feeling unwell wwyd

[superbagpuss]

so I have been in hospital recently with a heart thing after I collapsed at work.

have been back for tests but no diagnosis yet

I had another bout of feeling unwell the other night but just went to bed instead of going back to hospital as DC were in bed and hospital is not close, been feeling unwell - tired and a little faint - ever since but have been going to work, being a mum etc

my question is does anyone have this/ know what it is?

should I still be working etc - had no advice from the hospital

how do I explain to my DC that mummy doesn't feel like running around at the moment and needs to rest. also how do I stop feeling guilty because I can't do as much as I normally can

Give me some more information about your symptoms and exactly what happened when you collapsed. Sounds similar to a problem I have and may be able to give you useful advice.

I was dehydrated maybe, just lay on the floor and couldn't move. I was very pale and had an odd heartbeat. that's all I really know

when I first lie down I cant move, but after about an hour I'm shattered but I can move around again

That sounds very similar to what happens to me.

I was at work and had suddenly felt very odd. Lay down, Los consciousness and my colleagues called an ambulance. Paramedics said heart rate was 260bpm. I spent 10 days in hosp having tests including cardiac MRI and echo. Tests were inconclusive and I was sent home to cope with it.

I collapsed again about 4 times over the course of a couple of weeks. Saw a cardiologist and had a monitor on for a week- again inconclusive. All the were able to say was my heart rate increased suddnely leading to collapse.

Did a lot of reading online and found what I thought it could be - Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). I saw a neurologist, professor Mathias, privately in London and had 2 days of tests as an inpatient. It was called Autonomoc Testing. The results showed that I did indeed have POTS!

It's an imbalance in the Autonomic nervous system.
Inability to regulated blood pressure causes increase in heart rate and can lead to collapse. It's worse when dehydrated/hot/after a large meal/when tired. It can be managed by medication but I manage it by trying to increase my fluid intake and salt intake in order to increase my BP.

I hope this is helpful. It obviously may be something completely different but it took me
2 years to get a diagnosis so I hope this may help to speed things up for you. The Drs in A&E had never heard of it!

Just read that back and realised it doesn't sound very reassuring. Sorry!

It probably feels as though there's no end in sight at the moment and you just feel so exhausted and fed up.
It WILL get better, believe me. I really hope the drs get you some answers soon. In the meatime try to rest as much as possible and drink a lot of water.

Thinking of you x

thank you for the replies

Thats interesting as it is worse when dehydrating/tired etc.

Also, since having children I have stopped salt in my diet (teaching my dc good habits), I wonder if I have taken out too much salt?

I only spent a few hours in hospital but have had a 24 heart monitor and a echocardioargram as an outpatient. Just waiting to see what the doctors say but will definetely bare POTS in mind.

No cheast pain as such, but I can feel it hurting but its more a constant ache then a sharp pain.

Sounds like a definite possibility.

I forgot to say it's worse when standing up as that drops the blood pressure. Unwittingly I was having a diet very low in salt which may have been part of the problem. I now have about 11g per day under dr instructions- jury add salt to most things. That would be more tricky with kids though obviously.

I never had chest pain. Just an odd feeling. Almost like that awful feeling you get when you miss a step on the stairs. Like an adrenaline rush sort of feeling.