 We're gonna talk about my health today and give you guys an update of what's going on in my life. I hope that you stick around and chat with me just a little bit. Hi friends. I have been promising you for a very long time that I would do a video, Ollie is up here keeping me company today, that I would do a video all about my health update. I know that it's been about a year, maybe even a little bit longer since I talked to you all about passing out and having so many conditions that were going on at once. In the past, I have had health issues just in general. I have been dealing with fibromyalgia for about eight to ten years now. I also have panic disorder, I have depression, chronic anxiety, that kind of thing, which I've kind of covered in the past with you guys. But when I talked to you about a year ago, it was all about my heart and what was happening with my heart. And I have what is called left bundle branch block where the left bundle of nerves on the bottom of your heart doesn't talk correctly to the top. And that's not something that is life-threatening unless it becomes an issue where the heart gets out of rhythm or you're possibly dealing with some heart damage. I don't have any heart damage. I have had echocardiogram done. I've had a stress test done. I also have had all kinds of EKGs, EEGs, that kind of thing. All of those have come back normal except for that. And I do have heart palpitations, which most of us deal with. Most people in the world have a lot of heart palpitations, which is kind of unnerving at times because you can feel like your heart's going crazy, but it's something that I've dealt with. But what happened around the time that I had the left bundle branch is I developed POT, which is Posterior Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, meaning that when I stand up, I actually get so lightheaded or dizzy that I can pass out. And I was passing out quite a bit. I've kind of gotten to the point to where I'm almost got this under control as far as knowing what I need to do to do the best for that syndrome and being able to manage it. What I do is I actually have a diet that's very high in salt, which helps retain the volume in your body of fluid or your blood volume has to be high. Also drinking Gatorade and making sure that you are very, very hydrated so that blood volume is high is really important. I'm right now looking into some full bottom half of the compression stockings, which aren't comfortable, but it's a really good way for your body to be able to squeeze that blood that pulls in the bottom part of your extremities and kind of help it to come up to the brain. Because that's what's happening when you have POT. What happens is you stand up, you get lightheaded because all of your blood is pulled into your legs. So it's easier to lay down. It's easier to do things sitting down. I usually sit here and I don't have too much of a problem. Some days are worse than others when I just have to lay down. It's really important to stay as active as you possibly can. It is kind of debilitating and a life-changing thing, but it's not life threatening, which is really good. Unless you were to pass out, fall down and hit your head, which I have passed out a few times, but I've only like hurt my leg or my butt or my arm or something like that. So it's not too bad. I am going to see the doctor today because two weeks ago, I had a tilt table test, which is the definitive answer for POTS, where you are tilted up at about, I think it's a 70 degree instead of a 90 degree. It's about 70 degrees. You're tilted up and they measure your blood, not your blood. They did measure your blood pressure, but they measure your heart rate as compared to when you were laying down. Now, mine were laying down was at 65 when I was at rest. And then when they put me up here, it got up to in between 120 to 140. So that jump in that heart rate is what tells you that you have POTS, besides the disease that you get and those kinds of things. So yes, I do have POTS. It's something that I'm going to go to actually a very big clinic that is in Texas and try to get managed even more so through them because they only deal with POTS. So I am going to be getting into a doctor like that, which I'm really excited about. There is another doctor that is fantastic about this subject and he is on YouTube. I will link some of his videos below. He is amazing because he talks about the other things that go with POTS. There are so many other things that go along with it. It can be anywhere from anxiety, feeling very trembling. I've had tremors. You all know that if you've been with me for very long, I talk about my tremors all the time. He talks about that being a very definitive part of it. Sweating. I get that very much so I have a really hard time with that. I sweat anywhere I go. A lot of that is due to the heart rate being raised and that is part of the problem is when that heart rate is going so high. Of course, you're going to sweat and not feel well and you feel like you have tremors and that kind of thing. So there's so much that goes along with this and I know that so many of you have had this and you've reached out to me and I appreciate that so much and so many of you have helped me. You actually helped me get this diagnosis because I was able to talk to my heart doctor about it and we were able to kind of make that diagnosis. I am really leery to go on any prescriptions. I'm thinking about it but I've tried a few beta blockers which made me feel really bad and made the actual experience of POTS even worse with the passing out and the being dizzy. You're wondering how I did get this POTS. They are figuring that it is triggered by a virus and now they are telling me that more than likely back when my parents had COVID. It was September of 2020 when my parents had COVID so it's been a year. I actually kissed my mom on the mouth that day. I know and people I tell people I kiss my mom on the mouth they freak out but she's always kissed me so it's just one of those things that she still does but the day before she got diagnosed we knew she wasn't feeling good and I was that close to her and I was helping taking care of her and they figured that I had it then. I didn't get tested because we quarantined and the tests weren't very available back then. You really had to go through a lot to get tested. We quarantined and we figured well if we had it we had it but all of my symptoms started right after that. I started to feel really bad and I started to get this and it's called long hauler COVID leftovers or symptoms and they figure that I probably got COVID back then and this is my leftovers from it. Thank you COVID. So how does that affect my channel? Hopefully it won't affect how much content I put out. It's not going to affect that too much because I do a lot of what I do in my bed as far as testing and I do a lot of this filming where I'm sitting down and I feel okay and so hopefully it won't affect the uploads. It is going to affect how much I can respond. I have been one that has absolutely cherished being able to respond to you guys in the comment section and getting different conversations going about different things. It is going to affect how much of that I can do because when I'm dizzy it's really hard to focus on anything. I just want to just lay back and just really take it easy. So if I'm not as on top of commenting back to you guys as I used to be I deeply apologize because it's something that I love doing. I love that interaction. It has been a cornerstone of my channel. I really will miss that part of it but if you have questions I will for sure try to make sure that I interact with you and let you know what my answer might be to that question. The other thing is I'm not going to completely stop that so I might get a handful of the answers out or the interaction out that I did before. So please bear with me with that. I would really appreciate it if you would. I know that so many of you deal with so much in your own life so I am not trying to diminish anything that you have been through. I love that you share with me what's going on in your life and your own health issues because it helps when you're able to vocalize them especially if you have what's called a hidden illness where you look fine on the outside but all this is going on inside your head and whatnot. I have said for years if I had an open gaping wound across my forehead people would treat me completely different than they do in just saying well you look fine. You look great. What's going on? Why aren't you doing what you used to do or why aren't you doing what you're supposed to do? When we have hidden illnesses it's a lot different. I've lost a lot of weight as some of you know some of you may not. I did have gastric bypass two and a half years ago. A lot of you have asked if that has contributed to this and the answer is no. As far as we know there has not been any complications from that aside from the bowel blockage I had less than a week after the surgery. So knock on wood. I haven't had any problems since then with the gastric bypass. The nutrition has been fine. All of my blood levels and all of my levels have been just fine as far as everything that's come back from the test in keeping on top of the gastric bypass part of my health. So just so you know that I am continuing to lose a little bit of weight because when I did initially lose the weight I had lost about 125 pounds and at the time I wanted to go 25 more pounds down and I know that sounds like a lot on my body frame but it's the weight that I was after I had my kids. Not even before I had my kids. It's about 150 pounds is what I would weigh which is a very healthy normal weight for somebody with my body frame. I'm five seven and so I'm a tall girl with a medium body build and 150 pounds really works well for me. Right now I'm at 175 so I'm trying really hard to get that weight down even a little bit more just even for the pots to be able to handle that because you know if you fall in that situation the less you weigh it does help out a little bit more and I'm kind of you know feeling a lot more healthy the more I get off my bones my arthritis. I mean I have a whole other story about when I was a kid and I was 17 and I was on a four-wheeler and I actually broke my back a compression fracture of the L1 in the back and so getting the weight off of my back helps so much too so losing 125 pounds so far is a big deal but I am trying to slowly lose a little bit more and I have lost five of that that 25 pounds I want to lose so I'm actually at 130 pounds down which I'm really proud of. Okay I have just blabbered on let me know in the comment section anything you might know about pots or we can just talk about you know your heart issues or your health issues your losses I know that so many of you are going through so much my dad turned 88 this year there's a lot of stress that is surrounding that my mother is 85 I am one of those Oreo sandwiched people that is taking care of their parents and helping to take care of their grandchildren and children I have a brand new grandbaby she is fabulous by the way she is seven almost eight months now and how much fun is she she's a teeny tiny little thing I don't know where she got that from maybe your daddy's side because grandma's side is definitely bigger so I love you guys so much and I appreciate all of your input you guys are so special to me I have become a part of your lives but you guys have become a part of my life as much I'm going on six years this year with YouTube and I am so thankful for everything from you guys we all lost mail I want to just address that really quick we all lost mail Thompson and I swear it wasn't going to cry I didn't know mail personally but I watched her every single video and I felt like I know her and I know that so many of you felt like that and I have come to treasure that girl even more now after her friends have talked about her in different videos and I'll link some of those videos Brianna's for one and Tara Lynn's for another Mary from Glutzy Fritzy they were all very very close to mail and I just felt that loss so much and I know that so many of you did too and we just lost a gem in our community I decided that this video was really important because I want you guys to know what's going on it's not always lights camera action YouTube and you're perfect because we are just not perfect I oh my goodness far far far from it we put our pants on one leg at a time just like you and fall over half the time when we're doing it and the other thing is we have health concerns we have families we have things that are going on in our lives that are just as challenging we are dealing with COVID we're dealing with the world being in so much turmoil just like you are we're scared we're happy at times we're we're human we're just like you we're not actors and actresses although we put on a brave happy face when we're in front of the camera lots of times because we know that you don't come here to watch all the downer stuff but even though this video is an update for me hopefully you'll go away from it knowing that I'm okay and that um I'm gonna be fine and as things come creep up I will make sure that you are updated on all of those I love you guys beyond measure you mean more to me than you could ever imagine my husband and I and my children thank you so much for being a part of our lives and the things that are going on all the time and I want you to know how very much you mean to us and I hope to see you in my next video and I hope that you're all happy healthy and please take care of yourselves I love you and I'll see you soon friends bye bye