jbrian00

Thanks for your reply Pat! The derealization I haven't had in over a year since the Cymbalta fixed that. Hard to recall whether I was standing or sitting when it happened. I don't think it mattered. Anyway, it made me anxious and on edge and to deal with it I would go out on a slow-paced walk cause being outside with the sun and scenery seemed to help some. Bouts would last an hour or 2. Interestingly I don't believe it ever happened in the morning or early afternoon. Contrary to what I have read about POTS symptoms being more severe in the morning, mine seemed to be worse later in the day. The feeling as if the lights are really dim only occurred late in the day or at night, but that's probably because the sun had gone down. Fortunately, I didn't notice that symptom either on Cymbalta. As far as BP goes I didn't check when I had the symptoms to see if it was particularly low or not. In my case I have always shown high bp readings so I haven't been concerned about low bp. My PCP told me I was pre-hypertensive and like I said my cardio doc had me on a beta blocker for high bp spikes. I'm not on a bb anymore. When I have my tachy surges my bp has been elevated, probably caused by additional anxiety. I suppose it has it's benefits cause I have never fainted due to low bp. During my TTT, however, my bp did drop some (I don't remember how much) but apparently not low enough to cause problems. Also I've read not very many guys get POTS. I guess I might be one of the lucky ones if I do indeed have dysautonomia. James

I am not a confirmed POTS patient, but I have had a positive tilt table test and tachy whenever standing (and sometimes sitting without meds). Seems like you're symptoms happened out of the blue as well as mine, except mine was diagnosed as a panic attack. I can indeed vouch for the burping. Any time I eat or drink anything, including just drinking water, I feel the urge to burp afterwards. Haven't come across anything to help...I have come to just except it. Once again, I have not been formerly diagnosed with POTS or likewise, but with my little knowledge and a lot of research I could find nothing else to explain my symptoms.

Hi everybody, Thanks in advance for anyone willing to read through this long post. I am going to share my experiences with everyone in a hope that we could help each other out. About 2.5 years ago in college (23 at the time) I was carrying about my usual healthy, well being business by walking to the cafeteria. I noticed while walking that I started to have slight chest pains. Anyway, I rested for a minute while the pains went away, and continued to the cafeteria where I got my food and sat down. All of a sudden then, out of the blue, I could feel my heart speeding up and palpitating a mile a minute it felt like. Started hyperventilating and my hands started tingling. Being the first time having these symptoms, I panicked and told someone in the cafeteria I thought I might be having a heart attack or something. So they had an ambulance arrive and drive me to the ER. I started to calm down when I arrived in the ER and lied down on their beds. As usual protocol, they ran all kinds of heart tests on me...ekg, echo, stress, nuclear stress, you name it. All tests came back fine. Diagnosis...panic attack (understandably). Wierd cause I've had social anxiety since childhoold, but never experienced a panic attack like that. Anyway, I was then put on and taken off a slew of meds. First a beta blocker recommended by a cardiologist cause my BP shot up and he said i had an enlarged heart wall which he thought was due to BP spikes when I get anxious. Also xanax and zoloft by PCP. My BP levels showed normal ranges at home, so I was taken off the beta blocker. For a period of a couple weeks, I had panic attacks, almost several times a day. I developed severe health anxiety. My PCP even put me on an antipsychotic cause he diagnosed me with hypochondriosis (where I was making up my symptoms). Anyway, I was pretty out of it on that and was finally able to see a psychiatrist who took me off that and changed my xanax to klonopin and upped my zoloft, so I was only taking 2 meds, but fairly high doses (100mg Zoloft) and 2mg Klonopin 4 times a day. I was a whole lot better on those meds as I wasn't having panic attacks all the time like on the xanax. I still had this tightness knot type feeling in the center of my chest, so after a while I asked to try another antidepressant, so was put on Cymbalta (60mg). Ok not much change, but after a while that tightness feeling did disappear. I still continued to have this tension type feeling on my left side however. Time went by...I seemed to be doing ok overall...and I asked to get off the Klonopin because I've read they're addicting. So I tapered that and eventually went off with little problems. I also convinced my doc to lower my Cymbalta to 30mg cause I was tired and yawning all the time. That helped, and I was feeling relatively well. I felt well enough that I wanted to work my way off of my only med, Cymbalta, to see if I could get back to where I was before my first episode or at least handle my health naturally through herbs and supplements. Upon decreasing Cymbalta (I did taper down, but it is difficult cause they only come in capsules so you have to poor the contents out little by little), I started to have panic attacks again. I had an array of neurological and physical symptoms. For example, my eyes felt wierd (pressure kinda), I had boughts of derealization, particularly at night I noticed that the lights seemed unusually dim to me (not so much in the morning though). And it became evident that whenever I stood up from sitting, I felt a surge of adrenaline and my heart would race. Ok so I was still going to school but began to notice over time that I became really winded after walking up 3 flights of stairs to class (I had, previously to my panic attack just a couple weeks ago, been able to walk up stairs fine, heck even run up them and not feel as winded). I walked to class but began to notice that my heart rate was racing faster than I could count on my pulse. It was at this time I googled my symptoms and came across POTS, which seemed to account for my symptoms (particularly the increase in hr 30+ bpm being upright). I then became anxious that I might have this and there wasn't a cure or medication aimed for it. Reading through posts here had me worried about fainting and terrible symptoms I've read about. I was off Cymbalta and all medication now for 4 months, and I didn't seem to be getting any better. My symptoms would change every so often and throughout the day. My main complaints were my head, sides of my neck, and of course the racing heart symptoms. There were times when I thought I might be having a stroke. I had a wierd feeling like I wasn't getting any air to my head by breathing. At the time I was convinced I was having some type of discontinuation syndrome from the medication, cause I read some people had symptoms 6 months to a year after stopping it. Of course my doc said it's been long enough the symptoms aren't withdrawal of the meds. My symptoms wore me down so much I decided it wasn't worth it...there was no light at the end of the tunnel, so I went back on Cymbalta and klonopin. Shortly after, my brian fog diminished and my symptoms disappeared for the most part, except for the hr upon standing. In credit to the cymbalta, it did improve my heart rate symptoms. While off...resting rate was 90-100 and standing was around 130-140. On cymbalta, resting was 75-85 and standing was 90-115 most of the time. I was also able to start exercising on a treadmill, every day, for about 35 minutes at a top speed of 3.6 mph on my good days. I was still vary winded when climbing stairs. I saw another PCP and had a tilt table test that showed my hr spiked up and blood pressure dropped some (I don't remember how much). Now once again after 1 year on cymbalta and feeling relatively "good", I wanted to try going off again to no meds, working my off slower to see if I could avoid the symptoms that might have been from too rapid a decrease last time I tried. However, this time I felt worse than can be. I ended up in the ER a couple weeks ago because I was doing my usual daily treadmill workout and suddenly my heart jumped up and I couldn't settle down, probably cause I was thinking i was dying. Every other day or so I'd have these bouts just sitting on the couch watcing tv and suddenly I'd feel a rush of adrenaline and my heart rate would spike to around 140-160 and stay high like that for about 30 min - 1 hour. It got so bad that I knew if I got up my heart would spike up so I basically only got up to go to the bathroom or eat. My head felt like it was in a vice. Again my symptoms would vary by day or time of day. Since I could hardly move, I couldn't go anywhere and now I'm resuming Cymbalta and klonopin. Been on it now for 2.5 weeks and I've already noticed an improvement in heart surges and hr and I was able to leave the house twice in the past week! I still have head issues, however, which are hard to describe but it feels like a tight band around my head. I'm hoping that will resolve over the next few weeks like they did before. Does anyone now if medications can induce POTS in someone? I was given relatively high doses of medications and I'm also been pretty sensitve to meds, so I wonder if my symptoms could actually be caused by an alteration in brain chemistry from the medications that without the meds I can't function? Either that or it would have to be something underlying like dysautonomia in which case the drugs are actually helping that. I'm thinking the POTS cause I've given myself 3+ months off all meds and didn't see any improvement, plus the positive tilt table test. Every doctor and psychologist I've been too have said it's anxiety. Yes...I am anxious and I have had social anxiety...but I don't think it can account for my inevitable spike in hr every time I have a change in posture. I've read here that POTS is commonly misdiagnosed as anxiety. The again...what are the odds that I would develop symptoms of an autonomic defect out of the blue one day...no virus or anything. It is very frusturating that most docs have no idea what POTS even is to make an accurate diagnosis. I'm looking for another doctor. Does anyone have any tips on what I should bring/do when seeing my new PCP? I figure I'd bring in a brochure on POTS and symptoms and check the ones I have. Thanks for the people who took the time to read through this long post. James