Lauren

My name is Lauren and I am 25 years old.

My PoTS journey started in March 2022. After I had been rushed to hospital multiple times, I finally started to be taken seriously.

It took me around 9 months to get my final diagnosis – PoTS and postural hypotension. I went back and forth for tests and hospital appointments during these 9 months, which made work commitments very difficult. My cardiologist eventually started me on Ivabradine in January 2023, and so far so good. I still have my bad days but I’m finding it easier to control my symptoms. 

PoTS is HARD, I won’t pretend that it isn’t! My symptoms change daily and are so unpredictable, I never know how I will feel from one day to the next. What makes it harder is, on the outside I look perfectly fine, little do people know.! The biggest challenge through all of this has been to try and cope with my own mental health, I sometimes feel so alone. No one can really understand how you are feeling unless they are going through this themselves.

My advice for anyone out there waiting for a diagnosis or have already been diagnosed, would be – KEEP GOING, you can do this. Take one day at a time and don’t be too hard on yourself. You’ve got this! 

I wish people who didn’t know about the condition could sit with us and see what we go through. Only then would they realise the scale of how this awful condition affects our everyday life.

I recently got a tattoo to symbolise my PoTS journey – a lady with butterfly wings symbolising my fluttering heart and a symbol for my mental health.  Every time I look at it I can smile and know that I really am stronger than I thought. Brighter days are coming, hold on in there!