This last week was a week of decisions. 

First, I finished my antibiotics so I had to decide whether or not to have my PICC line taken out of my arm and if so, when.  Turns out that since I am still having on and off again fevers, my PICC line may have a colony of bacteria growing in it…which means infection.  Luckily my blood cultures came back negative for bacteria so it didn’t spread to my bloodstream again….yet.  Ultimately, it was decided for me that my PICC line needed to come out ASAP and was taken out this morning. 

Secondly, since I have no more IV access I had to decide what to do next in terms of treatment.  Without regular IVs, I can become really symptomatic and essentially not functional very quickly.  My doctor suggested looking into this semi experimental surgery.  It is a known surgery, but it is basically experimental in the fact that it hasn’t been used on anyone with POTS.  Being a lab rat in an invasive setting scares me.  I decided to at least hear the doctors out about the surgery, but I wouldn’t make any decisions whether or not to have it done any time soon.  Let me get through my first year of grad school and my summer internship(that is a whole different story), first.  So I thought I was out of options for treatment until I talked to Dr. Nimira (check her out and have a consultation, she is great!!!), who is an upper cervical chiropractor.  In short, I learned that a simple subluxation or misalignment in the bones in your neck can cause a limitation in communication between your brain and the rest of your body.  POTS is a form of dysautonomia, or disfunction of the autonomic nervous system and a subluxation can cause a limitation in nervous system communication.  Hence, in my mind it makes sense to see if an adjustment could lessen or eliminate my POTS symptoms.  My first adjustment was today, so we’ll see where this journey takes me!!!

Overall, this past week I’ve learned that life is basically a sum of all your choices.   You want to make the best decision that is right for you and only you.  You don’t want to live with regret.  Sometimes you make the right one.  Sometimes it just takes some trial and error.  Sometimes you may just make the completely wrong decision, which is okay too.  Learn from your choices and keep progressing.   

~Natasha