Anyone here with postural tachycardia syndrome?

Post Reply New Topic

I've been very fatigued lately, since my bronchitis in December. Also, I've long had a hard time simply standing; I must either be moving around or sitting. Just tonight, I took my heart rate at rest (lying down) which was 66 BPM. After standing for 10 minutes without moving my legs, my heart rate had jumped to 106 BPM, a 40 BPM difference! This I hear is fairly characteristic of this syndrome, so I have sent a message to my endocrinologist (I see it's an endocrine disease). I noticed that my head felt fuzzier and I felt spacey while standing and my legs were quivering and I could feel the POUND POUND POUND!

The question I pose to my endocrinologist is, Has this been the source of my problem? I know he will need to do other tests to rule out other diseases, but I wonder if this is what has been going on.

Has anybody else dealt with this?

I have superventricular tachycardia. It comes and goes, but really wears me out when I have it.
I feel overheated and very tired. Sometimes really dizzy. Can feel my heart pounding (palpitations).
My BPM gets up to about 125. Sometimes triggers a panic attack.
They keep saying it is benign.

Yeah, was diagnosed with it after a tilt table test years ago. What lead to that was mostly fatigue and brain-fog though there was also chest pain, shortness of breath, cold sweating, etc. (but that stuff would only happen if I kept pushing myself to stay standing).

If your feet turn purple during long, hot showers that can be another clue.

I've seen different possible causes mentioned for it, like Ehlers-Danlos where the blood vessels are too elastic, and brain stem glitches that mess up the autonomic nervous system.

The one good (in a messed up way) thing is that it makes laying down feel heavenly.

You have a fantastic resting heart rate, mine is 95 bpm at rest. My doctors always make a comment on it too, but they never tell me anything is wrong with me. I had a borderline abnormal EKG, but again, they said "you're fine". Anyway, back to your question, I don't have what you're asking about, but I feel like I also have the symptoms of it. I'll have to look into this, thanks for bringing it to my attention.

In the past I had big problems with tachycardia. This usually happened during times I felt overwhelmed. Since going on Buspirone to help with my blood pressure medication, I have noticed that it is a rare for me to get these tachycardia bouts. But I still feel panic, anxiety, and being overwhelmed during stressful times of my life (like at work). But at least during most times of the day, I feel somewhat more relaxed. I think many of us with Asperger's have issues like this. I am having such an issue at work now.

Apple in my Eye,

I shall see.

Soccer22,

When I'm sitting, though, it's higher, like in the 80s to 90s. In fact, though my heart rate reading was not 100+, my cardiologist noted one of the diagnoses as sinus tachycardia

I got the message back from my endocrinologist. He says I should see my cardiologist, so I will call her up. He said he thought I had orthostatic hypotension, which seems similar. Either way, the cardiologist may be better at sorting things out.

Apple in my eye,

I see some red spots, but no purple. Nevertheless, my legs and feet are sore and I feel tired after the shower.

My cardiologist wants to see me in a couple weeks.

I have tachycardia and sinus arrhythmia and did quite a few tests but all of the doctors say it isn't anything to worry about. I am not worried. I had heart rate monitor on me and when I was lifting weights my heart rate went to 180 very quickly. It has been a while since I noticed this and it hasn't caused any issues. My average heart rate about 60 bpm. At times I measured it to 90 while resting.

I left work after only 4 hours (pre-scheduled) to run some errands and attend a support group, but the errands wore me out so much that I skipped the support group. I was exhausted and felt ancient; I drank a whole bunch of water and ate a whole bunch of salt, and then slept for almost 4 hours. I got up feeling very dry.

Nope

I get AVNRT though. Supraventricular tachycardia in other words.

250 beats per minute feels groovy, man.

Comes and goes, as it always does.

Oh BTW, orthostatic hypotension is pretty trivial in comparison to POTS, and the "gold standard" test for POTS is kinf of involved (cardiologist + 2 nurses/techs have to be there) so doctors tend to lean toward diagnosing OH unless you're 80 years old. So, you might have to push a little for the test. OTOH, some doctors will take the 10-minutes-standing test as a good enough, so that might not actually become an issue.

Thanks. My cardiologist specializes in cardiovascular disease in women, so considering that POTS is much more common in women she seems more likely to pick up on it.

Today, I ran some errands not long before work. When I came home, I felt exhausted; often, I will take FMLA for a couple hours to rest up. Today I didn't, however, and my performance at work has been noticeably poorer; I've had much greater difficulty focusing, whereas had I taken some FMLA and rested up I usually would be fine.

I am currently at rest, but up to 10 minutes ago performed the following test, using a blood pressure/heart rate monitor I bought from a local pharmacy. I intend to share this with my cardiologist:

Readings after coming in from work, from having been moving around. I stopped moving around and simply stood at the 0 min mark until the 15 min mark. These are the BP (blood pressure) and HR (heart rate) results from that time period. Previously, during the day, I had been consuming a lot more fluids and salt than normal. I also felt in a haze during the period when I started this.

Time BP HR
0 min 122/60 86
5 min 127/53 96
10 min 122/60 97
13 min 106/78 100
15 min 102/75 101

Starting around the 5 min mark, I noticed a tremor in my legs that got steadily worse over the rest of the period. The soles of my feet felt as if they were on fire and my legs felt very uncomfortable and unsteady. The feeling of being in a daze and a dysphoric feeling got worse over the course of this. After lying back down past the 15 min mark, I felt burning and pins and needles in my feet and toes. I feel somewhat better mentally.

While I was chilling and relaxing, in a supine position, taken on wrist at same level as heart (per instructions):

Time BP HR
0 min 112/51 70

I then got up and started standing, with no movement of the legs, taken on wrist at same level as heart:

Time BP HR
2 min 115/71 94
5 min 102/79 102

Because my heart rate had increased by more than 30 BPM 5 minutes after standing, and the position was very uncomfortable, I stopped here.

My fluid and salt intake have been normal as of the past few hours. I felt dysphoric and spacey while standing up while my legs and feet hurt. There was some discoloration of my feet, but no clear redness.

I feel dizzy right now. I'm trying to keep up with water intake. I hate having to go to the bathroom so much, though.