurance covers it, but I still pay quite a bit for it. Ever since the awful non stop vomiting spells I had in the winter ( I was in the ER several times and am still paying bills for it) I take Zofran whenever I get that really nauseated feeling going on. My GI doc referred me back to the POTS doc and then my Florinef was increased and I felt better for a few weeks. But for awhile now, i've been back to the same feeling sick to my stomach all the time feeling. I go see my specialist on the 19th so we'll see if he has any ideas. I just wanted to let you know that you're NOT a wimp. It's VERY VERY difficult to function when you feel like you're going to vomit. I'd like to see anyone "normal" do all that I do while feeling like i'm going to be sick. I've kinda just learned to ignore it, until it gets to the point that I need a Zofran. I sometimes just try and relax and take deep breaths and not be around any food or strangely enough to not talk until I feel better. This has always been my worst symptom. It's interesting that it effects so many of us with POTS. I hope that everyone suffering with nausea finds something that works. It's an awful thing to deal with ;(

I do pilates at home almost daily. The last time I saw my specialist he wanted me to "push myself" and do cardiovascular workouts. All I've done so far is start to take walks, take the stairs sometimes and do pilates most of the time. I feel much much better. I think it depends upon your particular case, so definently talk to your doctor first. But for me pilates is very relaxing and a wonderful stress reliever.

Yay!!! It's the little things I tell ya

Dayna, I'm so sorry to hear about your little boy... poor baby It's good they found the defect early on, as you said. I don't have any children but I can only imagine how hard it is to not be able to "fix it" for them. I'll keep you all in my thoughts and prayers.

I'm going to look into my rights at work. I know I've missed alot of work, probably far more than 12 weeks. I've had a rough year. As an added note I am living with my dad and haven't been able to pay him rent in about 4 months and I told him about my conversation with work and he wants me to move out if I can't pay him rent. Any suggestions on how to get through this horrible horrible time in my life all the while feeling sick as a dog?

My boyfriend's grandmother was killed on friday afternoon in a hit and run accident with a semi-truck. The guy in the truck never even stopped. It's just an awful and unexpected thing to have happen to someone who is other wise in good health for their age, i'm so sad for him and his family. I wasn't sure of his grandma's first name and so I asked my boyfriend. I guess he was in shock and I was upset myself because somehow I ended up putting his OTHER grandma's first name on the flowers I sent with the correct last name. I called the funeral home and he said that the flowers are all checked in by the last name and so it went to the right person. I told my own grandma about it and she said that the name was probably written on an envelope which would have been removed. So I'm hoping that nobody ends up seeing the envelope with the (alive) grandma's first name incorrectly written on it. To make matters worse, I was sick all day yesterday, all lastnight and this morning. I had to call off work and was pretty much told i'm going to be fired. (See post in other forum). I just don't know how I'm going to get myself to the funeral home today for the showing as sick as I feel. My boyfriend was upset at first but seemed ok... I think he was in shock. But I think things are more real for him now, because he's been with his family all day yesterday and today and through our short communication I can tell that he's really upset. He told me that he really wants me to be there and so I will. I don't care if I have to take a barf back in the car and make frequent bathroom stops along the way. Sometimes you just do what you have to do.

So I really thought I was feeling better after my last trip to the POTS specialist. But it really seems as though I can make it through 3 weeks of work and then I get sick again. I cut my work back to part time hours and I'm not even able to do that half the time now. My boss has been really good to me up until now but I guess she's had enough. She pretty much told me today when I called off that I've wayyyy overexceeded my FMLA time and that the hospital will be looking to fire me. I'm not even sure how I feel about this. It's almost a relief, I think my job might be stressing me out and making me sicker. I have been trying so hard to get through online medical transcription classes. It seems like if I could just finish them and work from home i'd be okay. I don't know what to do. I guess if they fire me than that's that. Perhaps I can find a job somewhere closer to home.

I've been feeling alot better lately and have been back at work part-time for several weeks. I tried to get back to my normal work hours yesterday and work an 8 hour day. I made it through the day, but felt very sick the last 2 hours and all of lastnight and now this morning. I had to call off work today. I could tell by the way that I felt lastnight that I wouldn't make it to work today, but I tried anyway. It's so frustrating to want something so badly that everyone else takes for granted. In my case, all I want is to go to work, to pay off the ever amounting pile of medical bills. After I first was diagnosed with POTS and started on inderal I was fine for several years. I worked long hours in retail, took college courses and went out with my friends. If only I could get back to that point.... In the mean time I've resigned myself to the fact that I can only work part-time for now. After all that's better than not being able to work at all, and I'm very lucky that I can even do that. I guess I will always hope for more....

Seeing as how I usually only have the time to check this forum when i'm feeling really crummy, I wanted to leave some positive news. I went and saw my POTS specialist last monday. He increased my florinef and started me on salt tablets and I was back to work on thursday. I've been feeling much better. After the med change my GI problems have decreased drastically. I also have been doing pilates and going for long walks. The combination of everything has me feeling pretty good. I hope everyone else is well, and i'm sending (((hugs))) and positive energy to those who are not