My progress on Pots

On this page I will publish my progress. Every time I have achieved a new milestone I will add this to this blog. Although I had immediately effect with drinking celery juice on my dizziness, the rest of my healing process went slow and gradually. It is not a quick fix. It needs patience and perseverence.

December 2017:  functioning at 30% .

Standing: 10 minutes
Walking: 20 minutes
Folding laundry: 15 minutes
Kneeling and standing up: direct dizziness
Cleaning Bathroom: not possible
Doing housework: besides dusting, almost impossible
Brainfog: severe symptoms. Feelings of disorientation, word findings problem, problem with short term memory. Almost every day. I needed to lay down for 2-3 hrs in order to recover.
Heart rate: heartrate increases with 30-40 beats per minute when moving.
Fatigue: sleeping a lot during a day. Folding Laundry for 15 minutes led to dizziness and brainfog. Had to lay down for 2-3 hrs. for recovery.
Activity level: I could manage with effort to work for three days (I sit mainly during my job) but on my free days I sat and slept mainly during the day. Working exhausted me a lot, I felt knock out when I did not work. 



 
June 2019: functioning at 70-80%
 
Standing: 50 minutes
Walking: 75-90 minutes (with sometimes a moment for a short stop to sit for some minutes)
Folding laundry: 60 minutes
Kneeling and standing up: I can do this several times now in a row without becoming dizzy. Must keep paying attention no to do it too quickly. It remains still somewhat problematic.
Cleaning Bathroom: is possible, but not in the morning. And I have to pay attention not to make too quick moves. But if done with care I can do it without becoming dizzy. I am not a cleaning princess but I was so happy when I reached this milestone.
Doing housework: in general I am able again to do the basic things, such as cleaning a toilet/bathroom, vacuum cleaning etc.
Brainfog: disorientation feelings have disappeared. Brainfog still happens after I have become dizzy, but is much less serious. Problems with answering questions sometimes still happen.
When I experience brainfog I do not necessarily need to lay down anymore. Recovery can also take place when I sit and close my eyes. Recovery time is between 30-60 minutes.
Heart rate: heartrate still increases 30-40 beats per minute when I reach my limit of what I am capable to do concerning moving. After for example 50 minutes of standing, I can often feel the dizziness coming up, and my heart starts beating faster. At those moments I still feel a lot of unrest inside my body, like my internal system is going out of control. When I immediately sit, my heartbeat will slowly calm down. 
Fatigue: as I experience less moments of dizziness, I hardly need to sleep during the day anymore. In the evening I can still feel very exhausted when I have been very active during the day. I do not know whether this is an issue of condition or this is still Pots related.
Activity level: my energy level has increased a lot. I feel more lively and energetic. I am able to do several activities one after the other.  I can do for example shopping, come home clean up the kitchen and do some work in the garden. This is still depending on: how much I have eaten, time of the day and the quickness of my movements. However, being physically active and talking intensively at the same time still causes dizziness.


What are my hopes and wishes for the coming period?

• I want to be able to be physically active in the morning without becoming dizzy
• I want to be less exhausted in the evening
• I want to be able to kneel and stand up more often without becoming dizzy
• I want to be able to be physically active and talk at the same time without becoming dizzy
• I want to be able to stand longer than 50 minutes without becoming dizzy
• I want to increase the total time of being able to do physical activities 
• I want to be able to make quick moves without becoming dizzy

January 2020: functioning at 80-85%

Here an update on my healing from Pots. It is going very well! The last few months my progress further increased. I am more and more able to become physical active in the morning without becoming dizzy. I can kneel down and standup again more easily without becoming dizzy and brainfoggy.

Walking is improving. I am able to walk 3-4 hours on a day, but I need pauses between them from approximately one hour. But it is finally possible for me to visit a city and make longer walks. My coordination problems in my legs which normally arose after long walking hours is still absent. I contribute this mainly to the positive effect of prolotherapy which decreased the hypermobility in my back.

Walking and talking simultaniously is still problematic and can easily cause a Pots reaction.

Moving is becoming more automatic without me being cautious of becoming dizzy. Pots is still there, but it is going slowly more and more to the background.

Standing up for 45 minutes or longer stays problematic, and still causes a rapid heartrate.

I feel great, and have recently decided to quit my job and start my own psychotherapy practice. A dream which I thought would never become true and would be a dream for always.

After two years of strict appliance of the Medical Medium protocol, I sometimes allow myself now some no foods, like a bun with some cheese or some meat. It does not affect my improvements but makes life more easy.