Dawg Tired

Ugh... The initial "Doctor Dance". I'm convinced it is worse than the condition itself.

AACCKK!!!! I pray salt never goes "underground".... Can you see an illegal "Salt Club"?? Sneaking down a back ally to get our "fix"? LOL!! A few months ago, my sister and her husband had gone to a resort with her son and daughter-in-law. DIL developed a sore throat and Sis knew a salt water gargle would help. She sent her husband down to the restaurant for salt.... He returned with a saucer of salt! Apparently, they didn't have any of the little packets. Salt..... Ahhhh......

I had no stones and it helped me greatly! Good luck!

Yep! Like Daisy, the Xanax helps calm things down but is by no means a cure. I quit driving years ago.

I am blessed to be living in Podunk Missouri. Tiny community hospital with larger ones 50 miles down the road if needed..... Every test I have had that required an IV has always had to be started by someone from Anesthesiology. Since there is a total of 4 people in that department, they all know me by now - I went in to have my gallbladder out and when I was hooked up to the monitors the surgeon asked the anesthetist, "Everything all right?" Anesthetist said, yeah, he saw me on the schedule a couple days ago and called my cardio... We both teased him about being nosy, but it's NICE to have doctors you don't have to explain everything too!

My only big fear is catching the flu while I'm crowded together. Fortunately, we are just flying from here to Sis's house so it's only 2 hours.

I gained 16 pounds in 4 days. I felt like I was actually "sloshing" when I walked. I called Dr and he told me "Take it for a month or so and let your body get used to it". REALLY?!?!?!? Maybe he was trying to send me into CHF so he wouldn't have to deal with me any more. I quit Midodrine AND that doctor.

I was diagnosed with NCS in 2002 at the age of 43 - I'm now 50. Mine seemed to either come on after a virus or it had always been there and the virus exacerbated it. Most of my life I had problems with bouts of tachy and fainting.

Send me a stack of squares - sometimes I feel "artsy" and I'll do something.

Lifesaver - I play Farm Ville too!!

1. With POTS, do you think you will be able to do a long hike without making your symptoms worse? HIKE?? On a "good" day I can make it to the mailbox and back. I can only go to stores that have the electric carts unless we take the wheelchair. 2. With POTS, does Xanax-type medication make your symptoms get a lot better or even go away? It doesn't make my symptoms go away, but it improves my quality of life since it calms the tachy better than anything else. 3. With POTS, is it possible to work out 1-2 hours a day and feel fine during the workout? Does cardio or weights make you worse? Uhm.... The first day we had our elliptical I managed 15 seconds. I did get up to 1 minute - but after doing it 3 days in a row it was too much. 4. With POTS, on days where you feel bad even when sitting or lying down, does standing up and walking around make it even worse? Yes, but if I don't at least get up and stretch once in a while or change positions - I hurt. Sometimes, though, I am so exhausted I feel like even lying in bed isn't "resting" enough. 5. With POTS, do stressful events or situations make your symptoms worse? Yes

{{{{HUGS}}}} MM! I am so sorry you are having to deal with all of this. Sometimes it feels like everything wants to attack at once! Know you are in my thoughts and prayers at this time - enjoy the "sleep" you get during the surgery! (Well, that is always how I CHOOSE to look at it!)

If there was any way in the world I could afford it, I would.

Sorry - meant to add this to the last post. Our schools are closing down at a pretty high rate due to H1N1.

I will get a flu shot (if they ever come available here!) and the H1N1 if I can. I sat through a symposium (online - so I "sat" in my recliner!) comparing this to the Spanish Flu in 1918. It seems the thing these 2 have in common that makes them different is that H1N1 actually attacks immune system directly and this is why it makes people so susceptible to the pneumonia. The pneumonia that is coming on post-viral and causing the majority of deaths is staphylococcus pneumonia and since there is an already existing and time-tested vaccine for it, they strongly advised getting it. My last pneumonia vaccine was in 2003 so I was overdue - I high-tailed it to the doctor's office and got it. SO... I believe this is something to consider if you can't do a flu shot.

Jan is right on the nose! My ex husband took my son (my only child) away from me. Not legally but the court around here told me it was MY problem (If you ever get a divorce in Missouri, DO NOT fall for "joint custody"!).... Anyway, once he ended up with them they never took him to anything at all. They wouldn't even help with his fundraisers. Once he was singing in the Christmas program and Rick and I drove 70 miles to be there. Ex and his wife were not there. It was 22 degrees outside and Rick and I went to talk to DS after the program - during the program he kept looking up in the bleachers and Rick stood up and waved at him - he got the biggest grin on his face! But after the concert his dad wasn't there and I asked him how he was getting home... "Walk, Dad and Des sais it was too cold for them to get out". Uhmmm.... It was too cold for them to get out but they expected him to WALK a mile and a half in the cold?? Needless to say, we took him home. His dad has him convinced I am just lazy. His dad is on disability but he roofs houses, rebuilds and installs car engines, finishes concrete and cuts/hauls firewood. Hmmmm.... Oh well, what comes around goes around. But Son refuses to leave his dad because "Dad might need me." He's old enough to make up his own mind and it sounds like if your children didn't want to live with you they, too could change. On the other side of the coin, last year Hubby and I took in a homeless kid so he could go to school and finish his high school. I baked cookies for bake sales a few times and he just about cried - never in his life had anyone done that for him. I believe your children understand your limitations, and believe me - there are a LOT of parents who are able to and do nothing.

When I went from the middle of Missouri to Vandy, Hubby drove and I sat in the passenger seat.... We have a 1994 Suzuki and the seat reclines so I was able to lie down, or just sit up and put my feet on the dash. I was able to change positions frequently so the trip wasn't too bad... We just hit every rest area between here and there! I carry Lysol wipes with me for toilet seats since I'm not too good at "hovering" these days.

Before I developed NCS I was working in an Urgent care. One morning I felt really bad but I was "opening" that day so I dragged myself in, opened the place, then put an order for a chest x-ray in the computer. Then I went around the corner to Radiology and got the x-ray taken, got the film, and when the first doctor came through the door I handed him the film. I also had a 103.6 fever. He swabbed my nose and sent it to the lab, gave me a week's worth of Tamiflu, and since Hubby hadn't had his flu shot he wrote him a prescription for Amantadine - and told me to take home a flu shot. So as soon as another nurse got there I went home. I came back to life 6 days later - my lab was + for Influenza B. Hubby got his flu shot as soon as I got home and he took care of me for the 6 days. He never caught the flu, which was the purpose of the Amantadine and I guess it worked.

I had problems once in a while prior to April, 2002, but then things started going downhill quickly. Things after then went downhill rapidly then. But, like I said - the pacemaker in Feb 2003 has never helped.

I have SSS. I go in/out of A-fib, V-tach, Bi-geminal PVC'a and pretty much everything else you could name. I have a pacemaker to keep my HR above 48 - higher rate than that wears me out worse than I already am. It is a constant "something is wrong, REALLY wrong" feeling and the 2 cardios I see both tell me all these things are "normal" when you have SSS. Let me tell you, as a nurse who rushed her dad to the hospital when he had a stroke from throwing a clot due to A-fib, getting a LETTER from PCP's office (that was over a week old!) telling me "I" was in A-fib is daunting!! I called my cardio and 3 WEEKS later got a call... He was actually LAUGHING at me and told me "that's just how it is, you click in and out of A-fib all the time". This is when I went to another cardio and he told me he doubted I had EVER been in A-fib. He downloaded my pacer recording and said there was no A-fib on it. (But then, I kinda didn't LIKE him!) So I sit here lost and uncomfortable like the rest of us with this stuff. However, when someone tells me I need to exercise and get my heart rate up, I put on the BP cuff that measures pulse. It is routinely over 200.

What a relief!!

Awww!!! LOVE the pet and Family photos! GREAT thread!!

And WHY can't people understand there ISN'T a magical POTS pill?

I imagine that when the upper endoscopy comes back normal yet again they will go ahead and schedule the cholecystectomy. Just keep telling the Dr that you STILL have the symptoms.

Well, he isn't a white dog, but he is my angel. He cuddles me and keeps my feet warm if I get cold.