POTS?

[britt6418]

I am 29 f.. I have had tachycardia since I can remember. I always have an episode when I bend over and stand too fast. I recently started getting ringing in my ears, tunel vision when I lay down and almost black out. I have passed out while throwing up from a virus. I had such bad ringing in my ears it was more a screaming... I checked my Orthostatic BP and found that I have def orthostatic hypertension. I raise between 20-30 points from laying to sitting to standing. go from 111/55laying to 124/68 sitting to 138/84 standing.. all within seconds. I took my bp and pulse for the first time during a tachi episode it was 154/90 heart rate was 180.. seconds later when I heald my breath and made it stop it was 124/64 heart rate was 104... POTS? I have no insurance. I went to the doc today and he gave me a beta blocker.. Its just scary. Should I do more or will this be enough. I also have allot of other symptoms from POTS. Whatcha think?

[Mom2four85]

Dave2923 is right; very annoying and bothersome set of symptoms often misdiagnosed for many of us ANS patients.  

You may want to try abdominal binders and compression hose on top of his suggestions with your BB; it's a hit or miss if they work; some it works on others I've talked to like myself it doesn't make a difference.

The major thing I think alot of us really have to watch out for is the fainting/black outs  and injuries.  I've fallen and injured myself so many times it's caused brain damage as well as damage in other places - last June I fainted as I fell I hit the corner of the tiled tub - suffered a concussion; head contusion and severe neck sprain.  

Here's the link for the Dysautonomia forum here http://www.medhelp.org/forums/Dysautonomia-Autonomic-Dysfunction/show/266 and if you want more info you can always check the National Dysautonomia Research Foundation; the patient handbook has some great information as well the Dysautonomia Information Network.

[Dave2923]

  It sounds like you have autonomic dysfunction. This really just means that your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system are out of wack. POTS is just one manifestation/symptom of this issue. Overall, it's a pretty benign problem, but it can cause a lot of annoying symptoms. The key is trying to make lifestyle, dietary, and medication adjustments to control the symptoms such as the dizziness, the blood pressure issues, heart rhythm problems, etc, etc. The beta blocker may or may not help you with the orthostatic BP and POTS, but you can always try other options if it does not (i.e. ACE inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, etc, etc).
     The one thing I would say to check out is autoimmune disease, as they tend to go hand in hand with dysautotomia and things like POTS. If you have a family history of autoimmune problems (i.e. arthritis, lupus, thyroid disease, etc, etc) then you may want to look into taking steps to reduce your inflammation (i.e. take supplements like Omega 3 and Magnesium) as reducing inflammation may help your POTS and other symptoms.
      But overall, emotionally I would just try to not worry so much, because symptoms like the ones you have can be scary feeling, but do not mean you are at risk of anything really bad happening to you. Consider it a challenge to figure out how to fix them.