Living with POTS from 10 Years Old

During February of fifth grade, I caught a random stomach bug. I figured it would pass as the stomach flu does. It did go away, for about a week, then I found myself sick again. This cycle continued three times until I ended up in the Emergency Room because I started throwing up blood. The doctors told me I was just dehydrated, and I would recover quickly. Unfortunately, I never got better. For seven years, I constantly felt nauseous.

The year I turned eleven, I went to numerous doctors trying to figure out what was wrong. I threw up at least once a day and forced myself to go to school with debilitating nausea. My gastroenterologist told me I had Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome after numerous tests. This diagnosis never sat right with me, as my nausea was not cyclical but constant. From ages eleven to seventeen, I lived with the fear I would spend the rest of my life on the verge of throwing up.

My seventeenth birthday, I could not even eat my birthday cake. The Emergency Room treated me several times for severe dehydration and malnutrition because I could not eat or drink without throwing up. Within a couple of months, I lost thirty pounds. A plethora of new symptoms started to appear. I started getting dizzy and lightheaded every time that I stood up. This is when I restarted my search for an answer to my illness.

My pediatric doctor brought up POTS at one of my many appointments. She referred me to a cardiologist who told me I was “too sick” to have POTS. This answer frustrated my family and me. Through my own research, I found Standing Up to POTS. When I read that 25% of people with POTS are disabled to the point where they cannot go to work or school, I felt so seen. After reading about POTS, I went to a new cardiologist and finally got my diagnosis. It took seven years to get a correct diagnosis. Little did I know that the worst was still to come.

The winter of my senior year of high school, I felt so sick that all I could do was sit on the couch and scroll on social media. I could not stand for more than 30 seconds at a time without almost passing out, and my brain fog became bad enough I could not hold basic conversations. Graduating high school seemed out of reach. My life ended before it had even started.

Eventually, I was admitted to the hospital because of the severe stress my body was under. I went into anaphylactic shock, started having pseudoseizures, and my body started shutting down. My treatment plan finally got updated to a different set of medicines. Mestinon, the new medication, saved me.

I started to gain functionality back and managed to graduate high school on time with a 4.0 GPA. Currently, I am a sophomore at college studying Business Analytics. I still struggle with POTS daily, but I am extremely thankful for every day I get to see. My POTS is well managed now, and I am thankful for all the resources that I was able to find through Standing Up to POTS. It helped me get to where I am today.