The Driscoll Approach™

A Dramatic Departure from Traditional POTS Treatment

Do you have Inflammatory POTS?

Is your POTS a cardiovascular response to inflammation?
Is your intracranial pressure abnormal?
Is your POTS a neurological or neuroimmune condition?
Is your digestion affected, and what can be done?
Is your vagus nerve affected? Why vagus nerve stimulation won’t work (and what can be done).
Is your brain affected?
Do you exhibit symptoms of anxiety and depression that can occur in some neuroimmune conditions?
Do you have undiagnosed chronic inflammatory disorders?
Are genetics limiting your recovery? What can be done to work around those genes?

These questions and more are considered with every patient.

POTS Care is the only clinic dedicated to treating the underlying medical problems causing POTS, not just the symptoms.

This approach is a total transformation of the evaluation and treatment of POTS — something we call The Driscoll Approach™.

How Can We Do This Remotely?

Most patients don’t need to continue to see more doctors — their doctors have done a good job at ruling out certain problems. A visit with a cardiologist is a must, certainly, to be sure your POTS is not from a structural problem with the heart. But when doctors come up empty-handed, you need a team to do the brain work for you! We are that team! We will get the answers as to why you have POTS and then work with you on a plan to address the underlying problems. Every patient is different and every plan is different. At POTS Care, everything is customized. You can be certain that even remotely, we will get you the answers you need!

Two Month Comprehensive POTS Treatment Program

Our two-month intensive POTS Treatment program includes two days with us and two months of follow-up. (usually done virtually). We will lay out a complete summary for you — what is causing your POTS, what may be worsening some of the symptoms, and how we should approach treatment as you work your way through recovery. We are here to support you, answer all of your questions, and help you with every aspect of recovery. We would like to speed your journey for answers — there is no need to wait days, weeks, or even months between doctor visits to get the answers you need.

“We find that for the best POTS recovery possible, all aspects of the illness (and recovery) need to be addressed. We are here to help you with all of the pieces! Not only will we identify and treat the underlying medical problems, we will also address individual dietary needs, exercise (when is it helpful, when is it harmful, what types of exercise may be appropriate), how to return to a normal sleep pattern again, how to control surges of adrenaline (or anxiety) that can worsen symptoms, and we will hold your hand (virtually) for about three months.”

– Diana Driscoll, OD

What Is Included In Your POTS Treatment Program?

Review of all of your signs and symptoms to date

We begin with a list of over 200 potential signs and symptoms!

These results immediately go into some sophisticated spreadsheets and algorithms to tell us where we need to begin to look for answers in your individual case.

“It is a rare patient who can come up with a symptom that I cannot relate to personally! In fact, at some point in my long illness, I had all but 8 of these 210 symptoms. No one was interested in looking for patterns in my case to help figure out what the underlying problem was. Even more frustrating was that my symptoms were changing almost daily! It was like chasing a moving target — and I was losing credibility with many of my doctors (“how can she have so many unrelated symptoms?!”). At POTS Care, every symptom can be a clue to your underlying cause of illness and we are here to figure it out!”

— Diana Driscoll, OD

Review Of Your Previous Medical Records

Most patients with POTS have seen an extraordinary number of doctors! Yet rarely is someone going through these records to help tie together disparate signs and symptoms. No one is looking for what is getting missed, nor are they evaluating results that may not be quite normal. We love to review these records carefully! We toss out labels that may not be correct and look at everything with fresh eyes. There are usually some important clues in those records, but someone needs to take the time to review them (and do so from a different angle). At POTS Care, we love this part of our job!

Review Of Your Brain MRI

If you have had a brain MRI (or we can order one if it is needed in your case), we will review it carefully! Although the report is good to see, we want to go through the images ourselves — looking for what others have missed. We will show you these images and discuss what they may mean for you and your recovery. With POTS, we want to consider even subtle irregularities in these images. If you have not had a brain MRI, we will prescribe one for you if it is needed.

Ocular Testing

The eyes are the only place in the body that we can look directly at the blood vessels (without looking through tissue) view a nerve that is a direct extension of the brain (the optic nerve). The eyes are an excellent window to systemic illness (an eye doctor is often the first to diagnose diabetes, high blood pressure, or multiple sclerosis, for example). Blinking and tear production, for example, are controlled by the autonomic nervous system. We may request some ocular testing if we think it may be helpful in your case. Dr. Driscoll, Optometrist, found clues in the eyes of POTS patients early in her research. These clues helped her to with the next levels of her research.

“In one of our first studies, we had 30 patients with POTS and 30 age-matched normals come in for every ocular test possible! As the “blinded doctor” (I didn’t know what images were from patients and what images were from normals) I was correct in identifying the patients — solely by their ocular images — in almost 90% of the cases! Clearly, we were missing too much in routine testing and needed to be much more detail oriented when looking for answers for patients. Looking in the eyes of POTS patients was unique — I seemed to be the only doctor doing so! This is likely how I began to get answers that others had missed.

Concerning “invisible illnesses” — you cannot see what you are not looking for!”

— Diana Driscoll, OD

Autonomic Testing

We do not need to do a true tilt table test in our office, but we will perform a “poor man’s tilt table test” (if possible) to check for general functionality, to see what direction your blood pressure heads when you are vertical, and to see if your oxygen saturation is affected. All of these things can provide more clues to your illness. We will also evaluate some subtle signs and symptoms that others have missed to help round out more of the full autonomic picture.

Evaluation Of Customized Blood Work

After reviewing your previous records and signs and symptoms of illness, we will create a customized blood work order. We will be digging deeply into many aspects of your health, and objective blood work can be hugely helpful in getting you the validity you need as a patient for the suffering you have endured. Fees for your blood work may be covered by your medical insurance company (not Medicare or Medicaid). Please check with your insurance company for details. If you do not have insurance or if you are coming from out of the country, please speak with our Patient Care Coordinator.

A Complete Treatment Plan

We begin working on your case as soon as you schedule! After two intensive days (virtual or in-person), we will provide you with a complete summary and treatment plan, prescriptions if needed, recommendations for supplements if needed, and guidance about diet, exercise, sleep and recovery. But we are not done yet!

Follow Up For Two Months

After we cover the comprehensive POTS Treatment Plan with you, we will continue to work closely with you to answer all of your questions, tweak things as needed, and fine-tune certain medications or supplements. Our goal is to put you back in charge of your health, and we can do so if we teach you as we go!

More Support!

In most cases of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, patients have been sick for quite a while. Normal sleep cycles are a distant memory, some are not sure what they can eat without getting sicker, and others would like to exercise again, but don’t know how or when that is in their best interest.

Even more difficult is the thought of being thrown into normal daily stress! Patients often learn to fear stress because it can make their condition worse. We want to help you through this, and give you some tools and advice concerning the process toward normalcy.

We will visit with you a couple of times a week through a series of carefully chosen audios. The audio series will continue for about three months. In these audios, we will educate you and help support you through the entire process. The audio series is great for both patients and caregivers. We also have a workbook to give to you which will help you acclimate to a more normal lifestyle and to help heal some of the wounds a serious illness such as this can cause.

“Honestly, I would love to live with every patient as they go through recovery! To be able to talk them through the day-to-day ups and downs and to counsel them through recovery would be amazing. These audios are the next best thing to me being there with you.”

— Diana Driscoll, OD

Biofeedback

Many patients with POTS experience surges of anxiety and/or adrenaline that can worsen their symptoms. These surges have a medical basis but can appear as panic or anxiety to the uninformed. Because these surges can activate the sympathetic nervous system and worsen POTS, it is helpful to learn how to control them — while the medical condition is being treated. The combination of medication (or supplements) combined with effective mental management of these surges is a powerful part of our POTS Treatment Program and improves your recovery!

“We are here to help you with the underlying medical problem. Once we put that in place, biofeedback can then help you with these surges until you recover. You will love this biosensor! Unlike most biofeedback machines that only work when you are in front of the machine, this one goes with you! It became much like an old friend for me, gently nudging me when I started to tense up. One of my favorite things to do was this short biofeedback exercise where you breath slowly to turn grey dots to green. When they were green, my body was calm again. It was amazingly helpful.”

— Diana Driscoll, OD

We have seen others offer biofeedback for $7,000 -$12,000! Biofeedback with a unique biosensor that goes with you is included as a part of your fee.

Let us figure out your medical condition, treat it with the lowest risk medications and supplements possible, educate you about your condition, and offer support through recovery.

This is truly a customized package for POTS recovery!

POTS Recovery

The Last Stop On Your POTS Treatment Journey

“As a patient, and a mom of affected patients, I went to dozens of doctors, hoping someone would look at my entire list of symptoms. I believed that if someone studied my entire presentation, they had a greater chance of identifying my underlying problems. Instead, I was shuffled from specialist to specialist, and no one considered my body as a whole. Most of the treatments I received were designed to treat my symptoms, not the underlying cause of my symptoms. We traveled across the U.S. for years, and I had numerous expensive and invasive tests, many which made me sicker – and yet we still had no answers. I see many others going through this expensive, frustrating journey and would like to dramatically change this scenario. At POTS Care, we will consider all of your symptoms simultaneously. We will dig deep for signs of illness that can be easily overlooked by others who are not looking at the entire picture. We will not assume your symptoms are all “in your head”, but instead, will consider often overlooked medical causes of obscure symptoms. If you have ever wished that a group of doctors would look at all of your symptoms, understand that your symptoms are not “all in your head” and believe that there is an underlying, medical cause for your illness, you have found that group at POTS Care.”

— Diana Driscoll, OD

Meet Our Patients

Mary's Story

“At POTS Care they look at why a patient has POTS, not just how to cope with or cover up the symptoms.“

Rachel's Story

“If I would have gone to see her earlier, I could have saved myself from 7 months of treatment with my other doctor that only seemed to make my symptoms worse. I am so thrilled to say that I have seen a huge improvement in my POTS symptoms.”

Fletcher's Story

“Fletcher’s health has improved significantly! He is back to doing the things he loves. We are thrilled! Dr. Driscoll is one of our heroes. She is an expert at dealing with POTS.”

Free Brochure

Just Diagnosed with POTS?

The Top 4 Must-Dos

The Top 4 things I would do first if my children or I were just diagnosed with POTS

Options for Care

CONSULT

$275

30-minute phone consultation with Dr. Diana Driscoll, Optometrist and Clinical Director

Are you lost in your case? Do you need direction, advice, or encouragement? Although not a medical examination, Dr. Driscoll is a recovered patient, a researcher, and a practitioner and can offer high-level support. She can share her thoughts concerning Inflammatory POTS, IIH, family dynamics, school issues, validation, and recovery. Dr. Driscoll will also send you selected resources following your consultation that may help you.

Schedule Your Consult Today

THE POTS CARE PACKAGE™

$775

Three month program to begin recovery including:

An app on your cell phone to guide you through Inflammatory POTS (what does the latest research tell us and how can this guide your recovery)
30-minute consultation with Dr. Diana Driscoll
Biweekly audios by Dr. Diana Driscoll to educate, inform, and support
Over $500 in supplements that may offer you some immediate relief, even if your doctors have not yet identified your inflammation.
Heart rate variability monitor to help guide your recovery
A recovery journal/workbook
Guidance on exercise, sleep, and dietary planning
This package covers the commonalities in POTS patients including a tendency to develop abnormal intracranial pressure, parasympathetic nervous system problems, digestive issues, nutrient malabsorption, cognitive decline, immune disorders, and inflammatory states.
If you would like to approach POTS with as few medications as possible, or if you are not familiar with Inflammatory POTS, this POTS Care Package™ may be a great place to start.

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FULL POTS CARE TREATMENT

Currently on a waiting list.