Climbing Toward My Future One Day at a Time

I am a sport climber (bouldering) I was top 4 in Australia for my age group last year and top youth climber for my state as well as top three open females and a national open semi finalist for adults.  Last year was my first year of competing and I was super proud of my results considering how new I was to the sport. I am newly got diagnosed with POTS and hypermobile spectrum disorder (about 5 months ago).

I started developing symptoms last year that gradually got worse and worse until I knew something wasn’t right, and luckily my doctor immediately detected it possibly being POTS which led to a thankfully very quick diagnosis after getting a Holter monitor and meeting with a cardiologist.

When I got the diagnosis, the first thing I did was google "athletes that had POTS" to learn tips and what I could do to adapt my training and the first thing that came up was “people with POTS aren’t lazy and many patients with POTS were athletes before they got sick”. In that moment I realised how much harder this was going to be for me but it also made me push harder to hopefully one day change google search to prove you can still achieve with POTS.

Like anyone I have good days and bad days, at first the bad days got to me I would get very frustrated at myself and think how much easier it would be if I was just healthy. I felt very alone for a while as no one really understood what I would have to go through just to train and the pain I endured. They didn’t understand as I look so fit and healthy from the outside. They would think I am making it up or it must not be that bad as I can still do so much. As I got sicker, my climbing was getting better and people wouldn't get why. I pushed my body to keep training to the point I would not be able to stand for days. I would get out of bed train then get back into bed, not move until I had to train again (looking back maybe not the best life balance).

Sport has helped me so much through tough times. Having to face new challenges, my dreams aren’t changing and I am as determined as ever now to not only represent my sport but all the people within the POTS community to show being active doesn’t end with POTS. You can still be just as capable, although it may make it a lot harder. I am mentally so much stronger for it and can’t wait to show the world what I am as well as people with POTS are capable of.

The photo is from my most recent competition at the Australia Cup Finals :) xx