preacherswife

I take 25 mg. of Metoprolol twice daily. It has helped me tremendously!!! I do feel less tired, and my quality of life has improved dramatically. My doctor starts out slowly with the med, increasing over ten days until you're at the full dose. I was more tired than normal for about the first two weeks, but he prepared me for that and told me that if I could just make it through, I'd feel much better. He was right!!!

YES YES YES!!! I like LOTS of light. It's gets on my husband's nerves since he likes to watch TV and movies with the lights off, and I can't stand that!

But then there's that point that everything is just too much, and the lights go off, the TV goes down, and everybody just has to be calm.

I take the generic (Metoprolol) 25 mg twice daily. It's not extended release like the Toprol XL, which is why I take it twice.

It works like magic for me.

When I start hee-hawing at something, I get lightheaded and can't breathe, and I cough uncontrollably too!!! Not to the extent that you described though.

My work-up at Mayo said that I had a borderline Chiari malformation.

Yes, Mayo is a maze, but it's an amazing experience.

Be aware though, that sometimes it's just plain hard to have all that medical stuff done in such a short period of time. It's taxing on the mind.

Ditto the beta-blockers. I take Metoprolol for POTS, but I haven't had one single migraine since I started the medication.

One more thing... GET IT OUT! Don't even bother trying to keep it.

I hear ya! I'm a 97.9 girl. Yeah, I know, not too far from 98.6, but still. If I am hitting 98.6, I don't really feel well. If I'm in the 99s, I'm sick.

I had mine out right before my 25th birthday, but I also was pregnant and had Hyperemesis Gravidarum when it went bad. That was the more likely reason I had to have it out.

I've had two LPs. I was never told to lie flat for any length of time afterward, and I was up and around like nothing ever happened. That being said, the first one hurt like everything, but that was about six years ago. (During the meningitis scare on college campuses.) The second one was in March of this year. My neuro asked if I'd ever had an LP before, and since I had, he knew that I knew what was coming and gave me some Ativan before the procedure. ASK FOR ATIVAN!!!

If I'm upright, then I'm just off balance and weak. If I'm in the bed, the room spins.

I was also told by my neurologist at Mayo that the type of lesions I have on my brain could most certainly be from migraine. In fact, he said, "I'd be surprised if your MRI didn't show these lesions with your history of migraine."

I had braces and lived on soft scrambled eggs and Spaghettios. They just kinda slide down. Ice cream made the pain worse for me.

Edited to add...

Piece of advice: When you go to have them tightened, (like once a month or so) go RIGHT THEN to McDonald's or wherever it is you like to eat and eat a big meal. Right after they're tightened, you can still eat, but later and especially the next morning... OUCH!

Capsules! If you have a GNC near you, they have one that is a once-a-day capsule. You can get it with or without iron, if iron makes your stomach upset. I'd also recommend taking it right before bed. That's what I do to keep from getting the yucky vitamin stomach feeling.

Early evening is the absolute worst for me. I think it is because I've been pushing all day taking care of the boys, and then when my husband gets home, I fall apart.

I've absolutely heard of migraine without pain. Actually, migraine, from what I understand, isn't necessarily synonymous with "headache." It's the phenomenon that can cause dizziness, numbness, tingling, headache, etc. The worst migraine experience I ever had landed me in the hospital thinking I was having a stroke (and the doctors too) because I had right-side weakness, along with a droopy side of my face, but it was not a stroke. There was no pain until much later- after I left the hospital. My doctor at Mayo, having looked at the records from that day and the CT results, told me it was absolutely migranous episode.

Female, short, and fat... not your typical POTS patient.

A heating pad on your chest!!! What a good idea. I had always kind of put it under me, but that messes with a herniated disk in my back and makes my back feel worse. I'm going to have to try it on my chest! You're a genius!

Wal-Mart. They keep the one in our town WAY TOO hot inside. And believe me, they could afford to pay the electric bill to turn the thermostat down with just what I spend in there.

Oh, also standing in line pretty much anywhere.

Quoting Amy:

I have a little bit of the same issue, though not as extreme. I always feel really sick when I'm in a car and it's stop-and-go traffic. Something like my body just doesn't seem to compensate very well for the lurch -- lurch -- lurch.

Ditto!!! I ALWAYS have to drive if I'm riding with anyone but my husband. (I have him trained! Hee hee!) I can't stand to ride with the lurching and the acceleration. BLECH!!!

Just wondering if this is just me or what. When I go to bed at night, I am always EXTREMELY cold!!! No matter what the thermostat is set on, when I get in my bed, I shiver violently and uncontrollably for probably 10-15 minutes, sometimes more, before I start to feel warm and can relax. It's horrible, and it's getting worse. I'm not sweating at all when I do this; I just shiver. I'm wondering if I should mention this to my neurologist at my next appointment. Maybe it's just me....

The neck and shoulder pain is quite common in us POTSies. I have it ALL the time, and it just bites. The bicep pain is a new one on me, but it's probably just your "spot" that hurts. I have one spot in my back that hurts quite often too, and it's always the same place and the same burny pain. Yuck.

How awful!!! I'm so sorry!

Speaking of food allergies... I seemed to have developed an allergy to strawberries in the last couple years. I've eaten them all my life with no problem.

Anyway, we're glad you're here! Welcome aboard!

Orange-Tangerine Gatorade!