BuffRockChick

Has anyone here tried the exercise program for POTS that starts with reclined exercise and works up to upright exercise over 6 months? I got a gym membership this week. I tried the recumbent stepper and recumbent elliptical machines. I couldn't get my heart rate up to 125, and I was working hard until muscle fatigue! The directions are to warm up 5 minutes, 3 minutes at 125 HR, and cool down to normal HR. I stopped after 30 minutes so as to not overdo it. I'm planning to try identical workouts on seated stepper and upright stepper and compare HR data. I'm very surprised. I get up to 174 HR with walking up a hill for a couple minutes. I thought I was out of shape and *exercise intolerant*. Looks more like I'm not so terribly out of shape and I'm **upright** exercise intolerant. Has anyone here noticed similar pattern?

Do you track your symptoms? I was reading causes of POTS symptoms that are within my control - malnutrition, anemia, dehydration and deconditioning (out of shape) for example. I don't want to waste [expensive] doctor appointments on these things. I have been tracking my food with USDA's SuperTracker and then taking iron supplement because I never quite get enough from diet. I've been drinking to thirst and tracking fluids. I track steps. I recently tracked my heart rate with upright exercise versus recumbent exercise to show that my exercise intolerance is not due to deconditioning. I've been tracking my mood and energy versus symptoms by repeating the stand test when I'm feeling "moody". So far, there's a perfect correlation between my fatigue and crabby moods and stand test. I've failed all of them, but when I feel bad, I've failed them dramatically. There are some other "flavors" of tachycardia too. Innappropriate Sinus Tachycarda (IST) is one of them. I'm not familiar with it, but maybe google can help.

I am awaiting diagnosis myself. I didn't notice anything abnormal with my heart rate, although I'd known I "have bad circulation" and "am out of shape" (a.k.a. Exercise intolerant). However, after reading about POTS while trying to dig up every possible reason why humans feel fatigue, I tried a "stand test". Lie down on your back for 15 minutes without moving. Stand up. Take your heart rate after 2, 5, and 10 minutes - best if you have a tracker so you don't have to move. A sustained increase of >30 bpm or over 120 bpm within 10 minutes suggests POTS. Keep in mind that POTS is a syndrome, which means it's a cluster of symptoms that has more than one cause. I never noticed my tachycardia because I did't stand that long. Ever! I'm often dizzy while standing/walking and I've fallen or collapsed plenty of times, but I actually blacked out after an at-home stand test! Be safe! I'm waiting for an appointment with my PCP. I sent them an email to give them heads up about my tachycardia with standing and they scheduled pre-appointment bloodwork. I'm hoping for answers too! I was misdiagnosed in 2004 with a psychiatric condition, and several doctors over the years have added more and more [mis]diagnoses to the list. I was too young and passive to know better. But jeez, if my mood changes **when I stand up** and it's gone within minutes of lying down with my feet up, and medications and therapy for mood disorders have no effect..... I'm pretty sure it's not a mood disorder. Hang in there! Getting answers and relief will be worth the struggle. I'm sorry the last few months have been so painful and scary for you! Don't be young and passive like me! You are the consumer of your health care! (((Hugs)))

I have a bread machine and love it! I used to pride myself on making it by hand completely, but... meh, I'm over it! We found ours brand new, at an estate auction, and snagged it for $2! I wonder if I can find a mandolin slicer that doesn't slice so thin?

I have trouble with crock pots! I can still burn stuff in them! I use it for marinara sauce mostly. How do you use your crockpot? We always have cereal and frozen pizza on hand. Last week I was struggling with fatigue and hubby had a nasty cold so we ate pizza and cereal all week. I managed marinara and meatballs tonight. DS10 made the meatballs for me Google says I can cook potatoes and pasta in a rice cooker! I have experimental batch of pasta in the rice cooker now!

LOL! I was trying to work that into the thread title!

Since learning about the existence of POTS, I have new perspective on why I have trouble cooking - it's the standing up! Me not cooking is probably the single greatest stressor on my hubby, so I want to learn to adapt to put supper on the table without much time standing up. How do you get cooking done?

I read today normal is <15 bpm change. I don't recall the source, but it was an article in a medical journal.

I don't have POTS dx yet, I'm new to the forum. I was trying to figure out the source of my fatigue and stumbled across POTS. It fits ALL my weird seemingly unrelated symptoms. I have a doctor appointment in a couple weeks to start towards official diagnosis. My pattern is lying down resting heart rate 55 - 65 (sitting is more like 65 - 80). When I stand up, my heart rate goes up. Usually about 30 bpm in the first 2 minutes, slight increase after 5 minutes, and by 10 minutes it's at 120 - 147 (new personal record this morning, LOL). I have to lie down immediately. The one time I didn't I walked away and blacked out about 6 steps later. That was a first. I have lost vision once before that, and collapse/fall often enough. If I fidget my heart rate doesn't increase as much. If I stand up to walk it seems to be more stable. I usually don't have difficulty walking, although adding movement, heat or hills will have my heart rate up. I thought I was having orthstatic hypotension and but had a normal blood pressure check between sitting and standing at doctor office last year. It was after standing for only 1 minute though. I'm curious to see what comes of this!

Lying down 55 - 65 Sitting 70 - 85 Standing 100 - 130 Walking around, light housework 90 - 125 Edited: not sure how accurate this is. I checked today and got 138 and 174 while walking outside (55 degrees outside). I bought a heart rate monitor but it hasn't arrived yet! So impatient! Walking up stairs 160-180

I checked my heart rate with sitting posture. Sitting in my typical posture that's somewhere between a squat and fetal position, after 5 minutes my heart rate was 67. After 5 minutes sitting with "good posture", it was 86. Interesting how without knowing what was wrong I had stumbled across coping mechanisms!

Thanks! I'll add fetal position to my list of abdominal pressures too. I sit with my knees squished against my chest. It frustrates my husband to no end!

I was diagnosed with panic disorder way back when. At the worst of my symptoms, while on a POTS-aggravating medication, I had a service dog. When I would "panic", I would lie down and my service dog would lay on my abdomen. It almost instantaneously ended my "panic" symptoms... until I stood up. While I was a student, I noted my exam scores were much better if, before class, I waited in the hall lying down rather than standing. I assumed it was the "deep pressure therapy" from my service dog. I also recall my service dog would press his head down across my thighs when I was in class and my heart would race over 120 bpm and that eased symptoms somewhat. (That makes sense to me) In terms of POTS, does abdominal pressure make sense for relieving symptoms? Is this "a thing"? P.S. my service dog weighed about 60 pounds

Thanks Kalamazoo! I suspect something hormonal. I'm going to my family doctor in a couple weeks and plan to request referral to endocrinology.

I like gardening too, but I have a hard time with the summer heat. I'm wanting to explore no-till permaculture style gardening. Hubby is set on his way of tilling and weeding. He does most the work, so I won't argue. I start seedlings indoors and have a small garden near the house. Hubby's garden is about 1/4 acre! Last year I barely did anything in the garden, but I did most of the canning. Now that I understand my symptoms and some ways to manage them, I'm hoping to garden more. The worst part is walking from the garden to the house - it's uphill and hubby is unkind about how much I struggle to walk up that hill, especially in the heat. Without a formal diagnosis, he perceives me as out of shape due to laziness, and the man is disgusted by laziness. Facing that criticism makes me feel unwilling to go to the garden, even when I enjoy the work of gardening.

Hi! I'm having mixed feeling about finding this forum, mostly relief. I have self-diagnosed POTS, and have appointment set up with my GP to get referral to endocrinology to check for hormone problems which might be causing my symptoms. I started having symptoms in 2003 after having mono. I was mis-diagnosed with panic disorder in 2004 without a medical/physical workup and have been unsuccessfully treated for a long list of psychiatric diagnoses (which never respond to treatment...). My last diagnosis was ADHD as I did fabulously on methylphenidate (at first until psych nurse raised the dose and it all went to heck), however neuropsychology evaluation didn't really suggest ADHD. My questionnaires were 90th percentil for symptoms, but my testing was mostly 50th percentile. The too-high dose of methylphenidate triggered an episode of anorexia (my third), and I had help from a dietician to get back to a healthful diet. My symptoms continued. I was reading online trying to understand my symptoms (because what else does one do when in bed for hours during the day?!). I thought maybe postprandial hypoglycemia, so I bought a blood glucose meter and found no correlation with my blood glucose. I have PCOS but wasn't tested for differential diagnoses, and that rabbit hole led to POTS. I tried standing heart rate tests at home. Resting heart rate 60, after standing for 10 minutes it has been 90 - 130, alternating hot/sweaty or cold/chills/goosebumps, out of breath, dizzy, grayed-out vision, fatigue, "depression", irritability. Which are relieved by lying down and completely gone when my heart rate returns to normal. It's worse in the morning and when I get less-hydrated. THIS EXPLAINS SO MUCH! I'm looking forward to having it "official" in my medical records! I'm coping fairly well now. I'm a stay at home homeschooling mom. Thankful, since I can't work very much outside the home. I'm legally disabled and have used a service dog in the past when it was more severe. My worst symptoms are fatigue and irritability. They're particularly hard on my husband. Poor man works 50+ hours, and comes home to do barn chores, gardening, and cooking! Sometimes cleaning and laundry too! He's a saint. Since doing the standing heart rate test I have figured out that I can alternate short bursts of activity and rest to get a lot more done during the day. I use a HIIT timer app (oh the irony!) and set it for 5 minutes high intensity interval (and by that I mean anything upright) and 5 - 7 minutes low intensity interval (that's lying down). This seems to keep my heart rate in check and relieves most of my fatigue. It's mentally draining to switch activities, I'm hoping I can adjust to this rhythm. I was able to take a walk today also! About 1/2 mile easy hike on our property. I generally do okay walking, but today was especially good because I'd just lie down in the grass to rest when my heart rate was higher. I've had 2 long bedrests during pregnancies, so I'm conscious of how bad deconditioning is. I've been creeping more and more sedentary the last few years since I was on a psych med that aggravated POTS severely and I could barely do anything. I'm trying to reverse the trend. I was feeling sorry for myself, but after reading on this forum I'm thankful I can walk. My heart rate jumps to 120ish after a couple dozen steps, but I usually am okay for easy walking in moderate temperatures. Standing kills me. I haven't fainted, but I've grayed-out, collapsed, lost vision a couple times briefly - super scary, and fallen a lot - including down stairs once last fall! I haven't found a pattern yet. What do you track?