A Doctor's Personal Healthcare Journey with POTS

AUTHOR: Gregory L. Howard, MD

Overcoming Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome

This is the story of my healthcare journey, which describes in detail what it can take to find welleness, and what is sometimes required when one assumes total ownership of the healthcare experience.

I am a 60 year old physician who has lived with POTS since childhood. POTS is an acronym for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, also referred to as dysautonomia.

My struggles with fatigue, dizziness upon standing, low blood pressure, and heart palpitations were no different than anyone else who has dealt with POTS.    At the age of 41, I started to experience consistent heart palpitations. A cardiac Holter monitor ordered by a cardiologist showed 10,000 Premature Ventricular Contractions per day.

Oral medications prescribed to control the (PVC’s) either didn’t work or had unacceptable side effects. A cardiac ablation was recommended as a last resort to help control the arrhythmia. Complications prolonged the procedure to over ten hours. The blood thinner heparin was administered during the cardiac ablation to prevent the formation of blood clots. Unfortunately, I had a rare allergic reaction called Heparin Induced Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia (HITT Syndrome). Instead of preventing clots, HITTSyndrome causes blood clots to form and damage every organ of the body. The morbidity and mortality associated with HITT Syndrome are notably very high.

Crucially, the hematologist assigned to my case missed the diagnosis of HITT Syndrome, which almost led to my demise. My wife Michelle, also a physician, facilitated the diagnosis of HITT Syndrome by mounting an outreach campaign to the hospital administrators, which prompted the Chief of Pathology to drive to the hospital on a Sunday to perform the requisite tests which confirmed my diagnosis of HITT Syndrome. Crucially, the medications and expertise to treat HITT Syndrome are not readily available at most community hospitals.

Additionally, I was very lucky to be seen by Doctor Lawrence Rice from Baylor College of Medicine, who is a world expert on HITT Syndrome and was also on call to manage my crisis. I left the hospital after three weeks in a wheelchair, but still alive.

Several months after surviving HITT Syndrome, my symptoms associated with POTS were worse than ever. My blood pressure was 80/40. At least once per day, I would pass out from low blood pressure. Even fter 14 hours of sleep I would wake up with extreme fatigue that lasted throughout the day.

While I was privileged enough to have access to all the best doctors in the Texas Medical Center, most still never heard of the term POTS. Physician after physician ordered many different tests, but offered no real treatment or diagnosis. Encouragingly, everyone said I would get better with time, but the reality was that I was getting worse with each passing day.

Interestingly, a chiropractor was the first healthcare professional to offer me helpful advice, which actually moved me forward. After learning about my medical history, he suggested an adrenal issue might be part of the problem.  He had me consume a desiccated adrenal supplement. Within 30 minutes my blood pressure had normalized and I instantly felt much better, but still not completely normal.

Following this improvement in my condition, pursuit of a six month course in Medical Acupuncture with Dr. Joseph Helms, who is associated with the UCLA School of Medicine, was my next step towards recovery. The course taught me how to introduce electrical energy into the body via acupuncture needles. This form of acupuncture started to relieve my symptoms of fatigue almost instantly. Continuing this process, within 9 months of consistent application, I began to experience optimal levels of energy.

For the next 12 years I experimented with different ways to introduce electrical energy into my body which didn’t require acupuncture needles, such as PEMF (Pulsed Electro-magnetic Frequency), which offered me the same relief as acupucture.

At present, my long journey towards a complete resolution of POTS continues, though I have achieved remarkable success in consistently managing symptoms, and I live a normal, active life, which is a testament to how much value lies in the persistent exploration of what good medicine can offer, if one is open to it.