Diagnosed with POTS - Anyone else?

[ErinKC]

Hi all! So the last few days my heart has been weird. It will race like crazy when I stand up. It got up to 152 the other day, which is outrageous for me. So I came to see my doctor and she did a 10 minute standing test. My pulse went from 76 to 126 in the first minute I stood up. She stopped the test early because it was such an obvious diagnosis.

I’ve had Covid twice, last time in May, and I suspect it’s connected because apparently it’s common after Covid, especially in women my age.

Does anyone else have this? What’s helped? I don’t get dizzy out anything, which is good. It’s just disconcerting.

[Kitkat99]

Did your doctor do any other tests? To properly diagnosed pots you must have other tests first. Pots it like a last resort diagnoses when nothing else is obviously wrong. Not to scare you as it probably is pots but that’s what they should do as other illnesses can present as it.

Anyway, you want to drink plenty of water and up your salt intake. Some people find eating smaller meals more regularly helps too and also compression stockings, but people mostly use them for dizziness which you don’t have.

All of this is just based on my own research as I suspect I have it but it’s also what other people with pots have been told to their doctors.

[ErinKC]

Thanks, Kitkat. She did tell me those things about water and eating smaller meals.

I've had every blood test possible - checking for thyroid function, vitamin deficiencies, anemia, lymes disease, blood clots, EKGs, etc... over the last few months because of other weird stuff after Covid along with my regular annual check up. She said she'd had this in the back of her mind be cause I was having dizziness and head rushes in the weeks/month or so right after Covid. She said she was happy when I said that had stopped, but then when this started up she thought it was time to test for it.

She's also ordered me a heart monitor just to be sure there aren't any other abnormal rhythms, but this is very much confined to standing up. If I walk around the room it improves, when I get out of the hot shower it improves, it gets worse when I eat a big meal, it gets worse when I stand still for too long, etc... So, it seems very textbook at this stage. In the days before this flare up I had also not eaten enough or drank enough water, I had taken a lot of antihistamines because of cleaning my dusty house (which dehydrates me even more) and I'd been under a lot of extra stress at work. So, I think I just triggered it a lot this week.

My doctor is really the best. She's so thoughtful and thorough and even though she is well acquainted with my anxiety she also never relies on that as a diagnosis. I love her!