“I have had doctors, who cared about me, but could not help me, but I feel like Dr. Driscoll is the part that I was missing and that she understands what is going on and I just could not recommend her enough for anybody.”
Malia came to POTS Care after a concussion and developing POTS six years ago, forcing her to stop working. After a thorough review of previous records and new testing, we were able to locate underlying inflammatory conditions contributing to her illness and give her a solid plan to control it.
INTERVIEWER: Thank you for talking with us today, Malia. Could you please just share with us a little bit with us about your journey with your illness?
PATIENT: Okay, well I have probably been on the journey a lot longer than I was aware of that it was POTS. I was aware that I was not doing well, but I was not aware of what was going on. So that has been the most difficult part, the great unknown of feeling terrible and not knowing why, and then slowly getting a little bit closer and closer through just talking to other people that have had similar experiences. Actually, it was somebody with a head injury that I talked to who had had POTS, that was the first time I had heard of it. When I discovered what it was I felt an enormous relief. I would say the worst of my symptoms are the brain fog and the rapid heart rate. I have also severe fatigue and anxiety. You just feel like you want to just not be here because you are so miserable.
INTERVIEWER: Do you feel like we are using real science here?
PATIENT: Yes, I mean I come from a totally alternative background and I have had bad experiences with both alternative healing and with conventional healing, so I am just like this huge skeptic of everything and everybody. So Dr. Driscoll is up against this person that is just super cynical and I feel like this is real science, but that it is not the medical model that I have experienced because it is not just “let’s go and have surgery”.
INTERVIEWER: Were we able to identify any underlying problems that no one had ever brought up to you before?
PATIENT: Definitely, I know for a fact that nobody has ever addressed 99% of my issues. Nobody has ever brought up high intracranial pressure or inflammation; I had no clue what it was before.
INTERVIEWER: Do you feel like you have a better grasp on how to handle your illness now?
PATIENT: Yes, I have definitely learned a lot here.
INTERVIEWER: What would you say to those people who are kind of on the fence about coming?
PATIENT: Yeah, well I understand that for sure because that was me, a week ago. You could not find a more skeptical person. Not that I did not have hope, I think that is the piece of me that got on the plane and came, but I mean, you know. So I do not know what to say to somebody that might be on the fence other than this feels different to me in eight years. I have had doctors, who cared about me, but could not help me, but I feel like Dr. Driscoll is the part that I was missing and that she understands what is going on and I just could not recommend her enough for anybody. I want to tell everybody I know now, who is struggling, but I do understand that sometimes words are not enough.
INTERVIEWER: Thank you for talking with us today, Malia.
