New Year, Old Stuff

Heading into the second week of 2013, my running progress has been excellent! I've even shaved a couple of minutes off of my mile times! In the last 11 days, I have only taken two days off and have averaged 2.5 miles every day! I know that isn't impressive to a lot of people, but it's pretty big for me. My campus has a fantastic rec center and since it has been too cold to run outside, I have been spending my time on the indoor track and cardio machines (if there's one ever open). Yesterday I surprised myself by waking up at 7:00 am to go workout because I knew my day would be too busy to go anytime later. Not only have I been running and working out more frequently to improve my "physique", but I have also noticed that my energy levels have been increasing!

I mentioned in my last post that I have some health problems, which effected my life for a pretty big chunk of time. In March 2011 I was diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (or POTS for short) at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. After two years of a million different doctor appointments, misdiagnosis', tests, and medicine combinations, I finally received some answers. I was initially diagnosed with Hashimoto's Disease, a form of hypothyroidism, which was thought to be the root of all of my problems. It was the worst few years of my life, but along the way I had the support of my family and friends. All I wanted to do was lay in my bed and never get out. I felt awful, and I would never want someone else to have to go through what I did without answers for so long.

This is another reason why I started my blog: to maybe have one person who is going through what I did and realize that they're not crazy and that there are answers! My doctor, Dr. Philip Fischer of Mayo Clinic, has done the majority of the research on POTS and was my lifesaver! Some of my symptoms included fatigue, dizziness and fainting, weight gain, tingling hands and feet, having "panic attacks" without the panic, migraines, and constantly being cold. Triggers can include mono or other types of illness, but none of that occurred with me. I'm still not sure how I ended up with POTS.

When I first met with Dr. Fischer, he knew within a few minutes of simply talking to him what was wrong with me. At first I was thinking "Here we go again.... Another idiot giving me a wrong diagnosis along with false hope." Oh how I was so wrong. I was scheduled for some tests the next day to confirm the diagnosis, so he sent me back to the hotel with a booklet on POTS. I read through it and it was like they wrote a book about my life. From the profile of people who are most likely to have it (high achieving/motivated, flexible, teenage girls) to the symptoms. I knew this was it!

So here's the rundown: POTS is a type of autonomic dysfunction where blood has a difficult time circulating up through the body. I like to joke that my body is anti-gravity, which is kind of true! So it's not uncommon to get really dizzy when standing up for a long period of time and the lack of bloodflow results in the slew of other symptoms! POTS is treated by drinking lots of fluids, adding more salt to the diet, having regular aerobic exercise, and taking a beta blocker to increase blood pressure! There is no cure for POTS, but most people will grow out of it by their 20's. The main reason why it took so long to diagnose is because it's not well-heard of in the medical community. None of my specialists at home knew what it was. If that was happening to me for two years, I can't imagine how many other people are out suffering like I did. The word about POTS needs to be spread.

It took a while to find the right combination of what I needed to do in order to feel better, but today I feel like the old me! Almost two years later, I think I'm ready to share my story in hopes of knowing you can go from missing almost a months worth of classes during a semester in high school to running 3 miles a day and being 4,500 miles away from home at college. I know that I never thought that would be possible! POTS will never define who I am, but it will always be part of my life. I hope I can put it to good use and spread my knowledge and personal experience.

For more information about POTS, visit http://podcasts.mayoclinic.org/2008/04/23/postural-orthostatic-tachycardia-syndrome-pots/