My name is Cindy Riley and I am 32 years old. I have been married to a wonderful man for 12 years and we have been blessed with three great children

Angela is newly diagnosed so it was hard for her to share her story, but she found the courage to get through it.

For my friends and family reading this, let me start with a quick description of what POTS is. POTS is a form of dysautonomia, which is a disease of the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system controls all the functions in our bodies we don’t think about – heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, digestion, body temperature, etc.

This Dysautonomia seems to be getting worse as time goes by, new symptoms seem to be stronger and harder to get on my feet literally. I miss the woman I use to be the one that played and ran with my children the one that danced and was the life of the party. Dysautonomia took my spark out of me and I want it back. I am not the same woman anymore, I feel like I merely exist to bring my children up. The guilt I have for being so sick is overwhelming. I am bringing my children up lying down on a lounger. I can hardly raise them up. I feel so weak and dizzy all the time.

Well, let’s see how many words I can fit in here at one time. I am a 47 year old mom of two, married forover 25 yrs to a wonderful, supportive man. I've had passing out problems since I was about five. First one was at the clinic getting my shots for school, passed out of a screen door and down five concrete stairs. I Woke up staring at the roof of the car. Next one was playing first base in softball, remember it coming on and hitting the ground, I was about 8 years old then. Many times during junior high and my mom finally made an appt with a cardiologist.

I know I post a lot about dysautonomia but for those of us who live with it on a daily basis, it is our lives and education is foremost on our agendas because of the journey we have taken.

My name is Katy Wheeler and I am a 30 year old and I don't know what type of patient I am anymore. As the doctors used to say you are a Lupus (SLE) patient, so I got used to saying that. Now they say your body is inflamed so you could still have Lupus we don't know, but that is the least of your worries now (is what they said from my recent 18 days in the hospital 5 months ago). I am married to my husband Chris of 9 yrs & we have a beautiful daughter named MaKayla Nicole who is in the 3rd grade.

I was at the Mayo clinic at Jacksonville earlier this month. Yesterday, I received a copy of my report while at my referring doctor's office. The dysutonomia specialist at Mayo Jacksonville is Dr. Cheshire.