outofadream

Hi again jingles, I hear you on the rant. It's insanely frustrating when you KNOW how anxiety feels, and you get the sense that what's going on isn't that….but those around you keep saying or hinting maybe it is anyway. Very aggravating, so glad you found the real culprit. Hope you're doing OK, I've heard labyrinthitis can be pretty rough. Hope the antibiotics are at least clearing up the infections, and that the benzo withdrawal is going without too many hitches too. Sounds like a heck of a month, I can imagine you're very ready for something to be getting better!

Hi jingles, sounds like you've been having a rough month so far…so sorry to hear about your house and the dizziness both :/ Sounds like it could well be worth talking to someone about the dizziness, if only to get a better idea of what might be going on and possibly some relief? It sounds like it's been a pretty miserable experience so far. It's frustrating too when you get the sense that what's going on isn't anxiety, but you don't know for sure what the heck IS going on. I'd be curious to know, do you get the dizziness when you're still, or only when you move your head or body? Does it get worse when you change levels, like sitting to standing? Does anything seem to make it better or worse? Sometimes seems like the answers to those questions can help narrow down the list of possibilities. For what it's worth, I've found this site to be enormously helpful in trying to track down causes of dizziness: http://vestibular.org/understanding-vestibular-disorder/types-vestibular-disorders. They have a pretty extensive list of possible causes, and what specific symptoms go along with each. There are some possibilities that could be connected with the ear pain you've been having, and some that could potentially be triggered by neck or head movements as well. I really hope you start to feel better soon. Having dealt with dizziness (both related to POTS and bad environmental allergies), I know it can get pretty disheartening and unsettling feeling off balance all the time like that. Hang in there, and hope everything stabilizes soon!

Hey sideofsalt, hope you're feeling better now. If the sinus congestion is still an issue at all, I've actually had surprisingly good luck with regular ibuprofen (if that's something you tolerate). Don't know if this would work for everyone, but I find it not only helps pain but also cuts down the inflammation enough to relieve some of the nasty congestion as well. Hope things are still on the upswing, and you're getting some relief...sinus infections are miserable buggers :0

Cskjeie-Haha, I did indeed live to tell the tale I feel you, the waiting is absolutely nerve-wracking. For what it's worth, tough though Mayo was, I did have a much of a better idea of what I was facing and what I could DO about it afterwards, and it seemed to make a big difference. Hope the waiting is going along ok so far! Kitkat, really sorry to hear you've been struggling I hope you've already found a way to get in to see someone, but to answer your question, I ended up at Mayo by about the same route it sounds like you're pursuing. I'd been diagnosed by a local cardiologist, but they really didn't have much of offer in the way of suggestions for treating or managing it. Since things kept getting worse and was having an increasingly overwhelming and confusing array of symptoms, I wound up going to several specialists in the area to try to get some answers, and I think one of them (local neurologist?) referred me to Mayo. Hopefully, either way you've been finding more answers and support…either with a specialist somewhere in your area, or if they don't know what to do, hopefully they have or can refer you to someone (either doctor or clinic) who can be of more use. Hope things are going better for you now... pooter18, that sounds like an awful experience! I'm so sorry you're going through a bad time again now too. Best of luck on your July appointments, hope everything goes smoothly.

Hi Cskjeie, I actually went through Mayo's program at Rochester a couple years back. And I was absolutely terrified beforehand too! I took one look at that packet and said, "They want me to get through all of this HOW?!" For what it's worth, it was definitely grueling and sometimes uncomfortable, but it wasn't as terrifying as I'd feared. So many of the people there are incredibly caring and go out of their way to make it as easy as possible to get through. Since it's been a few years, they may have changed the program some, but definitely recognize pretty much everything on the list, so if you have any questions or just need someone to freak out with, feel free to ask anything or shoot me a message I remember that Thermoregulatory test for sure. That was one of the top ones I was scared about ahead of time. But the tech was wonderful, made sure I was comfortable and feeling OK, told me ahead of time exactly what she was going to do, etc.. They have you wear a dust mask while they're brushing the dust on, so it got a bit stuffy, but she was very fast, so didn't have to wear it for terribly long. And then you look like the abominable dust person for awhile, which I thought was mildly humorous And from what I remember, the "oven" part wasn't as scary as I feared either. It was an uneasy moment going into it, but it wasn't as cramped as I'd expected and lots of glass to see out. I'm fairly claustrophobic, so that at least was a relief. They increase the heat slowly, so at the beginning it wasn't too bad. By maybe the last ten to fifteen minutes, I was starting to get uncomfortable and in a hurry to get out of there. But again, the tech was very helpful, letting me know how close I was to being done, talking soothingly and making sure I was OK. They played music the whole time, which helped too….although it was a strange experience to have Phantom of the Opera music floating down from above while you're lying there covered in dust. If there's someone who can come with you, it might help at the end. I did find I was pretty shaky and out of it for a few hours after the test, so it helps if you have someone there who can help you. Since I was in pretty bad shape with the POTS before I began the test (weak and struggling to walk), it was a challenge showering off. The dust by then has turned to this purple, jam like stuff that doesn't quite want to come off, so it can take awhile. But the cool shower water helps a lot. After that, you're pretty much done. I do think I was slightly purple and had a dusty nose for a day or so afterwards, and as I said, definitely a bit weak and tired for awhile (and cold, which seemed backwards…maybe I'm just strange, but you might want to bring a jacket or sweatshirt just in case). I don't know what your symptoms are like with the POTS, but for me, it was an experience I wouldn't go out of my way to repeat, but it wasn't nearly as terrifying as it had sounded ahead of time. I think the waiting ahead of time was actually the worst part, so again, feel free to ask if there's anything troubling you Best of luck and take care!

Hi Michele, I feel your pain…I actually came down sick in October too, and ever since been struggling with pretty much EXACTLY what you're describing with the tiredness and something being "off" beyond the regular POTS stuff. I'd be very curious to know what tests you've had so far for it, and what they found. I don't know…it's always such a tough question figuring out what's coming from dysautonomia and what isn't. I've certainly had it where getting killer POTS symptoms with perfectly reasonable heart rates and blood pressure, but on the other side, I've never had this kind of malaise and tiredness with POTS before either. Hopefully whoever you're seeing for the autoimmune blood work can give you more detailed answers and a better picture of what may be going on soon. I know autoimmune stuff can be frustratingly difficult to track down :/ Sorry I don't have more useful thoughts (maybe someone else on here will have more insight), but for what it's worth, I can DEFINITELY relate. Hang in there, and hope you get some answers and relief very soon

Hope you're feeling better now artluvr, that agitation is miserable. I get agitation too, more often a horrible feeling of impending doom but often irritable as well. Everyone's different, but I certainly think mine comes from adrenaline rushes, because usually get that hand shaking at the same time and my pupils get HUGE. If it is adrenaline, anything that tamps down those surges might help? For me, beta blockers made a huge difference….they blocked some of that adrenaline response, and it made it so much easier to be calm and felt much better mood wise. It can be a bit tricky since beta blockers lower blood pressure too though, found I needed to drink lots and get more salt, or I'd still get adrenaline surges from having blood pressure dropping too low. Seems to be a tricky balancing act, like so much with dysautonomia.… Hope your daughter finds something that works, db2504. As a (now grown) daughter who's gone through that kind of agitation, I know it can be painful to have her snap at you (even when it's got nothing to do with you), and it's definitely not easy to watch her go through it. (P. S. Katybug, I laughed so hard at your car sign idea…I get that road rage too!)

Hope for me isn't so different from love. Each moment of shared understanding, a smile with a family member, a laugh with a friend, a prayer for someone loved but far away. I don't know if things will ever get better, but it's the connection, the love that seems to hold everything together even then. The feeling of being part of something bigger somehow, the strength that comes from believing that one isn't alone, that one can be understood, and that one still has something to give back. Sometimes I can't find that hope, at all. Sometimes, I find the faith to believe that the love is still there even when everyone and everything seems to have been lost. But I think that's what hope has come to mean to me. Thank you so much for all of your definitions…they simultaneously brought a tear to my eye and smile to my face

Hey artluvr, just wanted to say sorry you've been having such a rough run of things. I hear you on the tired, irritable, and anxious…it's so frustrating how that hits every time we do too much. :/ Hope you do get some rest, that the bad feelings ease, and the migraines leave you in peace again!

I had a sinus infection that began in October of last year and as far as anyone can tell, it finally went away a couple months ago. But ever since then, I've been struggling with recurrent low grade fevers (up to around 100). I've certainly had temperature regulation issues before with the POTS (up to around 99.3), but never anything quite this dramatic or that caused this kind of sick feeling. The ENT suggested it could be coming from a nasty dust mite allergy, but I've never heard of allergies causing fevers? It also may be be tracking with my cycle, which doesn't make any sense to me either. So my questions are as follows: Do any of you fellow allergy sufferers run low grade fevers with your allergies? Do any of you women with dysautonomia run fevers at specific times in your cycle? Have any of you been sick, then found that the fever took forever to go away or kept coming back? As always, I really appreciate you guys' insight

I know I'm late to this topic, but wanted to say thanks for sharing your experiences…its always reassuring to know other POTS folk understand. Statesof, I get those trails…had never heard anyone else mention or describe them before. Other than one incident of migraine aura, haven’t had migraines (as far as I know anyway), so always assumed mine has something to do with the POTS. Also seems to hit most when the POTS is being difficult, can happen anywhere from hours to weeks at a time, then eases up again for awhile. I’ve never understood why it happens or how it fits in with everything else though…it started a couple years after POTS began and never went away entirely again.

Thanks for the clarification and link Katie…I thought he was talking about this http://www.nebraskamed.com/neuro/surgery/vertebral-basilar-insufficiency because he muttered something about being "a bit young for this kind of problem to be likely", Hadn't run into this condition or info before though…

Hi DizzyGirls, sorry that your daughters are struggling with that. Chronic vertigo is miserable, and I'm sure it's been frustrating trying to get answers and help. I'm not sure if my experience was anything like your daughters', but I did have an almost constant sense that everything was slowly spinning, rocking, or generally moving for almost three years. It would sometimes even happen in my sleep, and Id have some pretty uncomfortable dreams about roller coaster or falling elevators. I'm curious, does anything they do make it better or worse? I know that for most people, moving will make vertigo worse. For me, oddly enough, what gave the most relief in the short term anyway was to sit in a rocking chair, a car, a wheelchair…anything that moved in a relatively constant way. I don't know whether it better regulated blood flow or something about the motion itself helped, but that was the only thing that gave me a break from the unsteady feeling when it was at its worst. In my case, I think either gradually increasing exercise/walking or simply time helped it to fade away (like Claired, mine very much seemed to track with the POTS/dysautonomia issues) . I still get trouble sometimes, but it's finally not constant anymore. The doctors could never agree or make up their minds, but some of them certainly seemed to believe that the vertigo was caused by slightly less blood getting to the brain (as far as I could tell, they didn't seem worried about this, just thought it might be causing the vertigo). One thing that was suggested to me was to do an MRA (similar to an MRI, but looks at blood vessels instead) to check on the arteries and veins in my neck. The neurologist I was seeing said that on top of the blood flow issues dysautonomia could cause, it was possible that if those blood vesels were at all narrow, that could exacerbate the blood flow issues further. I have no idea if he actually knew what he was talking about…my issues improved greatly soon after seeing him, so I never had the test. If you haven't gone to an ENT yet, I agree with everyone else, that's probably the best place to start....they'll have a better idea of what tests to run and where the vertigo might be coming from. Other than that…given that it sounds like you've already been wrangling with this for awhile, you may have already ended up here, but I found the Vestibular Disorders Association site helpful: http://vestibular.org/.%C2'> It lists possible disorders that can cause vertigo, but it also has a lot about dealing with the vertigo when it hits and generally getting help with it. I'm sure it's been a long, frustrating road, so I very much hope your daughters (and you!) get some relief again soon!

Hey artluvr, hope you're feeling less tired now! I don't remember completely missing a dose of the beta blocker was on, but would get somewhat more heart racing when I took it late. I also just tapered off it entirely, and can tell you I definitely felt some side effects from that! I'd forgotten what it was like to get that kind of chest discomfort, spells of heart rate in the 140's+, attacks of shaking from head to toe, and weakness. Thankfully at least some of that seems to have been withdrawal and improved greatly after a couple days. I'm so sorry you had to deal with that kind of uproar on top of being at the dentist though :0 I've generally found that when my heart races more, for any reason, tend to get more tired for the rest of that day (and sometimes into the next). Hope that means you're feeling better by now!

Ruby, that sounds like an awful experience…I hope they've at least been able to keep the infections at bay since. Thank you for the suggestion on the sinus rinse, it's very much appreciated. Best wishes to you too Singout, sorry you've been having sinus issues too. If you do stumble on anything that helps, I'd be glad to hear! Hope you do find answers, not to mention some real relief. At this point, I'm at a bit of a loss. They did do another endoscopy when I was in a couple days ago, and they don't see any clear signs of the infection anymore. Which is great, except for the fact that I don't actually feel any better. The allergy test did come back positive for a couple things, so been trying to get that under control now. But I don't know that that explains the stubborn fever and general sick feeling. I don't know…I'm pretty unclear about what's going on at this point.

Hey Mike, afraid I don't really have any ideas for you, but wanted to say (belatedly) sorry you're having a hard time. It can be so frustrating to feel worse, and then have to wait to get some answers. My POTS sounds like pretty much the polar opposite of yours (bp tends to be relatively normal, but lots of heart rate variations), but I do have trouble after meals with being weak and tired, even when my bp is fine. It's helped some to eat smaller meals more often, but I don't know if that works for you given the issues with losing weight. I've definitely had it where my bp is good and heart rate is lower than usual…anytime my heart rate is lower than usual, I immediately have more trouble with weakness, breathlessness, etc, but sounds like your situation is somewhat more complicated. Sorry I don't have very many ideas…just hope you feel better, and hang in there!

I agree on the winter air! Its been pretty cold where I'm at (in the midwest), so I'm feeling it too. Every time I catch sight of your picture (which I like, btw ), start wishing it was spring already… Also, in doing some searching, I stumbled across a possible link between dysautonomia and some of the sinus symptoms it sounds like we're having? I think there might have been posts about it here a couple years back, so this may be old news, but didn't see these particular articles… From what I got out of this, there's an issue called vasomotor rhinitis, where you can get post-nasal drip in response to things like smells, chemicals/smoke, temperature changes, etc rather than allergens.: http://www.aafp.org/afp/2005/0915/p1057.html#afp20050915p1057-b4 I got curious about it because the explanation for why it happens sounds like it has to do with the autonomic nervous system, and sure enough, there seems to be some link there: Autonomic nervous system evaluation of patients with vasomotor rhinitis http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11081594 Dysautonomia rhinitis: associated otolaryngologic manifestations and characterization based on autonomic function tests. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17050315 Again, I have no idea if this is relevant, but seems like it's at least plausible there's some link between POTS and the sinus issues. If this is what's going on, sounds like there's some possibilities for treating it (although who knows…it feels like everything having to do with POTS is such a tricky business). Best of luck to you too though, hope things get better as the winter wears on!

kJay, they told me that my septum is ever so slightly deviated, but not enough to cause trouble. I know what you mean though…my dad has a really deviated septum, and it gives him a lot of troubles with congestion/sinuses. Glad they could do something that helped you! jknh, that really stinks! I know exactly what you mean…every time I get sick, I get that going to die feeling too, especially if I run a fever (and I don't know if this is true of you, but I run fevers with pretty much everything, even colds). It's funny too because my POTS started just after an acute bacterial sinus infection…when I was diagnosed several years later, they told me they thought that could have been the trigger, but I've never been sure that they were right (they also told me I would probably grow out of having POTS, and that certainly hasn't happened). I hope we both eventually get some answers! The ONLY information I've found so far has been links between beta blockers and sinus issues (don't know if that's relevant for you). Apparently beta blockers in general can cause post-nasal drip/non-allergic rhinitis? I also stumbled on this article about a possible link between chronic sinusitis and non-selective beta blockers: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7992269 Again, no idea if that's relevant to you or anyone else, but it was enough that I decided to get off the low dose Nadolol I'd been on…so far, no evidence that doing so has helped anything though.

Thanks so much for the suggestion! I'd been thinking maybe the POTS was causing some changes in blood flow that were increasing inflammation or directly causing some kind of inflammation that was making it hard to clear out…I honestly hadn't thought about something underlying both the infection and POTS.

So I know a lot of us have sinus problems, but does anyone else here struggle with bacterial sinus infections you just can't get rid of? And has ANYTHING helped? I've had one for almost 3 months now, and even though they put me on five antibiotics, and tried two short bursts of prednisone (which didn't go too well), it's still not gone. The ENT is puzzled because the last CT scan (a few weeks back) seemed to only show a fairly mild infection, so he can't figure out why it's being so persistent. I've honestly tried everything I can think of…Allegra for possible allergies, Nasacort, saline spray, breathing steam, doing the neti pot/irrigation thing every day, sleeping with a humidifier, ibuprofen couple times a day to try to cut down the inflammation, etc. I'm also supposed to be going in for allergy testing in a couple weeks, just in case that's part of the problem. Has anyone else struggled with something like this? Could this have anything to do with the POTS, or some issue related to the POTS? Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated…I'm at a complete loss, and I'm getting pretty sick of the constant low grade fever and POTS flare madness this infection has created :0

I can certainly relate to some of what you're describing too. I've gone through phases with the POTS where pretty much as soon as I start exercising, I get some of the symptoms you describe…short of breath, cold, vertigo/dizziness. Like lejones asked, do you know what your heart rate or blood pressure is when you're exercising? I know I sometimes get those same symptoms when my blood pressure is running a little on the low side. Does this happen no matter what kind of exercise you do? Again, I ask because for me, certain types of exercise cause more trouble than others. If I do cycling or any cardio that just involves my legs, I get dizzy and short of breath. Strangely enough though, if whatever I'm doing involves my legs, arms, and stomach muscles, I don't have as much trouble…I guess maybe helps the blood flow stay more even, instead of shunting it all to my legs. Either way, I don't think you're alone in having trouble while you exercise, and hope you can get some relief from it!

Thank you both so much for the thoughts and advice. Azmusiclover, do you mind my asking what level of school you’re at right now? I actually majored in psychology in college, and have been going back and forth about going to grad school someday and becoming a counselor too, so I’d be interested to hear if you’re in grad school right now, and how that’s going and such, if you’d be willing to talk about it I think what’s frustrated me is that I tried to be so careful in my last search (the one that landed me with the counselor I just left). I knew which approach I was interested in and what goals I specifically wanted to work on, which she and I talked about in the first sessions. I found her through psychology today’s website, and was specifically drawn to her office BECAUSE all the counselors there had a fair amount of experience with chronic illness, and it seemed to be a particular area of focus in the office as a whole. I guess she and I just didn’t click, which I know happens sometimes. The biggest irony was that she’d had clients with POTS before, but that prior experience just seemed to create problems, because as you say azmusiclover, we’re all individuals. She said her experience was that she’d helped these clients with POTS be less anxious, and they got loads better. The problem was, I’d already done a lot of work to bring down the anxiety I’ve felt. (Speaking of which, it’s interesting that you both suggested relaxation and mindfulness…so far, I’ve found that relaxation exercises haven’t helped me so much, but mindfulness definitely has. Again, interesting how we all find different things, and some of the same things, that help ) She just seemed unable to get past the idea that I must be really anxious all the time. She’d ask me repeatedly if I was worried that this symptom or that could mean something life threatening or whether it could be coming from something more than POTS. Now, if she’d asked me those questions a few months earlier, I would probably have said yes, but those worries have faded quite a bit over time. No matter how many times I answered I wasn’t especially worried, though, the idea I was anxious just seemed to pop up again and again, in small ways. When I was having a bad POTS spell and wasn’t walking one time, she speculated I was trying to avoid uncomfortable sensations and thus fueling anxiety…never mind the fact that I deliberately push myself through uncomfortable symptoms pretty much every day, sometimes just so I don’t become afraid of them again. When I mentioned I was somewhat concerned about the future, because I knew some of the more troublesome symptoms (vertigo!) might not be easy to treat or fast in going away, she turned that back on me and suggested I was making myself anxious. I just came to feel that no matter what I said, she interpreted it as anxiety, and no matter how I tried to convey what I wanted and needed, she couldn’t seem to easily adapt or understand. We had a couple discussions where I tried to let her know what would help me, and each time seemed to bring changes for the better (which is why I stayed as long as I did), but then the whole anxiety assumption would sneak back in again. I just felt like she couldn’t see past her own ideas to what was actually going on with me, and that progress was slow on the problems I came in to work on because she’d get distracted by her own ideas of what was “wrong”. I know she was trying to listen and understand, but she never seemed quite able to hear what I had to say about myself, my situation, and the problems I came in to address. Anyway, I’m hoping she was just not the counselor for me and that I’ll have better luck next time. I think I’ll definitely take your advice, margiebee, and talk to my PC to see if she can recommend someone, and maybe do a bit more research this time before I choose one to try.

Like others have said, I’m totally impressed by you keeping up with so much already…I came down with POTS in college too, and honestly, I’m not sure I would have been able to do half that much! I’m so sorry you’re getting people saying or implying hurtful things like that…I know that can be so hard I’m not absolutely sure where I read this, but I seem to remember reading once that it required 4x more energy for someone with POTS to stand up as someone without POTS. The article said it was basically like people with POTS are running a marathon all the time…so no matter what ANYONE says, it seems to me that this means you're actually working harder and “sucking up” way more than many people have to. I don’t know if this is helpful at all, but when I was diagnosed with POTS (soon after graduating college), I was really, really worried that my friends would think I wasn’t hanging out with them as much because I was avoiding them or making excuses or something. I was so worried I actually sent my closest friends an email telling them what I had, explaining the basics of what the POTS made it hard for me to do, and telling them that I really did want to spend time with them all, and that if I wasn’t doing that so much, it had to do with the POTS and not them. I don’t know for sure how much that helped (and obviously, I don’t know what your friends are like or what you may have already told them), but I think that did help mine understand some. My experience has also been that just plain time has seemed to help…sometimes people who didn’t seem to understand soon after I was diagnosed (and again, I don’t know how long ago you were diagnosed, so don’t know if this applies), have understood more as time passes. I think it has just taken them some time to wrap their heads around what POTS is all about and figure out that the times I’m not able to be as social has to do with the POTS, not them. No matter what, I hope that things do get less frustrating and easier for you soon!

I know a lot of us have had this experience with doctors, but I’ve been having trouble finding a good counselor/therapist. The counselor I was seeing seemed WAY too quick to assume I was anxious and that anxiety was the cause of symptoms I mentioned in passing, and she seemed way too confident she was right. It was so frustrating, because I went out of my way to let her know I’d be honest about the times I WAS anxious, and that I expected to be believed if I said I didn’t think a given symptom had to do with anxiety. I know there must be good counselors out there. I had one, about a year ago now, who was just wonderful (she even researched POTS on her own time, just so she could understand what was going on, and she seemed to almost immediately get how POTS is different from anxiety). I want to find another counselor like that, who doesn’t get hung up on the idea that anxiety causes everything and who can hopefully understand some of the challenges of living with a chronic, unpredictable condition. Have any of you found techniques to screen out not-so-helpful counselors from the ones who ARE good about the POTS? Maybe counselors/therapists with a certain type of experience or approach, or who work at certain kinds of places? I don’t know. I’d just really like to avoid having yet another negative experience, if possible, and I’m not really sure right now how to make that happen…

Hey imapumpkin, just wanted to chime in and say I’m sorry you’ve been having a hard time. I know how frustrating it is to not be as functional as you used to be and to not have the independence that you want. I know I was so excited to graduate college and finally be out in the world doing the things I wanted to do…and then the POTS took a turn for the terrible. I’m in a similar place to you right now…24, unable to work or drive thus far, living with my family and needing a lot of help from them, while doing all I can think of to get better. For what it’s worth, I don’t think you have anything to feel guilty about. I think you (and anyone else going through POTS) deserve a great deal of credit for living with it every day and doing all you can to get better, because it’s HARD work. That being said, I get those feelings of guilt and being a burden a lot too. I know none of this has been easy on my family and friends, and that they’ve had to give up a lot to help me. I know they get frustrated about it sometimes too, which makes me feel AWFUL. For me, it sometimes helps a bit to remember all I am doing to get better, as well as to see any progress I’m making, even when it’s tiny, or two steps forward, one step back. I also try to remember that even when people seem to be frustrated with me, it’s often really the POTS they’re frustrated with (and believe me, that’s something we all agree on then, haha). Sometimes, it’s even helped to sit down with my family and just talk out issues we’re having…sometimes we end up working out small ways I can make their lives easier and ways they can make my life easier (and sometimes, my life being easier means I end up relying on them less, which is great). I really don’t know if any of that is helpful to you or your situation, but I do hope the doctors can help you get back up on your feet quickly, so you can get back to doing what you want to do…and in the meantime, if nothing else, I’m in the exact same boat as you too, so you’re definitely not alone in this