Magosh

Hi all, I'm having a tilt-table test this week to test for POTS. In any case, my symptoms are very similar to POTS (I've been experiencing these for about 5 years): dizziness, lightheadedness-induced headaches, headrushes when standing up, brain fog, and new onset of motion sickness. For me, what tends to happen is when I stand, heart rate increases a lot, as far as I know BP doesn't really change. What I wanted to know mainly is, with treatment, to what extent are these different symptoms tackled? Do they tend to get better together, or are some more likely to be solved whilst others stay the same? Reason why I ask is that one of the biggest things for me is the motion sickness. Whilst I'd love the other things to get better, none of them really stop me from living my life. But the motion sickness now means that I avoid long car journeys (though non-high speed trains are usually okay if they're <2 hours), I'll avoid holidays because of the need to travel. Which being young is not a great place to be really - feels like I'm wasting a lot of potential opportunities but the travel anxiety has become quite overpowering. Beyond this, I used to love playing video games and I find I'm unable to play many for very long, or I get sickly headaches. Just wondering if anyone has had this particular symptom improve at all - and if so, by what form of treatment (I understand we all react differently but it would still be interesting to know). Would also be interested in knowing just generally what sort of things people have found helpful in addressing any other of these symptoms. Thanks Magosh

Hi Sonal, I'm being tested for POTS this week (although drs think I have it), though I've had symptoms for about 5 years. In a sense I'm in a similar point in my life as you, having graduated from university in 2016. I experience many of the problems you do. My advice would be to try and find a line of work which can accommodate this. Also, if they allow flexible working hours, and the ability to work from home some days, this is a massive plus. I'm very lucky in that my employer (public sector organisation in the UK) does allow for this, and if I feel unwell, I'm simply allowed to go home - they're far more concerned that you get the work done rather than how many hours you spend in the office. Eventually you work out a routine - I live sufficiently close to walk to work which helps me a lot (rather than having to use transport). I personally feel the need to get up and walk around often to prevent me from getting very lightheaded at my desk. Feel free to ask any other questions Magosh