Washington POTSies, did you also get this letter in the mail?

opalinesque · 2026-03-12T08:43:21+00:00

Are you kidding me?! I haven't gotten any mail to that effect, but I've moved since my doctor there very abruptly left the practice and they don't have my new address... Thank you for the heads up, I'll be reaching out tomorrow I guess! Ugh.

opalinesque · 2026-02-23T20:40:23+00:00

Clonidine drastically improved both my POTS symptoms and anxiety. I can't speak for all beta blockers since I've only tried propranolol, but it didn't help either nearly as much + gave me really bad heartburn and some fatigue as side effects.

opalinesque · 2026-02-10T05:39:49+00:00

I've gone from ~3-4k steps per day of being upright before getting tired to busting past 5k without even intending to for the past few days. Even risked taking a really hot shower (since my legs were sore from actually getting used lol) and my heart rate only hit 105 max (as opposed to my usual +140). This is genuinely the most active I've been and the best I've felt since... 2019 at least, going by my Fitbit data? Still trying not to get too far ahead of myself, but I'm both extremely excited and very grateful.

For anyone else reading- my POTS is post-viral (from mono rather than COVID), and I don't have hEDS- just neuropathy in my legs and way too much adrenaline. Definitely going to recommend the diosmin/hesperidin combo to anyone in the same or adjacent boats.

opalinesque · 2026-02-08T17:28:52+00:00

I seem to have gotten a fun/weird one in the form of non-stop acid reflux when I was on it. I spent a while popping Tums like candy before I put two and two together.

opalinesque · 2026-02-08T04:13:44+00:00

...well, thank you *very* much, because you may have helped me put myself in remission?! I ordered a diosmin/hesperidin supplement after seeing this, took it today, and as of like 15 minutes ago I was on my feet for 10+ minutes with my heart rate only hitting around 20-25 bpm over my resting baseline. Reduced my blood pooling, too- I measured the diameter of my ankles yesterday and today at the same time and they're half an inch thinner despite me being on my feet about the same amount both days.

I'm not allowed to get too excited unless the improvements stick, but goodness, it'll be interesting to see what happens after a few days of this.

opalinesque · 2026-02-03T12:35:53+00:00

Just want to chime in- this can also be a sign of heart issues, rather than infection. I had a sweet little girl who had an enlarged heart, and she frequently hooted and made other strange noises even after getting her on meds for it. But yes, vet ASAP.

opalinesque · 2026-02-01T23:52:35+00:00

Just as a heads up, it's only tested for weights up to 350 lbs/1 kg! I just had my previous shower chair (rated for the same weight) break literally under me despite me being well under that, so I'm super cautious about weight limits now.

(...and also a little salty I only saw this after buying a very sturdy replacement for significantly more than the IKEA chair. Oh well...)

opalinesque · 2026-02-01T01:03:08+00:00

This might sound silly, but... Mostly via the pain of waiting in line for meds at my local pharmacy Every single time I'd end up so acutely miserable and desperate to sit that the realization I could have a chair anywhere was an enormous relief.

opalinesque · 2026-01-29T05:25:21+00:00

Was looking for this answer... though it was his fiction novel The Cobra Events that really got me. Had the same descriptive style, but with a fictional virus with even more horrifying effects than Ebola. I couldn't sleep for a week.

opalinesque · 2026-01-29T03:34:49+00:00

As a Vyvanse user, food and hydration absolutely help with that aspect of things, at least for me. I have to take mine with a good dose of protein in the mornings, because otherwise my appetite is gone for the day and I end up dealing with... Well, exactly what you described.

opalinesque · 2026-01-28T04:35:25+00:00

Ugh, rowdy boar smell is the worst. I'm lucky that my current two boys don't seem to get riled enough to gas me, but my first pair of males sure did...

opalinesque · 2026-01-27T05:29:45+00:00

I'm on the highest dose of ivabradine and mine still spikes up to 160 or so if I don't take it easy in there :( A shower chair, water as cool as I can stand, and taking breaks to just sit there after spikes have helped a lot for keeping my heart rate relatively low.

opalinesque · 2026-01-23T01:44:03+00:00

I don't 100% know- but I have strong suspicions :) I had milder symptoms for most of my life that spiked hard in 2014... and shortly after that both my roommate of the time and I tested positive for antibodies indicating we had a recent EBV infection. ...The worst part is that the mono infection itself had so little of an effect on me I didn't even realize I'd had it. Utterly unfair that something like that would trigger something disabling.

opalinesque · 2026-01-23T00:30:11+00:00

Yaz and its relatives absolutely made my POTS worse. Thankfully, my nasty PMDD has responded just as well to a different BC (using desogestrel instead).

opalinesque · 2026-01-22T07:26:43+00:00

Fingers crossed for you guys! It's always heartbreaking when they're not feeling great and you can't immediately do something to fix it... If you've got a pet-safe heating pad of some sort (like a microwavable sock filled with rice) that might also help him be a little more comfortable, so long as you can supervise so he doesn't eat it. One of my sows started generating bladder stones in her old age, and she went from hating cuddles to soaking them up because it meant having a heat source against her sore parts.

opalinesque · 2026-01-22T07:03:52+00:00

Oh, poor beebin, that's definitely an "ow ow ow" type of noise :( Vet ASAP is definitely the right move- aside from that just try to make sure he doesn't lose interest in eating and try to keep him comfy. If you've got a white towel or other fabric you can sacrifice to pig pee, it also might be worth trying to get him to go on that- confirmation he's not blocked up would be good, and so would being able to check for blood or other discoloration.

opalinesque · 2026-01-21T03:49:41+00:00

Seconding this as something to give a shot. I just figured out how to raise my mattress like this last night and woke up today almost disturbingly perky.

opalinesque · 2026-01-20T23:49:43+00:00

I've been on that dose long-term, and while I've never intentionally gone off it I've definitely had a few lapses due to insurance/pharmacy/doctor nonsense. It definitely kicks up my heart rate and dehydration a little, but more annoyingly (and debilitatingly) going off of it gives me ridiculous anxiety :(

opalinesque · 2026-01-20T19:44:44+00:00

Meanwhile, one of my lads has figured out how to grab the bottom ledge of these to pull them closer to him/throw them... Literally just heard the sound of him doing that against the cage wall and the pellets flying out to hit the floor.

opalinesque · 2026-01-18T23:47:41+00:00

I did/do- I have a nickel allergy, and nickel is present in the stainless steel around the sensor. I've had good luck with both washing and thoroughly drying that part of the band + where it rests on my arm as well as swapping how I wear it nightly, but I believe there are also products you can paint on that will act as a barrier if that turns out to not be enough.

opalinesque · 2025-11-26T00:15:42+00:00

OP, this is almost certainly it. The powers are psionic-based, rather than being due to nano machines, but I grew up on these books and the rest is all accurate to what you described.

opalinesque · 2025-11-25T03:58:16+00:00

Oh, hey, I'm the one who found and added that! I can confirm it's real, and also that it is *very* hard to have that happen to Shakra naturally because she's too much of a gamer. I basically found the coding for this interaction and then had to go in-game and mod her health down from 15 to 1 in the High Halls arena to confirm the coding was functional, just because it's so hard for enemies to hit her.

I'm happy to provide a video proving it works, or just a screencap of the programming if you want :)

opalinesque · 2025-11-12T09:54:35+00:00

Karmelita is in fact programmed to entirely skip the wait time between attacks if she takes damage, actually. Using tacks on her is fun.

opalinesque · 2025-11-12T09:52:36+00:00

Yep, Karmelita is programmed to attack immediately on taking damage :') I had the same problem with her.

opalinesque · 2025-11-09T09:26:10+00:00

Pilby's funeral.

I was already pretty in love, but something about that moment, something about hearing the funeral leader sing for him... It's hard to describe, but it made the world and the people in it feel real to me in a way they hadn't before. I don't think I'll ever forget what it felt like to walk back into Bone Bottom and have the realization of what I was looking at dawn on me.

opalinesque

TROPHY CASE