OK, now I have the physical keyboard, I can actually reply properly. DINET is the website about dysautonomia, which is another word for POTS.
Here is its forum. This may be a better place for you than a weight loss forum at the moment, while things are in crisis and you need to focus on the medical side of things. There is loads of information on the main site, it's not just a forum.
Here is the thread I wrote on electrolytes in this forum the other day. The cardiologist I saw told me to drink three litres (100 oz) of water and I think have 10g of salt a day, and I was probably 120lb at the time. You'd need to scale up. (Although we are about the same height! *waves*) Hopefully you will get professional medical advice on this soon, but meanwhile ask the folks at DINET. They will know enough to give you basic guidance on how much to drink and how to get enough salt in the meantime. You should probably have been getting saline IVs at the hospital, but hospitals aren't very good with POTS patients. This is another reason to talk to the POTS community, they can advise you on how to tackle this. One problem, for instance, is that if you have to stay in hospital they may try to put you on a low-salt diet by default, and that would be actively dangerous.
I came back to your post because I am fretting slightly at the idea of someone [I]going into cardiac arrest and needing to be revived[I], and then coming to a weight loss forum the next day to ask how to diet the best way. My guess is that you're in shock and are trying to get control back of your body, and that dieting is the familiar way for you to do this. Also the media in particular put the fear of God into people for being fat and tell them it'll kill them.
From everything I know about POTS and the conditions which tend to turn up with it (including autoimmune and so forth - again, DINET will be good with this side of things), being overweight is probably not what caused your cardiac arrest yesterday. POTS is. It's a really serious medical condition, it killed my best friend's ex-partner. Right now, you urgently need to get that under control, and any other medical problems which came up yesterday.
Your weight is not the priority. Dieting is hard on the body, and people who have been struggling with it since childhood often go for more extreme diets which are really hard on the body. Please do not diet right now. It could be really dangerous. Once things have settled enough and it is safe for you to do so, which may be months, go very slowly. I am aiming for 0.5lb weight loss a week, with my POTS reasonably well under control and not in danger like you are, because I cannot risk cutting my nutrients too low. If I were to have a medical emergency, I would immediately stop dieting.
If you binge from all the stress, that is absolutely fine. It's a coping mechanism, it's unlikely to do any harm short-term. You will deal with the weight later. Once you have the medical conditions under control, and chances are the medical conditions are a big reason why you have so much difficulty with your weight, you will actually be able to tackle the weight and it will be much, much easier. For instance, you won't be getting breathless and dizzy all the time. Also if it's any help, I have severe ME/CFS and I lost over a quarter of my body weight without trouble in 2011 without doing the slightest bit of exercise.
I don't know how you are coping with everything else, or where you are. Are you in a country with good healthcare access? Are things OK financially? Organise people to help with the childcare, because this is heavy-duty stuff you are doing and you need to minimise stress and exertion, as well as having something in place in case you need to stay in hospital for a spell. You may also need to have a pet-sitter lined up. Your husband should be ready to take time off work if needed, if that's something that involves advance planning. Have a friend or a therapist or someone you can talk to about the shock of nearly dying and having life-threatening medical conditions, even if it's just calling a helpline for a wail. If you have a support network - friends, family, religious community, whatever - now is the time to activate it.
I'd suggest going to DINET as your first port of call, learning the basics, sorting out getting enough fluids and salt. I use Nuun tablets for my electrolyte drinks and they are very popular amongst people with POTS. Then maybe take some time to relax, mainline a few silly TV shows or whatever works for you for relaxing. Take a few days off before you start researching the various other medical conditions they're investigating you for. And realistically, stay away from dieting forums for the time being!
Best of luck, hon. It must be absolutely terrifying, but you are getting medical care now and this is the start of things getting better.
Trying again
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