becky

thanks for the update. GET WELL SOON and HAPPY BIRTHDAY! i would send one of my beautiful (ha ha) home made cards but i'm stuck in the house, and it could possibly cost a fortune to send to usa!?! so i'll send big hugs and muchas happy thoughts for getting better soon and a fab birthday becks x x x

emily, thank you for starting this thread, i have really bad periods and have stayed on my pill for three or four months i can't remember! but i'm feeling really bloated and moody and like i "need" a period, so i've taken my last pill today. However - i've stopped my ssri's last week and i'm taking 1/6th of the dose of florinef i was on, and i still have vertigo! (ten weeks now) so i'm dreading it in case these factors make it worse. i just constantly faint when i have a period, so i may hibernate for a week! oh and the spots have started aready and i can't stop crying!! good luck becks x x x

ok i can't remember any stupid things i say, cos i'm foggy when i say it. but i have been told of the stupid things i do. like putting all my shoes and socks in the freezer!! i also put all my wet clothes in the freezer instead of the dryer. cotton wool in the fridge, with my nail varnish remover. my ex boyfriends sisters cat in the tumble dryer - i really don't remember this one and i didn't switch it on. ham and butter in the cupboard, dirty plate and knife in the fridge, butter in the dishwasher! yeah my family love me visiting! i'll ask others for more! beks x x x

hey, i can't believe they just do that! i hate doctors. i don't get too tachy at the moment despite stopping my paroxetine, but last time i was in hospital i was having really bad tachy for me (155 lying down) they saw this on a telemetry and still said hat this was normal for people with pots and that they wouldn't put me on beta blockers because it would make my pots worse! i dumped that doctor and now i dont have a cardio, so if i get sick again i'm screwed! cardiactec, i hope you get this sorted you just have to keep fighting, go to the hospital and don't leave until they do something for you. although easier said than done and it doesnt always work. don't know what else to suggest. becks x x x

hi, i nt to thailand with pots and had all the vaccines about four months before, they caused more problems than the pots!!ha ha. no honestly, iust felt flu like afterwards i stayed in bed fr a couple of days and then i was ok. they may make you syncopal, just from my own experience. i had typhoid, malaria, hep a and b, polio, diptheria - think that was everything!?! the travelling was difficult, 19 hour flight and a three hour stop in qatar, total of 21 hours travelling. also the heat and humidity was awful, i know i couldn't cope at the moment. all in all though - trip of a lifetime and i'd do it again tomorrow. my advice is ask the doctor about possible side effects of the vaccines, be prepared and GO FOR IT!!!! what an amazing opportunity! love and hugs becks x x x

thanks for that article, it was really interesting. before i was diagnosed wih pots i was "diagnosed" by my gp with psycogenic syncope! sent to see to shrinks before that one was thrown out! an they told me that because i had suffered from depression i was having anxiety attacks - but because of having depression and anxiety attacks before i got pots i knew that wasn't what was hapening. i'm gld i fought on. interesting article to show to my new gp's though - they have automatically assumed that i have an anxiety disorder and that i can't cope with stress! becks x x x

Crisps and chips, i know that they are high in fat but i love really salty chips. i have to add salt to every thing now, i love it! but everytime they take my salt levels in hospital i'm always on the low side and i eat loads of the stuff - how does that happen - am i leaking it? my dad adds soy sauce to everythng, pasta, sauces and roast dinners! he goes through a bottle a month, my mum goes mad! but not at me when i do it! becks x x x

hey all, i spent my first weekend in a chair last week and i found it horrible. People stared and walked in the way and tutted at me cos i look normal - i was only in the chair cos of my vertigo, if i'm going to faint i'll faint weather i'm stood up or sat down - have to have my legs up end of story. i couldn't stand up or walk around on my own anyway, the thing that really shocked me was how my parents treated me, it was as if i was back in the buggy as a child again, no one listened to me and told me that i was throwing tantrums cos i was shouting that "you aren't lstening to me!" but they were trying to dress me - "oh it's cold" - so they'd put my hat on me for me! and i'm shouting "i can do it myself!" like a five year old! it really drove me mad - glad to be home with my boyfriend who seems to think that i can do absolutely everything in the house! well maybe not! sorry i'm in a foul mood, i have a huge bruise on my back because i passed out whilst making dinner last night and landed on my housemates washing crate! At least it made the skanky moose move her stuff. then i sat up had a glass of water, passed out again and dropped it all over myself, so i was wet and bruised!! this vertigo is killing me! Anyway, i don'think i could stand other people if i was in a wheelchair, i just want to smack everybody - i have a terrible temper really. battered bruised and bloody angry becks x x x

congratumalations! (my sister used to say that when she was little) what fantastic news, my cousin has a tiny six week old baby called madeline and she's adorable - i'm getting practice in before i have children! good luck with the pregnancy. x x x

hey matey, trimethoprim wasthe drug i took and couldn't sit up, and you know my pots isn't normally that bad, i just couldn't get out of bed, i the end i took augmentin, i get so sick with uti's though, and i have no symptoms! one more freaky thing for you, i hospital the week before last they said i had a uti then an hour later i didn't have it any more! wow, my body heals fast!! hope you feel better soon, becks x x x

i find if i don't eat bread or ave any dairy my tummy doesn't hurt any more! never had a problem with digeston before i got pots i was a regular three poo's a day, one after evry meal! it is etting better since i have cut down m meication but still three times a week is doing marvelously!! re: eyes, willows thought thi would make you laugh, my lovely mother was drivng me to work one day (yes this was quite a few years back) now mum is vrtually blind in one eye and has an astigmatism (sp?) in the other, on the journey she was complaining that she couldn't see, there must be something wrong with her contact lense! so i was very worried thatwe would crash as sh couldn't see out of her good eye! anyway she droped me off and continued on her way to work. she phoned me later to tell me that she'd found out what was wrong, she hadn't taken her contact lense out the night before and had put another one in on top of it in the morning! My mum really makes me laugh she does some really silly things. becks x x x

thanks for that it's really interesting, do you thnk it's pots? i've heard that it can start after trauma like surgery. becks x x x

i make myown christmas cards for my famly and they all laugh because i'm not very good at it, the christmas trees are always wonky and stuff lke that! this year my boyfriend and have made pudding for our famlies and we are ging to get some muslin to wrap them in with a ribbon and some holly, they look really pretty - however they have that much alcohol in them you could remove teeth and feel no pain! or you can make one huge rectangular chrismas cake and cut it into big wedges for family, wrap in cellophane (which is normally pretty cheap for a big roll) and decorate with holly, mine is courtesy of the next door neighbours garden! that way i don't have to go far. one year i embrodered cheap cushions with peoples names and a chistmas tree, that was actually quite easy, i love sewing. (i found the pattern for the letters in a library book and the coton only cost a pound for two colours, thats about $1.50) i'll try and think of other things, oh remebered one, truffles n little decorated boxes, they were just left over cake that you crumble and roll into little balls and cover in cocoa powder and chocolate vermicelli put into tiny cupcake cases i a little box and wrap. they're really cute and cheap. becks x x x

hey Jacquie, not sure about this one but i know that personally i have some terrble reactions if i change brands - my last pharmacy had to specially order alphapharm (sp?) brand paroxetine for me because i became a lunatic when i changed brands! so maybe the generics do work better - i think that different people have differnt reactions. becks x x x

I love it!! just cheered me well up!

Well, now 'm stll off - this vertigo is driving me mad, have had an email from college to say that they are having a meeting about me because of my absences so far they don't thnk i should continue. this is very unlike me but i just can't be bothered to fight - i'm trying to come off paroxetine and florinef (now on 0.1mg florinef daily and 15mg paroxetine every other day), i'm trying to deal with this vertigo - i'm now on buccastem because the betahistine didn't work,i just think maybe i need to pick my battles. i can't do the reading tha need to cos everythng is spinnng, can't do the work cos i get thumping heaaches everytime i attempt it. sorry i'm a bit of a moaner today, just feeling really fed up. becks x x x

hi all, melissa, thank you for startng this thread and telling us all how you really feel, i think that a ot of us can relate to this. i don't think i can stand one more person saying "look on the bright side" or "it could be worse", i really want to projectile vomit over them and say "see i told you i was sick". i understand you mourning your loss of the holidays and i think it's better to o that than keep it bottled up, i'm just glad there are so many other people out there who get it. i'm in bed in a foul mood - i shouldn't be i went to disneyland in paris over the weekend but coming off medication, having a bad dose of vertigo (nine weeks and countng!) and pots meant that i was in a wheelchair for the first time ever all weekend. now because of the travelling i'm crashing - but it was a christmas present for my sister and i from my parents and i didn't want to ruin it. i kept trying to get out of the chair and walk but i fell over or walked into things got palptatons etc, i felt sorry for my family pushing me around. i just really wanted to hibernate! so that's what i'm doing now. Also my family treated me really diferently because i was in the chair - guess i'm mourning the loss of feeling somewhat normal. melissa, thinking of you at this really difficult time. I can't imagine what you are going through at the moment but i can empathise. keep us updated love and hugs bebs x x x p.s. this stupid laptop is going to be flung out of the window f the keyboard doesn't start wrkng soon, if only i had the strength! ha ha ha

i completelyagree with dionna, even though i have no experienceof the army. I am so mad for you but you have to fight this if not for you then think how you'd feel if he treated someone else this way. get whoever is superior and supportive to help you. it's not easy - i took my last employers to court for discrimination - but you can do it. behind you all th way love becks (or as my ma calls me when i'm in this mood, Rocky!)

thank you megan, my thoughts and prayers go out to her family at this time, i hope she is in a better place where she won'thave any pain and she can sing. love becks x x x

howdy, i can so relate to weight gain through a combination of lack of excercise an medicaton, i've put on loads of weight since i got sick and started taking florinef and paroxetine - im tryig to come off thm now so i'm hoping that my weight will go down but i find it really difficult to lose weight and my mum keeps on and on at e about how fat am and how it can't all be the medication but i do eat very well so i don't know. i have found that if i cut out bread i lose about three pounds n a week. (again apologies for spellingmistakes - bloody keyoard isn't working!) i'm 5'9 so i probably don't look as heavy as i am ut i'm around 224 pounds now and i was 182 when i firs got sick. bebs x x x

Well done persephone, that is fantastic news i knew you could do it! couple of vodka tonics ths evening? congatulatons again matey, huge love and hugs becks p.s. loved the photo's o your oxford lifex x x

hi bri, i've hadthis for the past couple of months now and just had a diagnosis of labrynthitis, an inner ear inbalance. i'm on my fifth lot of medication for it. it does just feel like you are permanantly on a ferry, it's so horrible, at least i seem to have stopped falling everytime i bend over but i'm still stumbling round like a drunk, the headaches and sickness that ome with this are horrible. and my lips are still numb, when i move my eyes they flicker and cause palpitations. for me this is more disabling than my pots has been for a long time. bebs x x

oh that cheesecake sounds yummy - my boyfriend loves cheesecake but hates cream cheese, do you think you could make it with creme fraiche? My mum makes these great little mincemeat cakes, just normal sponge mix and add mincemeat, they freeze pretty good too, great for lunch boxes! bebs x x x

ha ha ha , i loved that one!! you know you have pots when your parents buy you a wheelchair for christmas! your family scan the shops before you go in to 'check for shap edges on the shelves', you know just in case

aw willows your poor son, you know it doesn't get any easier as you get older! thanks for the recipe, my lovely boyfriend who has been looking after me tirelessly and as i type has jut brought me a cup of hot chocolate!, will absolutely love it - he loves sausages! bebs x x x