Tuesday, March 31, 2015

The Girl Who Drinks Salt Water

this is my sodium chloride (salt water) pills crushed into my water bag that connects to my feeding tube

I drink salt water...Do you want to know why???
I actually a medical reason called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome a.k.a. POTS. POTS is a form of Dysautonomia and causes upon standing; the heart rate to go high and the blood pressure to drop low. This makes the blood not get to our heads and causes us to pass out. We also suffer from low blood volume which means the fluid in our blood and bodies are just not as they should be they are low...because our kidneys kick out all our sodium (sodium holds onto the fluids in your bodies) So we have to replace it by getting in 10,000 mg of sodium and 2-3 liters of fluids per day. no none of that was a typo. haha. The diet is to simply build the blood volume back up. We also tend to have our blood pull to our limbs because our veins like to be lazy and not push our blood upwards. Some say POTS is rare but I doubt it is, IT IS HOWEVER RARELY KNOWN ABOUT in the medical world. Yes, only a handful of DOCTORS know what POTS is or even of it's existence. Dysautonomia comes in different forms but it POTS... Dysautonomia is a neurologic condition that causes the autonomic nervous system to malfunction for unknown reasons. I have several other complications and symptoms due to Dysautonomia such as; small fiber neuropathy (very painful myalgia of the sensory part of the skin basically. It even causes "bone pain" strange right?), migraines, eyes rolling back onto my head/tremors (I think maybe seizure tendencies but haven't had enough time with new neurologist yet to get to that haha), memory issues, subjective hearing loss, vision changes, eyes dilating funny, muscle weakness, nausea/vomiting, and everything in between ... it has even caused my stomach and small intestines to be paralyzed a.k.a Gastroparesis. Bottom line is this needs some serious awareness and you can help... I did a Facebook challenge yesterday called #squatsforpots. the link is here and please go to this link to Dysautonomia International and learn more about POTS and please, please spread awareness by doing the #squatsforpots challenge with your family and friends! Pressing Forward!-Chelle

My video watch and learn :)

the link for Dysautonomia International/#squatsforpots: http://www.dysautonomiainternational.org/page.php?ID=206
P.S. a huge thank you to Brittney Hollinshead a wonderful inspiring POTSie!

No comments: