Before we go any further, you’re probably wondering what on Earth is POTS? We’ve all got pots, haven’t we? Well… not exactly. POTS, when written in uppercase, isn’t about the things you cook your tea in. It’s a health condition—one I’ve recently been diagnosed with.
POTS, also known as Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, is a condition characterised by an abnormal increase in heart rate upon standing up. The exact cause of POTS is not yet fully understood, but it is believed to involve dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. I was diagnosed two months ago, but had suspected for a while that this could be the reason behind some of the difficulties I’d been having in my day-to-day life. I’d had a lot of the symptoms most of my life, but they had worsened significantly in the last few years to a point where now it is disabling.
From 2020 onwards, I started to really push for my doctors to refer me because I was no longer able to walk very far due to the severity of the symptoms, and was too afraid to do exercise or to leave my house for extended period of time. The worst of the symptoms were rapid heart rate and dizziness upon standing or when on my feet for a while, exhaution, exercise intolerance and wildly fluctuating body temperature.
These were the symptoms that had worsened most recently, but I had had many of them most of my life. I don’t remember ever not having some kind of joint pain, along with headaches, gastrointestinal issues and fatigue. I think before the symptoms worsened, I had just normalised them and built my life around accommodating myself. I worked from home long before it was the norm to do so, because I never coped well in any of the full time, in-person positions I held.
This year the stars aligned and, completely by chance, my partner met a doctor at work who is specialised in Long COVID and who is very familiar with POTS. He is a personal trainer and he had got to know her quite well, so after a little while she invited us to an appointment where she ran a few tests. I was then referred to a specialist cardiologist who formally diagnosed me.
Two months later, I’ve been on my meds since and have been gradually increasing exercise. I did a lot of research online and found out about the CHOP Protocol for people with POTS: a unique exercise programme “designed, researched, and prescribed by a team in Texas for patients suffering from Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)” and modified by a team of doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Although modified by paediatricians, this programme is suitable and can be modified to each person’s needs.
I am following the programme’s cardiovascular exercise instructions to the letter, whereas I’m taking some liberties with the strength training as I had already started to work on strength before starting the protocol. I’m currently adapting what I had been doing up until now and hoping to start training with a personal trainer, as I had triggered some flares by going a little too intense. I’m vlogging my efforts with my adapted version of the CHOP protocol, so you can watch the videos here.
Going forward, I’m going to vlog and blog about things related to POTS and the exercise I’m doing. I’d also love to hear from you if you have POTS. I want to read and listen to all the different experiences that people are having with POTS, and specifically related to exercise.
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