This year, I was finally diagnosed with POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome). Here is part 1 of my story.
So, I was going along, and having bad health days. I was getting sick all the time. I had fatigue, and seemed to always have a cough or cold. I also had worse and worse fainting spells and found I needed to rest in bed multiple times a day. I connected the symptoms to the obvious signs of black mold all over the basement apartment I was living in. My Landlord was … difficult. That’s the kindest way I can put it. So I was looking forward to the day that My family would move into our new house. A few delays later, and the day arrived!
I immediately felt like I could breathe again. But, when we moved the last bit of furniture, I think we upset a lot of mold spores and my body reacted violently. But after a week of recovery, I was feeling great.
Then, I learned that I was pregnant with baby #6. YAY!
I usually have severe morning sickness. My husband and my kids prepared for mom being out of commision for “just a few weeks”. And I was morning sick, but I was also tired. So. Very. Tired.
So I thought, once I’m out of the first trimester, I will stop having nausea and fatigue. Ha Ha!
The fatigue never stopped. It was intense. I would collapse. Even when I laid down I felt like the shadow of death. I could barely roll over. Every once in a while, something would happen and I couldn’t even hold my phone while it was propped up on my chest. I often had to lay as flat as possible with my arms at my side.
Even in the moments when I felt betterish, I still had bizzare symptoms. I felt an ache throughout my blood vessles. I would say that it felt like I didn’t have enough blood. I often had a mild buzzing feeling just under the skin, like when your foot falls asleep, but gentler. It felt hard to breathe. My lungs were letting in and out air – no obstructions, no wheezing, full capacity – it just felt like breathing wasn’t doing much. It even felt like breathing was too easy, like there was no resistance. And yet, I was panting.
I panted when I sat up. I panted when I rolled onto my side. I panted when I walked 7 steps to my toilet. I panted as I put on hand sanitizer. Sometimes I had enough energy to wash my hands. Most of the time I didn’t. I would collapse: a scary thing for a pregnant lady.
My doctor ran all the tests. My Certified Nurse Midwife group ordered a series of tests too. My husband was giving me piggy back rides down the stairs any time I needed to go to an appointment. We found a discount wheelchair at a thrift store ($25). He would carry me down the stairs, set me on the couch, carry me out to the car, buckle my seatbelt for me, wrangle two children into the car, and drive to the appointment. He would then park, help me into my wheelchair, get the two kids out of the car, somehow hold their hands while also pushing the wheelchair.
I started to get a little better. I could walk down the stairs by myself! I had to laydown flat for half an hour to recover. But I could walk down the stairs by myself! Which was good because my belly was getting HUGE. Piggy Back rides were no longer an option.
And, now present day Emma needs to recover. So I plan to post more of my story tomorrow.
Stay tunned