Lily

Katyroq, I don't have too bad a case either, but it is enough to put a damper on things. I am glad that I can work full time, even if I have a distracting level of fatigue most of the time. If you can figure out what interventions and medications help the most, and be ready to explain the condition to people who will need to know (like if your advisor doesn't understand why you want to sit down all the time), you ought to be able to work out a lifestyle that allows you to maintain an academic career.

Do you have any Pedialyte at home? I found that salting my food and drinking lots of water does not help much, but having some of that salt and water as Pedialyte (or a DIY recipe) makes a huge difference for me. Plus I'm on Florinef, which helps to bulk out the blood volume. I'm sure that's part of it, too.

Derek, you might try Pedialyte. It has lots of sodium and potassium. I get more benefit from my DIY recipe than I do from salting my food and drinking plain water. Without having some of my salt and water this way, It is as if the salt and water are completely ineffective at making me feel less lightheaded and fatigued. Something about the sugar helping get the salt into the bloodstream perhaps? DIY Pedialyte-like drink: 1/4 teaspoon regular salt, 1/2 teaspoon low-sodium salt, enough juice for 15 - 25 grams of carbohydrates, enough water to make 1 quart (or liter) total.

I am a college professor, on the tenure track at a teaching-oriented university. The extreme flexibility of my job is a huge asset. I have an office, so I can work with my feet on my desk if I want to. I can take a power nap if I feel particularly terrible. If I want to teach my classes sitting cross-legged on a table instead of teaching, well, college professors are eccentric, aren't they? A lot of colleagues know that I have some kind of chronic health condition, but that it is not a problem for doing my job. I have never had to invoke the Americans With Disabilities Act, probably because I can just do any accommodations I need. Maybe something unusual will come up in the future, but the past 5 years have been fine for me.

Phew! I'm so glad you double-checked.

I was prescribed 0.1 mg per day. I would double-check if I were you. Also, I started with 0.05 mg per day for a week and increased by 1/4 of a tablet each week until I got to the full dose. I did this on my own recommendation after reading many anecdotes on the internet. Other people claimed that ramping up slowly prevented them from getting side effects like swelling or weight gain. I am not a doctor, I can't give medical advice, all the usual warnings, etc.

Professor Lily has a lesson on barometric pressure: Barometric pressure (air pressure) is the weight of the air above you all the way to the top of the atmosphere. It is measured by an instrument called a barometer. The pressure can change from place to place and with time at the same place. Differences in air pressure are what drives winds. High pressure is caused by descending air. It moves down from above, making the pressure experienced at sea level higher than usual. Low pressure is caused by ascending air. It rises, which means at the ground the pressure experienced is lower than usual. When storms and weather fronts pass by, the barometric pressure decreases at first and then increases after it passes. Technically, pressure is the amount of potential energy per unit volume. Barometric pressure is measured in millibars (mb) according to the system of measurement units typically used by scientists. The "bar" is a unit of pressure, like pascals or pounds per square inch. Your weather station is converting pressure at the barometer to pressure at sea level ("sea level pressure"). Some weather stations do that. Here in USA we also see it expressed as "inHg" which means inches of mercury. The old barometers used a vial full of mercury that was open to the air, and it had a skinny tube pointing up. The air pressed down on the open vial of mercury and forced it up the skinny tube to a greater or lesser degree depending on the actual air pressure. Millibars and inches of mercury have different scales, and one can convert between them mathematically. So when you see the barometric pressure go from 1017 mb to 1029 mb it means that the air pressure at the location of the barometer increased by 12 millibars. It does not mean that the pressure at sea level is equal to the average pressure at 1029 meters above sea level. There is a link between pressure and altitude, but it is not what you thought it might be. Average air pressure at sea level is 1013.25 mb (29.9212 inHg). It decreases by about 12 mb for each 100 meters (328 feet) above sea level in the lowermost part of the atmosphere. At the summit of Mt. Everest (8,844 m, or 29,029 ft) the pressure is about 337 mb.

Bunny, I had no idea they could make cars to do all that. So cool. Reminds me of the 80s TV show Knight Rider.

As far as I understand, the faint itself is not dangerous. It is your body's way of restoring blood flow to your brain (get flat again so blood flow returns). As you said, it is where you faint or what you hit on the way down that can be dangerous.

It helps me to put my feet up on a high footstool in front of my chair, right away before I start to feel lightheaded. I also noticed a definite difference when I started taking some of my fluids and salt as Pedialyte.

They found it while doing a standard workup for palpitations, several years prior to my POTS diagnosis (and major symptoms). I do not have symptoms from it, although the cardiologist said that IRBBB can cause palpitations. It is considered normal for me.

I have incomplete RBBB. Mine was determined to be a variation of normal. This is more likely to be the case for RBBB than for LBBB. The cardiologist will check for indications that it is dangerous.

Here you go: https://paleoleap.com/all-about-electrolytes/ A detailed analysis of electrolytes, electrolyte replacement drinks, who needs them (apart from POTS patients), and why. There are 4 DIY recipes in there. I like to use the one for homemade Pedialyte.

Good idea. Even physiologically normal people and elite athletes take a day off. It seems to me that you are working out the correct dosage of exercise (not too much, not too little). Also, congratulations on getting in your run consistently this week.

I have been mostly paleo for years and have eaten at different carbohydrate levels. I have been able to lose weight with my carbs fairly high (100 - 150 g/day), and last year I lost 10 pounds without trying by dropping carbs further (anything less than 80 g/day) while also doing a restricted eating window intermittent fast Monday through Friday (this was all part of Lent, the Christian season of penitence before Easter). I dropped my carbs lower specifically so that I could do IF without being cranky all morning. I said I wasn't going to try to lose weight, but just try to 1) do my Lent fasting, and 2) give my body the kinds of foods it needs to function properly (because my body deserves to be treated properly). I ate lots and lots of vegetables, lots of healthy fats, a moderate amount of animal protein, and a little bit of fruit once in a while. Did it help my POTS? I'm not sure. It definitely helped my ADHD. I do recommend low carb paleo eating, though, regardless of POTS. Homo sapiens have been around for 200,000 years or so. We have had agriculture for the past 10,000 years (5% of the total time), so maybe we're not as adapted as we like to think (but individual variability). Processed food has only been around for about 100 years. Processed foods are edible, but I do not classify them as foods. Edible food-like substances, perhaps. So real foods, no proceed ones. If you decide to do keto, I also recommend a paleo/real food approach, as well. If you have been eating a standard American diet, you might want to get into the ketogenic diet slowly. Your body will change gene expression when you change your diet to be getting most of your calories from fat, but it takes a few weeks. In the meantime you feel terrible. Decreasing carbs slowly takes longer, but you have less "keto flu." My favorite websites for paleo and keto stuff are marksdailyapple and paleoleap.

Also remember, exercise means moving around in general, not just formal exercise. If all you can do right now is leg lifts, then do leg lifts. But do one or two more every time.

Have you ever tried reframing the experience of anxiety? Whenever I have felt that, not wanting to be anxious was as bad as being anxious, if not worse. Perhaps you could tell yourself it is excitement, not anxiety (positive arousal instead of negative arousal). Or that it is your body misbehaving, not a function of your thinking and feeling. Or something like that.

My sister has POTS and EDS (type 3). She started getting orthostatic headaches that got worse throughout the day unless she laid down for a bit many times during the day (which made it extremely hard to work). Because of the EDS diagnosis, they checked for dural ectasias and found a few. She got blood patches, but she keeps having to get some of them redone once in a while. They do not take permanently for her, but she said that they are permanent in some people.

You probably ought to ask your doctors about this question, given the other problems that your salt intake could affect.

I have no idea. Perhaps someone else here who has it can answer this question.

This sounds like it could be mast cell activation disorder. You might try eliminating foods that contain histamine and foods that can cause the release of histamine by the body. Give it a month and start adding them back in slowly. Keep a symptom diary, too. You might discover an important key to keeping symptoms down. At the very least you'll have an interesting time trying new foods and running an experiment on yourself.

Please understand that people doing drugs and trying not to be found out may sound exactly like people who aren't doing drugs. Correct and non-fatal treatment may depend on knowing exactly what is in your system. But still, they should not act like jerks. As to the tachycardia, yes. Mine is episodic, and not all that high )as far as I am aware). Nothing abouve 150 bpm unless I am exercising.

So all their rooms are filled, but they'll take you when there's a vacancy? That's great! I'm glad your son is at least a tiny bit less selfish. Perhaps he will improve with time. Hyperandrenergic POTS refers to having blood concentrations of norepinepherine (NE) that are unusually high when you are upright. Blood samples can be taken during a TTT, or your doctor can take samples without the tilting (if he can spare a room for you to lay down for 30 minutes before the supine sample). That's what the diagnosis refers to. There are several mechanisms that can cause that high NE. Sometimes the body makes all that NE in response to some other thing that is wrong (like blood pooling or nerve damage), but sometimes the brain causes it in the absence of other problems. Regardless of the mechanism, the body is always in fight-or-flight mode. Typical symptoms are about the same as anxiety (plus fatigue), but the emotions/psyche is not the cause of it. The body goes into emergency mode all on its own, or in response to some trigger. Unfortunately, this can lead to misdiagnoses of anxiety disorders. People with hyperPOTS might be given the same treatment as regular POTS if there is also blood pooling or low blood volume. There are also various options to try to lower heart rate or the hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system. Here is a link that might be helpful.

You might try contacting the Little Sisters of the Poor: St Joseph's Home15 Audubon Plaza DriveLouisville, KY 40217-1318502-636-2300 mslouisville@littlesistersofhtepoor.org They take care of elderly poor people, and you do not have to be Catholic (or even religious at all) in order to qualify for their services. I do not know for certain that they have open space in their facilities, but surely you lose nothing by calling to ask. Also, they might know of other resources in the area that the state agencies don't know about. For example, perhaps there is a volunteer caregiver program, and someone could come into your home to do what your son does not want to do. Here is a link to their website: http://www.littlesistersofthepoorlouisville.org/

I have these sometimes. It turns out that I have Incomplete Right Bundle Branch Block, which is a normal variant and can cause them. They turned out to be harmless (but annoying).