r/POTS•
Buckminster419

Dealing with health anxiety

I was recently diagnosed with autonomic dysfunction, my cardiologist did not want to diagnose POTS without a formal tilt table test. I did the NASA lean test in the office and fell ~5 bpm short of the >30 bpm criteria but my Dr still suspects POTS because my resting heart rate was so high (>90).

My question for all of you is: how do you deal with the health anxiety that comes with this condition? Any one of the symptoms that I feel on a given day would probably have been enough to send me to the urgent care/ER a couple years ago. I do feel better knowing that my Holter did not show any arrhythmias and my echo was normal but my EKGs are still classified as abnormal (something about inverted waves that I don't understand). My cardiologist has me scheduled for a stress echo too and has put me on propranolol 2x/day and started me on other common POTS management protocols (CHOP protocol, electrolytes, compression). But it seems like everyday I have a new ache, pain, or symptom that has me worried that it could be something more serious and I'm going to die.

Posted Sep 23, 2023, 1:16 AM UTC

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