Living With Dysautonomia - Animated Version

I've recently discovered the joys of GIFs in the blogging world, so I thought I would share some with you, POTS style! I am going to tell the story of "The Journey to Diagnosis" with y'all; enjoy!


The first time your symptoms show up, it takes you by surprise and you're just like:

You blow it off until they start becoming more frequent. Then you decide to go to the doctor to make sure you're not dying. You are met with "Oh, it's just stress. There's nothing wrong with you." So you're like:

But then your symptoms keep coming back, and worsen. So you go back to the doctor, who tells you again that it's just stress, and you're like:

But you don't know enough to argue with him, so you just go home and deal with it. After symptoms continue, you start Googling. You find a few things that sound fitting, so you find another doctor to talk to about it. He tells you AGAIN that nothing is wrong. This process continues for months or years, and every time, you're like:

After dealing with incompetent morons for several years, you finally find a doctor who takes you seriously! And the only thing you want to do is:

The first time you hear the word "Dysautonomia," the sybtype(s) you have, and any of the medical jargon that goes along with it, you're like:

And:

Then you have to go to the hospital for testing. You go home and Google the horrendous things they want to do to you, and you're like:

You get to the hospital on the day of the testing, and they make you fill out a TON of paperwork. It's early and you're just like:

And more than likely, you'll have to fast for at least one test. If you're lucky, they'll feed you afterwards, but it's hospital food. When they bring a tray to you, initially you're like:

But then, when you open the container, it's like:

After waiting a few more hours in your luxurious "recovery suite," you get to see the doctor, and he FINALLY has a diagnosis for you!! Your initial reaction is like:

But then it's like:

You go home, happy to know what's wrong and with a treatment plan. You have hope that things will get better, and you walk around like:

But after a few months, nothing seems to be working and you're just like:

You go back to the doctor for a follow-up visit, and when he asks you how you're feeling, you respond with;

And even he's like:

So he sends you to the lab with some more test orders, and you're like:

But they come back negative, so you're both just like:

So he starts suggesting other medications, treatments, and causes for your illness, none of which sound very nice. You're like:

So you start trying out a bunch of different medications, and your body's all like:

And every time your doctor brings up another treatment plan, you're like:

But you follow his advice/ orders anyway, because he was the first one to take you seriously and you want to try to get better. Even if whatever he wants to do or try makes no sense:

But you're not a doctor, so you go along with it, like:

Meanwhile, why you're trying to find the cause of your POTS to start treating it better/ playing Russian Roulette with meds, your life starts to de-rail. Eventually, school/ work becomes something akin to:

And you're stuck there for a while. I am currently at this stage in the process, so I can't very well continue this part just yet. But I do plan to do more entries with GIFs about different chronic illness scenarios.

Comment below if you have a particular scenario you want me to address!

Sydney :)