Do I Have POTS or ME/CFS/CFIDS?

Both my life and my blog have been put on hold as I have recently gone through a time of transition. Life has been more challenging as I have been without the companionship and support of my husband as he has been in another part of the country helping his parents move into an assisted living apartment; followed by his staying with them when his father suffered a massive stroke two weeks later. It has been a very stressful time for us. Out of the past six weeks we have been together for less than two and a part of that was during the sad and busy events surrounding his Dad’s funeral.

Before all this happened we had planned to live in Maine for the summer. I have gone ahead and traveled to Maine without him. The upside of this time of chaos and grief is that I feel much better physically living in Maine.

 

 I have always observed that I feel better at sea level but the heart rate monitor that I have been wearing in recent months has given me objective data. My heart rate is a good 10-20 points lower here than it was in Colorado. I feel better and I have less fatigue.

My major symptoms are:

Fatigue

Post-exerional malaise or exercise intolerance
Cognitive problems-brain fog

Each of these are identified as symptoms for both POTS and ME/CFS/CFIDS. So I am left wondering…