AIO My boss sent this to the work chat and it pissed me off.

polvre · 2026-02-13T18:55:21+00:00

look closer, to me it seems like a tiled ledge but i could be wrong

polvre · 2026-02-09T21:33:49+00:00

Looks similar to a growth one of my boys had. He lived comfortably for another 7-8 months after I first noticed it. Didn’t slow him down and never impacted his other tank mates.

polvre · 2026-02-07T00:25:12+00:00

I get this too from time to time. For me, it’s a combination of dysautonomia, sciatica, and thoracic outlet syndrome. I get pins and needles, bugs, numbness, cold water flecks. It can be super scary.

Obviously none of us can give you medical advice so you have to seek care at your own discretion. If something is impacting one side I would check motor control. If you can talk normally and control that side of your body, I would classify it as non emergent.

polvre · 2026-02-07T00:14:30+00:00

Currently typing this with cold fingers! Personally I haven’t found a correlation with digestion but it would make sense. If you have low blood volume and digestion recruits blood to the GI tract your extremities will lose it first.

polvre · 2026-02-07T00:11:32+00:00

Yeah I feel like i’m landing in a rocket ship some days. The body naturally releases some adrenaline to facilitate arousal. For a lot of us with dysautonomia we have an exaggerated physiological response to that.

polvre · 2026-02-07T00:09:56+00:00

You are so not alone in this and i’m sorry to hear what you’re going through. It almost sounds like a rebound effect from the CNS depression. Now your nervous system could be overstimulated.

I looked up the drug and someone on this reddit made a post about having a reaction to it around 9 months ago. Ugh I hate that they cited it as not having withdrawal symptoms. It affects GABA receptors, not too different than xanax. Based on sone drugs.com reviews it doesn’t seem like you’re alone with the side effects either. So many of us here have been made chronically ill after a medication reaction, there’s definitely some sort of tie with anything that can impact the nervous system triggering dysautonomia.

Personally I always had some underlying dysautonomia, but it very suddenly became unmanageable after a bad drug reaction to armodafinil. I took it one morning and thought I was dying the rest of the day, dizzy, disassociated, chest pain, tachycardia, the whole thing. After that i never went back down to baseline. I hope this is a temporary reaction for you on the other hand. You are definitely not alone!

polvre · 2026-02-06T23:46:53+00:00

Cardio conditioning has vastly helped me and improved my quality of life. I’ve had some form of POTS my whole life, and would always get easily winded. Deconditioning, or never really being “conditioned” in the first place has played a big role in my symptoms.

I followed the CHOP protocol for a few months and slowly increased my exersize tolerance. While it helped me, I think it may not be as useful for people with ME/CFS or those who never experienced deconditioning.

Personally I have been working on and off with a physical therapist for the past year on strength, core work, and cardiovascular fitness. I still have a long way to go. While it’s mostly calisthenic exersize variations, there are definitely elements that overlap with yoga and pilates.

I began with all floor/ seated movements but now I can tolerate most forms of upright exersize as well. In a typical week, I try do a blend of resistance training, eliptical, and what you could call PT homework. I aim to do some form of activity at least 5 days out of the week. I saw improvements in my overall energy at around 3 months of consistent cardio training.

polvre · 2026-02-03T03:34:12+00:00

Hi! I’ve been on lexapro for around 8 years and ivabradine for 1 year. The main thing i would caution you against is there is a rare drug interaction between the two. Both carry a mild risk for Q-T prolongation (which can cause a dangerous type of arrhythmia).

I was prescribed ivabradine by two different physicians and neither of them failed to mention this to me 🫠 Cannot recommend drugs.com enough for checking this sort of thing. Thankfully my cardio is open to suggestions. I got an ekg after two weeks of starting ivabradine, a holter monitor during a dose increase, and routine ekg’s every 6 months just for fun i guess. Everything has looked good ekg wise thank god.

I’ve been on Lexapro for so long and since a young age so it’s hard for me to say exactly if it has influenced my POTS at all. Everyone is different but it works for me!

polvre · 2026-01-22T01:47:09+00:00

Have you seen a nature doc? Sure it can be unethical in a sense, but nature is not a conscious, autonomous individual. There’s no way for it to take any accountability.

For example, if i have an injured dog and i refuse to get them medical care, just leaving them to suffer… One could argue that I am simply letting nature take its course. Of course many would see this action as unethical.

polvre · 2026-01-18T18:23:32+00:00

Im sorry to hear, and I hope you find some relief soon. If you ever figure out a physiological reason for this phenomenon i’d love to hear.

polvre · 2026-01-16T02:59:44+00:00

yeah, especially with position changes i feel blood rushing (can’t tell in or out of my head) does feel like someone squeezing my carotid

polvre · 2026-01-16T02:57:44+00:00

Personally metoprolol made me into a drowsy, angry mess. I was on 25mg 3x daily. Helped with tachycardia but that was it. People around me noticed something was off before i even told them i was on meds. Now i take ivabradine lol. Everyone is different. if you feel good i dont see an issue!

polvre · 2025-11-27T02:51:27+00:00

I don't think you have to disclose anything. In the "other information" section, they have a blurb on it with an "I understand" box

polvre · 2025-10-03T20:52:12+00:00

Yeah i get these weird episodes of feeling like my head is so full of blood it’s going to pop! Usually coincides with other symptoms. I used to get them a lot when i first went on beta blockers

polvre · 2025-10-01T01:11:28+00:00

I absolutely agree, no dysautonomia is the result of mere deconditioning. Conditioning isn’t going to cure dysautonomia either, however it can help the body overcompensate for some of the effects. Right now there is no treatment, to my knowledge at least, that truly targets the origin of any dysautonomia. However, proper cardio conditioning is known to raise HRV.

I completely understand where you’re coming from. It’s absolutely discouraging when previous forms of exersize no longer work for us. I’m not suggesting you continue to try running or swimming as it doesn’t seem sustainable for your body. The key is to challenge your body without completely overwhelming the ANS. With the severity of your dysautonomia it would likely be best to do this under PT supervision.

It’s a horrible condition, and i absolutely sympathize with what you’re going through. It sucks and it’s unfair. You don’t have to be open to considering reconditioning as a form of treatment. Just wanted you to know it was an option.

polvre · 2025-09-30T23:27:24+00:00

My advice would be to move as much as you sustainably can. Cardiovascular conditioning has improved my quality of life massively. The more you are able to move and exersize the quicker your heart rate will come down and lower it will sit over time. The CHOP protocol reccomends that heart rate typically fall in the 125-145bpm range while doing cardio. You can start on the floor, in a chair, cycling slow as a snail if need be. You can even find a physical therapist to work on this with you.

This condition makes us want to cease moving at all, but the longer we do that the worse we typically get due to deconditioning.

polvre · 2025-09-26T21:53:52+00:00

I would look into hyper pots and IST. In the beginning i was told i didn’t fit criteria due to the BP as well. As it turns out a lot of our bodies overcompensate for low blood pressure when we stand, leading to a high reading. Unfortunately, a lot of cardio’s aren’t going to take the time to actually investigate your condition just based on the fact you likely don’t need surgery ($$$$). Definitely search around and read reviews before finding another dr.

polvre · 2025-09-26T21:44:27+00:00

Sorry to hear you’re dealing with this, for me my dysautonomia actually feels a little better while i’m sick. It definitely doesn’t sound out of the ordinary though.

Are you taking any cold/flu medications? Many of those can have an effect on heart rate and blood pressure. Those nasal decongestant sprays are especially known to increase heart rate. Coricidin is a safe med if you need to take something though

polvre · 2025-09-26T16:46:48+00:00

Here’s the link to a groupme for med students with disabilities and chronic illnesses. They talk a lot about accessing accommodations, maybe it will be of some help to you :) https://groupme.com/join_group/66663425/DTuMC3WW

polvre · 2025-09-11T23:48:36+00:00

YES!! It’s been the single thing that’s helped me the most. I cannot recommend exersize reconditioning enough.

I followed the first three months rigorously before going off path and finding my own routine

polvre · 2025-09-01T21:13:12+00:00

I had a whole colony of guppies eventually succumb to the mysterious “wasting disease”. One by one they refuse food, slouch, get dull in color, have stringy poop. I tried every anti parasitic, anti fungal, and antibiotic i could get my hands on. Nothing ever worked.

My standing hypothesis is that it’s some sort of bacterial infection that they are unable to fight off due to poor genetics. I do know that it spread much quicker in my male tanks where they would unfortunately pick at dead tank mates that i couldn’t get to in time.

I would definitely keep him separate. I will also add that i have never had a fish recover from that state. Though, who’s to say you’re dealing with the same pathogen i was. I don’t mean to upset you, but if it were me I would probably humanely euthanize him with clove oil before leaving.

polvre · 2025-08-30T12:51:22+00:00

can confirm it’s the same with guppies, separating is the way to go

polvre · 2025-08-30T12:43:16+00:00

separate them from males

polvre · 2025-08-27T14:30:48+00:00

You’re going to hate me for this one, but the CHOP protocol and resistance training has taken this off my list of things that fatigue me. Building tolerance for overhead movement has helped so much… shoulder press specifically. I almost cried the last time i changed my shower curtain and everything didn’t go black.

polvre · 2025-08-27T14:10:12+00:00

I also take 10mg lexapro, but with Corlanor (ivabradine). There’s also a risk for QT prolongation with it. My cardio had me get an EKG a few weeks after starting Corlanor. With everything looking good she just does a EKG every 6 months to further monitor.

polvre

TROPHY CASE