Cooking With POTS

This isn't about cooking with cooking pots, but with POTS (Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome). I thought this would be a fun considering the lovely pun! (hehe I rhymed)

Cooking with POTS is about as difficult for me as what a healthy person would equate to running 5 miles. Getting the pots out of the cabinets takes so much effort. GOD forbid something is still dirty from the last meal and I have to rewash it. I slowly stand up from the squatting position and walk over to the sink to fill it with water. Once that pot gets heavy, my arms just want to stop holding it because my heart doesn't appreciate this extra effort, so I rest it on the metal lip of the sink. Phew. That makes it a little easier.

I walk over to the refrigerator and grab some frozen vegetables and/or rice. These are 2 easy side dishes for me. The amount of required standing is minimal, so it's not soo bad. Still during this entire time my heart rates are 135+. I dump the rice or veggies into the pot and set it down on the stove. Almost there...phew!

Now I got to get the main dish ready! Oh no. This is normally when I really start to feel the "burn"....Grabbing another heavy dish out of the lower cabinet is tough. Going from that squatting position to standing again is terrifying. Now I got to walk over the refrigerator, get the chicken out of the refrigerator and prep it. I'm not that creative when it comes to food dishes, but I always make sure I put a lot of salt on my foods!

By the time I wrap aluminum foil over the dish, I need to get out of the kitchen and sit down.

On really bad days I just can't even do it. I have to ask my husband to cook because I'm soo tachycardic.

This might sound weird, but if I were a fainter, then people could SEE I'm suffering. "oh wow this girl isn't feeling so well, she fainted". But nope, I don't faint so as long as I look okay people think I must feel okay. I can certainly tell you that is not the case. I'm a stubborn person, so I just keep going until it gets soo difficult.

Since we are gluten free, egg free and we watch the ingredients in our foods very carefully, we cannot order out EVER. We cannot eat out EVER. I have to make every single meal in this house and it's tough some days. I'm not complaining about making the food, I just know that even normal mom's and housewives depend on McDonalds, Pizza Hut or their local Chinese restaurant at least a few times a week and I don't have that option! I really wish I could order a Made to Order sub at the gas station down the road...Nope can't do that. No matter how bad I feel someone in this house has to cook and it's my responsibility!

On Tuesday or Wednesday, we are getting the blood drawn for the NutrEval test, which will test A TON of different nutrients. I am hoping it finds something really wrong so I can start supplementing with it. Maybe this is just a rare nutrient deficiency and I'll get better!