Kara

Hi, my name is Kara and I am 22 years old. My PoTS symptoms began around the age of 13 while I was at school. I remember feeling very hot and lightheaded during the day and when I came home I would then sleep for hours due to feeling constantly exhausted.

Every day was a struggle!

Every day became a struggle, however, I put it down to being a teenager and going through puberty. It wasn’t until I first fainted outside my cookery lesson at the age of 14 that I knew something was really wrong. I remember feeling so scared and confused as I woke up on the ground with everyone staring at me, nothing like this had ever happened before! I was taken to hospital where all my tests came back normal and it was put down to ‘being a teenager’. Strangely, the very next day the same thing happened again. I was taken to hospital and kept in overnight and was told my blood pressure was low but this was normal for someone my age.

Fast forward….

Months and months of fainting daily and being told it was all in my head I was eventually admitted to hospital for further tests. I finally had a tilt table test and the consultant told me I had PoTS but not to worry as I would be given beta blockers and everything would be fine!

As you can imagine, everything was not fine and this was only the start of my journey. I was still fainting almost daily and it got to the point where I was fainting up to 7 times a day. This meant I was unable to attend normal lessons at school and I lost all of my friends. The friends I did have soon became fed up with having to look after me and eventually stopped seeing me as I was unable to go out and do the things I used to be able to do. This was also in my GCSE year which was incredibly stressful. At this point in time, I became very depressed, it was one of the lowest moments of my life.

Moving on

Thankfully, I managed to pass all of my GCSE’s and went off to college and managed to achieve 3 A-levels. I am currently at university where I was hoping to train to become a Primary School teacher. Unfortunately due to my PoTS I have realised that this is unlikely to be achievable at the moment, however, I am still working towards a degree in education. I think it is easy to feel upset and disheartened that I am not well enough to go into teaching at the moment but I am hopeful for the future. When I look back to the beginning of my PoTS journey, I realise how far I have come. I have managed to pass all of my exams and I am so close to getting a degree.

My advice

My advice to anyone going through a similar situation is to never give up. I know how difficult it is to go through education with a chronic illness but you will get there! Even if you do things slower than other people, it will all be okay.