Living Life with POTS

My name is Darcy Marie and this is my diagnosis journey with POTS. I live with chronic pain and hypermobility of joints. I was recently diagnosed with Vasovagal syncope with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome through the tilt table test in April 2025. My test was stopped early due to Vasovagal response with a drop of my heart rate after the sustained increase in heart rate that met the criteria for POTS, it was explained to me. 

My first fainting spell was when I was 10 years old. I completely passed out and hit my chin off a surface scraping it. I have had other incidents of completely blacking out scraping and hitting my head off hard objects like the bathroom door. 

Though my symptoms of dysautonomia started fairly young, I had my first tilt table test in 2007 which was abnormal. A new cardiologist, who was a dysautonomia specialist, decided to repeat an up-to-date tilt table test in which was abnormal for two forms of dysautonomia. Dysautonomia is a malfunction of the autonomic nervous system that controls involuntary body functions like heart rate and blood pressure especially upon standing upright in which leads to my POTS. 

My treatment plan currently consists of wearing compression garments, increasing salt and fluid intake (like water & sports drinks) and to attend an exercise program for my POTS. (Cardiac rehabilitation) POTS can make me extremely uncomfortable being in upright position, and cause me heart palpitations (tachycardia racing heart rate) but there’s hope in treatment.