peachychou123

Thanks. I've seen a lot of people mention that their POTS worsens when they're sick. But I'm worried as I see to be experiencing some heavy achey sensation and tightness across my chest and shoulders. I don't have other body aches so this is scaring me. I'm wondering if I should go to a&e again but I've already been on Friday and Monday. I'm really anxious. The doctors did not check my troponin levels even though I had tachycardia and told them my chest felt uncomfortable

I've been experiencing chills for a week and now I've had some kind of virus for 3 days. Started with some diarrhea then got a mild fever and HR went up. Weak, fatigued, nauseous. Feel sweaty and shivery. The main thing I'm worried about is I'm currently extremely dizzy. I'm not dehydrated and when I had my bp checked it was NOT low (my blood pressure is usually slightly high) but I still feel sooooo faint even just from raising my head off the pillow. Even laying down doesn't fully resolve it. I have a lot of anxiety about my heart and these symptoms are worsening my anxiety. I went to a&e on Monday and they told me just to rest and drink plenty of fluids. The previous time I had a nasty virus was a year ago. It was one of those 24 hour stomach flus. It was terrible, I think I puked 10+ times in one night and couldn't even keep a sip of water down. I was extremely dehydrated that time but even then I never experienced this level of dizziness or tachycardia. Do you find flu worsens your POTS and can anyone share their experiences?

I'm concerned about this high temp and diarrhea and tachycardia and chills atm. Still don't know if it's an infection or viral. The ER doc gave me a box of cipro but I only took one and got anxious after reading all the heart side effects. Well now that I'm feverish I've taken another one. I feel like such an idiot. The ER doc wanted to keep me in for IV antibiotics but I just wanted to go home. I called my GP and they were angry because I didn't end up taking the antibiotics like I was told to. So now I think I've made things worse! Now I'm worried I'm going to end up with sepsis or something. I've never felt so anxious. Why didn't I just take the IV antibiotics in the ER. I don't want to go back up to a&e but I keep remembering the doctor's advice to come back if things got worse. I feel so stupid now.

I've been taking some supplements. I don't have a BP cuff because measuring or thinking about my blood pressure or HR often makes me feel more anxious tbh. I only do it if I'm really symptomatic, otherwise it just distresses me. I have noticed that on the times the Dr took it and it was high, I actually felt more dizzy sometimes than when it's lower. My Dr said high BP doesn't make you dizzy but I know a lot of people who get dizziness with high BP. I'm not sure if the diarrhea is viral or just because I'm so anxious and my esophagus and upper stomach feel irritated. I'm trying to keep my salts/electrolytes + fluids up. But even getting to the local shop to buy some pedialyte is a struggle atm.

Thank you for your kind words and sorry for whining guys, it's just that feeling ill just makes me anxious and therefore more negative. Beta blockers made me feel so much better, but I guess I shouldn't have got so complacent while on them. It's just frustrating that I can't take them right now. My doctor still blames almost everything on anxiety unfortunately. Anxiety is a big part of it, but I became symptomatic first, then got anxious because nobody seemed to care that I couldn't walk 10 yards without gasping for air or feeling like I needed to sit down back in 2012. A TTT proves I have POTS. But it just bothers me that nobody thought to look for the possible underlying cause. I was basically left to deal with it on my own. At least I had an echo and holter I guess, but that was almost 6 years ago. I had a gastroscopy 5 years ago and they found a hiatal hernia. They think I developed it from vomiting very hard a few months before. My GERD causes a lot of pain but it can mostly be managed through PPIs. Getting referrals from my GP is a task in itself. Currently I need to see a cardiologist, neurologist (because I've never seen one before and the possible underlying neurological causes have not been explored), see an endocrinologist and get blood work done, get another gastroscopy, and also of course get help for my anxiety. A pretty big ask for my doctor. The past 10 days have been hard. I just want to feel back to my normal again.

Well, I'm feeling terrible today. Still shaky, exhausted, burning stomach and diarrhea, slight temperature, HR higher than normal. My reflux was terrible last night and I woke up with an extremely painful esophagus. I'm not sure if all these chills and palpitations are due to a viral illness, a hyperadrenergic pots flare, or if this UTI might be getting worse :/ (anxiety plaguing me again!) The thing is, even when I was having chills and palps, my infection markers came back normal. So I don't know what to think. The ER doc said to come back if my symptoms worsen but going to the emergency room and waiting to be seen is very stressful in itself. If it gets very bad I will go. I hate feeling this ill and contacting my doctor so often makes me feel like a nuisance or hypochondriac. My anxiety is sky high right now. I want to take my beta blockers but I was told not to in case they mask signs of infection or shock. I just can't relax whatsoever. Sleep was the thing that let me forget all my anxiety and health problems but now I'm scared because of my waking tachycardia. I don't know if it only happens on waking or all through the night. I've been crying all morning because I feel so weak and exhausted and anxious from these chills and the tachycardia. I'm only 25 and I feel like an old lady. Some days the fact that I have a chronic illness hits me hard emotionally. It's a beautiful autumn day and I just want to go outside and get fresh air, see my friends, go to a concert or bar like everyone else my age does, but I'm so dizzy and shaky and ill I can't. I'm struggling at the moment.

Just woke up (out of REM sleep) and my HR was 120. That was 15 minutes ago and it's still at 100+ and I'm laying here wondering if I should try sitting up and drinking something or see if it goes away on it's own. I know some people's tachycardia is much higher than this, but this is still very high for me considering my HR used to be 70-80 waking up. I didn't eat much yesterday but it doesn't seem to have helped much. Feeling shaky and anxious & hot and sweaty too 😕

I'm sure you know this but it sounds like your blood was pooling a lot, especially if elevating your legs helped with the pain and then the tachy. Like most pots people my blood pools in my legs a lot and my feet go purple, if it's really hot my HR goes up more, and sometimes my calves ache, but a few hours laying down usually seems to resolve it. So I'm surprised my body is acting like I've been standing too long when actually I've been laying down for 8 hours. It's...strange. And the fact it's happening first thing after waking does *kinda* sound like an adrenaline thing. I don't know what to think right now. I think I vaguely remember a slight HR increase each morning when I was first diagnosed, but I don't ever remember my resting HR feeling this fast or unsettling.

Thank you! I will definitely check them out.

Wow, that does sound scary and incredibly similar to what I'm going through right now. It's great you found a way around it because these eps are exhausting. Were you going through any kind of flare-up or stress at the time aside from the vein pains? I'm hoping this is just a pots flare-up. I'm going to stop eating anything salty after noon and anything in general after 7pm and see if that makes a difference. The night before this happened I'd been eating Chinese food with a friend so tons of MSG which is not good for me in the first place! 😕 My first instinct was also dehydration, given the bp reading & the salt content of my meals on both evenings, but I just remembered on the morning I called the ambulance, the tachy resolved without drinking anything, because I was too scared/unsteady to manage to get myself water. I just sat up and tried to breathe deeply/bear down a little bit. If it were simple dehydration/hypovolemia it probably would have continued until I rehydrated. Hmm. It's bugging me. It's been 6 years since I had a holter monitor so I'm not sure what's going on during sleep (and am a little scared to know frankly) but...I noticed the morning after I got the saline drip at the ER, I didn't wake up with the tachycardia. Maybe it really is to do with dehydration/blood volume. And maybe just my general anxiety levels which at the moment are sky high. I'm always worried it's something more, but I'm trying to stay positive.

If I eat anything spicy, I get skipped beats. Recently I get shivery and shaky before BMs. I have bad reflux and my pots started around the same time I developed a hiatus hernia. I have hiccups a lot and wonder if it's from my diaphragm being irritated by my hiatal hernia. There's definitely a vasovagal link with many dysautonomia issues, and the GI tract is often involved.

Hi Pippie, was this sinus tach always part of your dysautonomia or did it come earlier/later than your dysautonomia diagnosis? Do you get these funny tach episodes just in the morning or throughout the day? Were you particularly stressed or run down, could it have been brought on by a hyper pots phase? My resting HR seems like my usual mild pots tach throughout the day. These recent more debilitating episodes only seem to happen on waking. The only positive thing is my heart rate felt regular while going this fast. So I'm hoping it's not any kind of more dangerous arrhythmia. I was feeling better on propranolol (probably because it tackled my adrenaline rushes, tachycardia AND highish bp) for the past few years and right now there's a box in my cabinet which I'm itching to reach for! I definitely agree there's a strong GI/vasovagal link. I have bad reflux and if my esophagus is irritated I get more skipped beats. My cardiologist scoffed at this theory but all I need to do is eat something spicy and the skipped beats appear! Same with these chills. The doctor blamed them on the UTI but I noticed my stomach gets upset right before the chills. And once my stomach feels less crampy and sick they go. Vasovagal? Maybe. I have been under a lot of emotional stress lately and have been generally feeling quite run down. Not ill in a viral way, just very crap and tired and anxious. I have a few long term symptoms that took me a long time to accept. Everytime a new symptom comes along, it brings back the anxiety that came before my official diagnosis, because I wonder if it's going to be long term. Sometimes I wonder is it my usual weird pots or something else? I think I need to go back to a cardiologist, neurologist, and sort my anxiety out! But knowing your episodes are on and off and not constant gives me a little bit of hope. Hope you're doing well.

I've had POTS for 6 years and over the past 3 days I have also been been waking up throughout the night with a very high heartrate, especially when turning over. This is a new thing for me. I woke up on friday morning with a HR of around 120-130bpm lying down, which lasted for about 15 minutes then suddenly went away. It's weird because although I'm always slightly tachycardic, it's usually at 85-90 at rest. This is a big increase. I had an EKG but the episode had stopped by that time. The EKG came back normal. My blood pressure was also quite high. This is also new for me, and scary. I'm not sure if it's an adrenaline surge or anxiety, or a hyperadrenergic POTS flare up. The first time it happened, I was very relaxed and has woken from a pleasant dream, so it wasn't anxiety. But this morning, I had another identical episode, and had been having a nightmare. So it's possible it's to do with hormones such as adrenaline or cortisol. I've had a mild UTI which I took bactrim for. Now I'm wondering if it's the antibiotics. I'm sorry I can't help you, but my symptoms also came on suddenly and scared me, so I can empathise. I'm wondering when these episodes will calm down. I'm always learning new things about this condition too. I know you're anxious, but it seems a lot of people with POTS have described the exact same thing happening to them, sometimes having their highest HR just laying in bed or while sleeping! Any kind of new symptom always terrifies me. But I went to the ER on friday and they didn't find anything. So I'm trying to just relax. I hope you can find peace of mind after your appt.

Hi all, sorry if this is long. I'm in my twenties and was diagnosed with POTS 6 years ago. I've been on propranolol for 4 years which helped my symptoms about 90%. However, I started to wean myself off and have not taken it in 6 months. I haven't received much help or support or even meds from doctors. I've mostly been managing my condition myself. I've always had a number of weird/scary symptoms which have, over time, become 'normal' for me. However I'm a little worried about this new development. Just over a week ago I started feeling much dizzier than usual. I went to the doctor who said I had a UTI. I started shaking uncontrollably at night but no fever. These were chills or rigor (the dr said it was my body trying to fight off an infection) and I was prescribed bactrim. The UTI cleared up (still a few leukocytes in my urine) but I'm still getting chills where my teeth chatter and I shiver uncontrollably for about an hour. No fever though. I noticed that after I use the toilet, the shivers stop. So now I'm wondering if it's a vasovagal reaction. Then 3 days ago, I noticed my heart was racing everytime I turned over in bed. I ignored it and went back to sleep. But in the morning woke up and my heart was pounding out of my chest, the fastest I've ever felt it at rest. Tachycardia is normal for me when standing or doing anything, and averages about 90 lying down/120bpm just standing. However my HR was about 130 just lying down! This is very unusual for me. As soon as I rose out of bed, my heartrate jumped to well over 150 (I think it was more 180) I felt like I was going to collapse. I asked my mother to call an ambulance. The ambulance took 15 minutes to get here, and by that time, the tachycardia had just suddenly gone, and I was back down to 90bpm. I was taken to hospital, they did an EKG and some bloods to check for infection, everything thankfully came back fine. I always believed I had low BP, but my blood pressure was actually pretty high. 145/99. Combined with the racing heart. The doctor said it was a panic attack, but gave me some more antibiotics 'just in case'. This is strange because I was feeling very calm at the time until I felt like I was about to faint. They gave me some saline and sent me on my way. Yesterday was fine, but this morning, the exact same thing happened. I woke out of a scary dream which caused an adrenaline surge, and my heart seemed to have been racing for a while. It was very high again. I sat down, drank some water, and after about 15 minutes the tachy went as soon as it came. The fact my EKG came back normal is quite reassuring for me. But at the same time, it was taken when I was back to normal, so I still don't know whether these episodes were Sinus Tachy or something else. I've had an echo a few years ago which was normal. I am trying to put these new symptoms down to just weird POTSy stuff. But I have to admit I'm scared as this is NOT normal for me. I told the doctor I had been having some leg pain and so was concerned about a clot or PE. But she didn't want to do a d-dimer because I wasn't particularly breathless and didn't have chest pain. I'm still a little anxious about that possibility. But the ER doctor was skeptical. I'm really curious as to what is causing this recent scary morning tachy. I know when we are ill, our POTS symptoms usually increase. But I haven't had any fever or viral illness, just a mild UTI. Could it be the bactrim which I finished a week ago? A simple adrenalin surge? My body acting more POTsy because it's still trying to fight off this UTI (even though they checked my kidneys/white blood cells and it came back normal)? Maybe this happened before but I never realised because I was on propranolol for years which may have masked it? The only trigger I can think of is having a heavy/salty meal in the evening before these morning episodes. I did wake up a little thirsty and feeling dehydrated. I'm going back to my GP and asking for a hormone workup to check for thyroid or adrenal gland tumour. But these episodes are really scaring me. Does anyone else experience a much higher HR than their own personal 'normal' in the morning? And did you notice it came out of the blue one day? I just find it strange these tachy eps started after the UTI + antibiotics. I've been reading up on fluoroquinolones, and a lot of POTS sufferers are warned not to take them, as apparently they can have dangerous effects on heart rhythms since they permeate the CNS, which is already delicate for us POTS sufferers. I feel totally wiped and exhausted after these episodes. I want to take propranolol again to stop these weird adrenaline surges and tachy, but the ER doctor said not to go back on the propranolol until after the shivering episodes stop. But I'm getting very worried.