Oooh, your maroon stockings are so pretty!

Uh, thanks, but its actually the massive amount of blood hanging out in my legs.

Yeah, it seems that since I've quit the Florinef (or started the Atenolol) that I've developed one of those POTS symptoms that I previously hadn't had: molted legs from blood poolage. I've had blood pooling before, but never visibly except for in my feet. Now its appearing in my legs. It's pretty subtle, they don't look anything like this.

In other medical news, it's now been over a week since I started the Atenolol. I think I still need another week to really determine just how good this treatment is for me. So far I think it's doing a good job, but that's not to say this experience has been without side effects and other occurances.

Coldness I'm cold all the time now. These days I'm rarely seen without a light fleece jacket except for when I'm just coming in from having walked a mile or so. It also doesn't help that Pittsburgh is chilly in the winter and my bedroom window seems to be a little drafty. My hands and feet are also cold all the time as well, even more so than the originally were.

Bizarre Dreams Being on a Paxil/Florinef and others cocktail for a long time, I'm used to having odd dreams, but the past few mights have been really taking the cake. In one dream I had three seizures back to back (note: I do in fact have a seizure disorder completely unrelated to POTS and for about the past year the condition has been inactive). That's my idea of a nightmare right there. I also had a dream about an old flame who, in a nutshell, led me on without realizing it himself for a while and then when he did tried to let me down as gently as possible but ended up leaving the situation very open ended and ambiguous, thus confusing the hell out of me and put me through an emotional hell for a while (didn't help that I was a really stupid freshman at the time). So having him insert himself in ANY dream of mine disturbed me profoundly.

Waxing and Waning of Appetite When I was first put on the Atenolol I had the appetite of 3 pregnant women. The past few days however, that's turned into the appetite of a chemotherapy patient. I've been eating very meager portions of meals but not feeling like I'm missing out on anything. However, this brings me to my next complaint...

Stomach Troubles Like I said, I haven't been eating very much, but when I do sometimes it's accompanied by nausea or bloating and gas. I'm used to mild bloating and gas, but it's been even moreso lately. The random nausea is new too. It could be that something had gone bad in the salad I had last night. However, Pepto killed the nausea and I felt fine.

However there have been a lot of good things. My heart rate and blood pressure have both dropped. I'm not as tired all the time as I used to be (although I am taking a nap after this... because I can :) ). So far the good is outweighing the bad, but this is a drug that takes a few weeks to level out in your system, so we'll see how it goes.

Well, the Atenolol seems to be working. My POTS symptoms have been dramatically reduced, I have more energy and concentration than I've had in years. Today I was even brave enough to venture out of the house all day WITHOUT my compression tights. And you know what? I was fine.

There are three problems though. None are cause for great concern, but they're definitely strange. I've been more sensitive to cold lately, I've been peeing like a racehorse, and I've never been this hungry in my life. The cold thing and the peeing thing are more just annoying, but the being really hungry thing is kind of concerning. I'm not sure if I can attribute all of this to the Atenolol or if it's from stopping the Florinef, but these are definitely new sensations in my life.