After being sick for so long, I finally have a name for my illness: Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, otherwise known as P.O.T.S.

A cardiac condition that's stripped me of my health, weight (causing me to drop to anorexic weight), self confidence, friends, jobs and continuing my education.

My goals are simple: gain weight, be healthier, and get out more. Basically, get my life back!

I'm also hoping to spread some awareness on this little known condition, and to highlight the struggles of the underweight and people with "invisible illnesses."

Monday, May 16, 2011

Nervous.

Tomorrow is my appointment with the Cardiologist.

I'm torn. Obviously a part of me wants to have no issues and have everything be 'clean', while part of me wants to have something happen, or "fail", so they can find something and correct it.
At the very least, I want my arrhythmia to actually be documented instead of just being felt and showing up on my BP taker...it will be a good thing to have it officially diagnosed in my record.

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I'm going for three things: a stress test, an echocardiogram, and to get a Holter monitor.

Stress Test: Basically a test where you go walk and run on a treadmill (or ride an exercise bike- which I hope I get to do), so the doctor can get our heart rate up to look for any kind of arrhythmia or failures, and test how your heart works during physical activity.

Echocardiogram: Pretty much a sonogram of the heart that looks for abnormalities in the heart muscle or valves. There are four kinds. Mine (should) be a stress echo, where I'll have a heart sonogram before and after my stress test.

Holter Monitor: Wearable monitor that records heart rhythms to check for abnormal heart rates/beats for 1-3 days. Hopefully my arrhythmia shows up to play.



3 comments:

  1. You're going to do awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hope they find something with which they can provide you some much needed and deserved releif

    ReplyDelete