SCBELTS

So grateful to find this forum. Here is my story just to add to the anecdotal evidence I have read here. I believe it so helpful to hear others experience. Ten yrs ago, when I was in my early fifties, I suddenly began to have what I would describe as vaso-vagal episodes in the middle of the night. I would need to wake up to use bathroom ( urinate) but upon standing, have an urgent feeling that I needed to move my bowels or vomit or both. By the time I would get to bathroom adjacent to my room, I would hear buzzing, become extremely dizzy and then collapse on the floor and shake terribly in a semiconscious state on the floor. My husband would awake, and after about a dozen episodes, he figured out that pumping the blood in my lowers legs and then my arms, would help bring me out of it. Sometimes it took many minutes of this to get thru an episode. I went to ER at least 5 times, but they would hydrate me and just send me home. I would have a sick brain ache for days, almost like a seizure. I went to many doctors and many tests (tested for heart, brain issues.) I already had been dx'ed w Multiple sclerosis when i was 45 .... which is pretty old for an MS dx, and I had a lot of increasingly bad issues during PMS which triggered my bad MS exacerbation (lost both my vision and balance for many months). Always suspected my MS was linked to hormonal changes in peri-menopause. I finally had a TTT (tilt table test) to test for POTS but it was inconclusive since, while I had an episode on the table the differnce in BP was jsut below the threshhold to indicate POTS. Eventually, after about 1.5 yrs the POTS-like episodes went away .Never knew why, but I was just happy they were over... So fast forward 10 years: I was dx'ed w Breast cancer last August and after surgery/radiation, they started me on hormone blocking therapy. All was fine until after 3 weeks I developed hives and then the following night - a POTS episode! Needless to say I am stopping the hormone blocking therapy. I am quite certain my hormones have everything to do with this and have all along. The medical community seems so far behind the curve on the impact of hormonal changes we go through. If anyone has a recommendation as to how to find a doctor (I am in CT) - would it be a dysautonamia specialist? Menopause specialist? I am hoping this is a one-off episode, but just in case. Thank you for your thoughts and sharing your stories.