Tammy ... you and Candice and I need to find a middle point and get together sometime (she's in MO). Maybe we can do that next summer. Woudn't that be neat? Just take off one weekend and spend one night in a hotel ... have dinner together and have a gabfest!
Has anyone ever heard of POTS? (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) Excessive heart rate increments upon upright posture. A person with POTS will experience heart rates that increase 30 beats or more per minute upon standing and/or increase to 120 beats or more per minute upon standing. Remember me telling you about how my heart rate got up to 120 something just from calling the dog when they tried to change my heart medicine last year? Well, seems that's not the only symptom of POTS. Listen up:
*Tachycardia (Grubb, 2000)
*Lightheadedness (Grubb, 2000)
*Dizziness (Grubb, 2000)
*Palpitations (Grubb, 2000)
*Exercise intolerance (Grubb, 2000)
*Blurred Vision (Grubb, 2000)
Chest discomfort and/or pain (Grubb, 2000)
Clamminess (Grubb, 2000)
*Fainting or near fainting (Grubb, 2000)
Anxiety (Grubb, 2000)
Flushing (Grubb, 2000)
*Fatigue (Grubb, 2000) (which can be disabling)
*Headache/migraine (Grubb, 2000)
*Shortness of breath (Grubb, 2000)
Postprandial hypotension (Grubb, 2000) (low blood pressure after meals)
*Blood pooling in limbs (Grubb, 2000) (can make legs feel heavy and appear mottled and purple in color)
*Intolerance to heat (Grubb & Karas, 1999)
*Feeling cold all over (Grubb & Karas, 1999)
Low blood pressure upon standing (Grubb, Kosinski, Boehm & Kip, 1997) (Some physicians feel orthostatic hypotension is a separate entity from POTS)
Bloating after meals (Grubb et al., 1997)
*Cognitive impairment (Grubb et al., 1997) (may include difficulties with concentration, brain fog, memory and/or word recall)
Delayed gastric emptying (Grubb et al., 1997)
*Polyuria (Jacob & Biaggioni, 1999) (excessive urination)
*Diarrhea (Jacob & Biaggioni, 1999) (sometimes with alternating constipation)
Narrowing of upright pulse pressure (Jacob & Biaggioni, 1999)
Tremulousness (Low, Opffer-Gehrking, Textor, Benarroch, Shen, Schondorf, Suarez & Rummans, 1995)
Tunnel vision (Low et al.)
*Sleep disorders (Low et al.) (can cause unrefreshing sleep and an increased need for sleep)
*Cold hands (Low et al.) (and often feet & nose)
*Loss of sweating (Low et al.)
*Hypovolemia (Low et al.) (low blood volume)
*Chills (Low et al.)
High blood pressure (Low et al.)
Hyperventilation (Low et al.)
Numbness or tingling sensations (Low et al.)
*Generalized weakness (Low et al.)
Reduced pulse pressure upon standing (Low et al.)
*Low back pain (Mathias, 2000)
*Aching neck and shoulders (Mathias, 2000)
Excessive sweating (Robertson, 2000)
Nausea (Robertson, 2000)
*Noise sensitivity (Stewart, 2001)
*Light Sensitivity (Stewart, 2001)
*Disequilibrium (Sandroni, Opfer-Gehrking, McPhee & Low, 19
*Arrhythmias (irregular heart beats)
*Chemical sensitivities (May have multiple chemical sensitivity and can be very sensitive to medications - may only need small doses)
*Easily over-stimulated
*Feeling full quickly
*Feeling "wired"
*Food allergies/sensitivities (some foods seem to make symptoms worse)
Hyperreflexia
Irregular menstrual cycles
*
Loss of appetite
*Loss of sex drive
*Muscle aches and/or joint pains
Swollen nodules/lymph nodes
*Polydipsia (excessive thirst)
Pupil abnormalities
*
Weight loss or gain
*Feeling detached from surroundings
*Restless leg syndrome
I have or sometimes have all the symptoms I've marked with the asterisk ... THAT'S A LOT!!! And notice that Loss of appetite and Weight loss or gain are two of the symptoms! Tachycardia is simply a rapid heart beat. Mine has been rapid for most of my life. I can remember it beating so fast when I would walk home from school, I would have to sit down on the curb and wait for it to slow down so I could walk the rest of the way home. I would get so weak I couldn't even GET home for a while. I've been on Inderal for over 30 years because of it. My dad and my grandfather both died from heart failure. I have 40 out of 49 symptoms of POTS ... sounds to me like a winner!
I read a bunch of case histories of other people who has this and none of them have the same story. All their symptoms came at different times and they all seem to have discovered they had POTS in a different way. Some had virual infections, some had heart attacks, some had neck injuries or auto accidents some just went through a divorce or anxiety attack. Weird. So, I'm wondering, I KNOW I have rapid heart beat ... on meds for that ... could it be that I have POTS and something ... like maybe that medicine I took last spring that made me so sick ... have triggered the weight loss?
(Anyone else with the above symptoms can find information on POTS at the link below.)
http://www.potsplace.com/index.html
Fibromyalgia #129
You ok?
