Day One

Today, I am starting my blog, which is something I have been saying I was going to do for weeks. But as we all know, we love to say we are going to do things but doing them is another story. I am a 30 year old married female who lives in Plano, TX. I have POTS - Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome - try saying that really fast to someone! Basically, I have a dysfunctional nervous system. It just doesn't work the same way other people's nervous system does. My body can't handle gravity so every time I stand, my heart rate shoots up 30 bpm or more. My resting heart rate is about 95 bpm so when I stand it can shoot up to 125-222 bpm. Because my heart is beating so fast and my blood is pooling in my legs, I become dizzy, short of breath, lightheaded, nauseous, tired, hot, and very weak. If I don't sit down within about 4 minutes of standing, I will more than likely pass out. I didn't always do this but over the past few years, my POTS has progressed into what it is now - a debilitating syndrome. Walking makes it worse because with each step I develop a more intense headache. By the time I sit back down, I feel as though I have just ran a marathon instead of going to get a glass of water. I'm not even sure how this blogging journey will go as staring at a computer screen for long periods of time make me really dizzy and make my speckles come out. My speckles are little squiggy lines I see sometimes. I can see everything clearly but everything just has sqiggy lines in front of them.

I don't want anyone to think I hate my life because I don't but I do want to let everyone know what it is like to live with a chronic illness and I just happen to have POTS. It is fairly new to the medical world so if you haven't heard of it, you are not alone. Most of the people I encounter have never heard of it - even my PCP! Just like with everything in life, there are ups and downs to having POTS and it's all a matter of how you look at things. I hope to educate people on POTS so they can see how difficult it is for people with POTS to just do ordinary things. But that doesn't mean we can't do them! I hope to learn a lot myself along the way, not just about POTS but also about me. So, thank you for taking this journey with me. I look forward to seeing where it will go just as much as you do!

Till next time,

Kari