MCYT oneshots

Untitled Part 143

T/W Vomit (not descriptive), fainting and pills.

Tommy's P.O.V

When I was 10, I had been diagnosed with POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome). It's a blood circulation disorder characterised by two factors:

- A specific group of symptoms that frequently occur when standing upright

- A heart rate increase from horizontal to standing (or as tested on a tilt table) of at least 30 beats per minute in adults, or at least 40 beats per minute in adolescents, measured during the first 10 minutes of standing

Some of the symptoms caused by POTS are lightheadedness (with fainting), difficulty thinking and concentrating (brain fog), fatigue, intolerance of exercise, headache, blurry vision, palpitations, tremor and nausea and vomiting. In my case, it was all of these and more. I had a severe version of POTS which limited my time standing up which sucked. I couldn't participate in PE which got me laughed at, and whenever we had a fire drill and everyone gathered outside, I had to sit on the ground so I wouldn't pass out. Occasionally a teacher got me a chair but they mostly didn't care. The number of injuries I had sustained from falling when fainting was crazy. I would just pass out and wake up on the concrete bleeding from multiple places and a completely broken arm. It took a while for me to get the diagnosis as it was quite complicated due to the fact that the symptoms aligned with many different illnesses. It took quite some time to rule them out. 

The first time I ever passed out in front of my friends was at my very first meetup with Wilbur, Phil, Nikki and Fundy. It was kind of expected though as I knew that we would be moving around a lot and it was a pretty hot day.

The day started like most others, my alarm ringing and annoying the living fuck out of me until I gathered the energy to turn it off. It was around 9 am when I was able to get up as the new meds I had been placed on to help with the pain at night, always made me more tired in the mornings. It was already a pretty hot day so I knew I would have to keep my shower short. 

After sitting up in bed for a few minutes, I gathered the courage to actually stand up and get my clothes ready to shower. 

Once I had showered, keeping the temperature cool so I wouldn't faint, I made my way downstairs to eat some breakfast and take my first set of meds before leaving. I took Propranolol, which is a beta-blocker that lowers the heart rate. The downside was that it could also lower my blood pressure by quite a bit so I had to keep checking it.

Finally, I got into the car with my dad and we started the 4-hour car journey to Brighton.

Upon arrival, I took another Propranolol pill, swallowing it down with my water before grabbing my rucksack and getting out of the car. My dad insisted on talking with Phil before leaving so I let him walk with me to find my friends. It didn't take long for us to find them, sitting on a little bench, overlooking the sea. They had also been looking around, waiting for us to arrive so when they saw us Phil stood up, walking over to greet my dad while I beelined straight for Wilbur. Reaching the bench, I sat down in the spot Phil had previously occupied, letting Wilbur sling his arms around my shoulders. I leaned into his embrace, letting my head rest on his shoulder. "Hey, Tommy!" Wilbur smiled enthusiastically.

"Hey, Will," I replied, pretending to be annoyed that I was there but the fond smile on my face definitely gave away how I was actually feeling.

Will began to talk about what he wanted to do in the short amount of time we had as a group. I was leaving at 8 pm as then we would get home at about midnight. Any later and my mother would definitely kill us. She was reluctant to let us go in the first place. I was listening to Wilbur talk, mostly, part of me couldn't help but listen in to what my dad was saying to Phil.