When Katie Davis began puberty at 12, she also began to feel tired – all the time. Her family thought she was just being moody, a side effect of her body’s hormonal and physical changes.
It was only after she fainted after taking a nap at a friend’s house that concern rose. Katie was taken to the hospital that day and doctors ran a number of blood tests. At that point, Katie could “barely wake up to see anyone at that point. [She] was physically unable to do anything.”
The blood tests proved to be unhelpful, but during her stay at the hospital, everyone noticed how Katie’s heartrate and blood pressure would sporadically sky rocket or plummet. Still, the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with her.
Katie returned home, but her condition only continued to get worse. She lived on a mattress on the living room floor and basically skipped 6th grade because she was incapable of getting up and doing anything by herself.
A year later, Katie decided to visit a cardiologist, who decided to conduct a tilt table test. The test required Katie to be strapped to a table as it moved her from lying to standing. For the average person, their heartrate and blood pressure should rise subtly, almost as if they’d just stood up from a chair. Katie fainted.
The cardiologist finally diagnosed Katie’s condition: she had dysautonomia. Her body wasn’t able to regulate her body’s “automatic” functions – her heart rate, blood pressure, digestive functions, and temperature regulation would just fail on her.
Katie isn’t alone. One out of 100 teenagers suffer from this condition, which is often called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), but there is no cure or medication to help those who have it.
What’s worse is that POTS symptoms are often disregarded by doctors, particularly when these symptoms are present in young girls around the time of puberty. Medical experts often assume the exhaustion and fainting are simply part and parcel of the girl’s changing hormones.
As for Katie, who’s now 22, she has managed to get through high school and recently married a guy she met during her senior year in high school. He knows of her condition and has been nothing but supportive and hopeful of their future together.
"I have such a good support system," Katie says. "That's why I'm happy today."
