delise910

On 5/13/2015 at 9:33 AM, gjensen said:

Smoking is a nasty habit, and I am a smoker. Of all the things I need to do, I need to quit smoking.

One of my hang ups with quitting now is it does make me feel better. It does make my OI more tolerable. It is no cure obviously.

Particularly for the young, I would not recommend picking the habit up to only manage POTS symptoms. There are safer ways of doing it. Not to mention that for some, it could make things much worse. I have a tolerance because it is a long term habit. I suspect that I would be made worse by it otherwise. For an example, caffeine is too much for me. Any stimulant that I have tried has been.

I intend to quit, but I am nervous about quitting cold turkey. I suspect that quitting suddenly would be especially difficult for me to manage. I wish that I would have quit before I became sick.

Quitting cold turkey apparently put what were mild HA POTS episodes into a progressively more violent and now daily occurrence.    It has ajso increased actual migraines unless that's the propranolol for the pots.  

I had no issues smoking.  Smoked very little.  Just quit one day.  32 years.  I've felt like death ever since.  Literally gets worse by the week.  

Interesting.   I quit smoking in February.  Just cold turkey.  I'd had episodes I think before that and yes...if I smoked I felt better.  Since I quit what I believe is hyperandregic POTS has gotten much worse.  Much.  Also think the 20 pound weight gain didn't help my system.  

I know this is older thread...just found it through a Google search..of course lol.   Just had those this morning during a conference call.   I had to stop...reset...try not to panic.. 

I have Ton's of neck tension.  Back problems.  I'm waking up stretching and getting dizzy from.the act of stretching.  Standing in the shower.  

But I'm tracking blood pressure.  Noooo drops. No drops in pulse either.  But if I stand too long one spot I feel.like I'll fall over.  I have to like bounce from foot to foot.   Shift my weight.  

I get some imbalance moving my head like today.  My jaw is tight.  Bit we are on a crazy weather pattern here in New England with constant pressure changes. 

Terrified I'll lose my job.  Single parent.  No support. But ik having more and more instances where I'm scared to drive.  I am supposed to start propranolol but on Prednisone which I'm sure is really messing me up.