A student with POTS, often needs to carry bottle of water and salt pills to make it through a day of classes. Photo Creds: Watauga Publishing
Selah Greer, Staff Member of The Spark
NOTE: Because this story deals with medical conditions, we have chosen to refer to students by first initial only. Our student will be referred to C throughout the article.
POTS, short for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia, is a chronic condition that has become increasingly prevalent in young adults across America. Watauga is one of the many schools in which students diagnosed with POTS are dealing with this debilitating condition on top of learning, sports, and after-school activities.
“It makes it more difficult to come to school every day and to keep relationships with friends,” said C, a student recently diagnosed with POTS.
So what even is POTS? Watauga's school nurse, Shelly Klutz, explains this often misdiagnosed and misunderstood disease that has experienced an uptick in cases since Covid.
"When we go from sitting to standing, our body automatically adjusts our blood pressure. With POTS, your body does not correct that as fast as it needs to," said Klutz. "You might feel lightheaded or faint, things like that. There are other signs and symptoms of POTS too."
Symptoms can be mild in some cases, but in others, symptoms are disabling and can prevent students from attending school or focusing.
"The acute situation of POTS is the adjustment of the blood pressure and the pulse when we change positions. Other chronic symptoms of POTS include; fatigue, headache, and brain fog that causes students to have trouble concentrating or recalling information," Klutz explained. "So it encompasses a huge amount of symptoms, not only physically but academically also."
These complex symptoms can make learning difficult, especially when teachers are not educated on POTS or equipped to assist students who deal with this condition. Another issue that prevents students with POTS from learning is frequent absences, a topic student C discusses. Even when teachers are understanding, some days her symptoms are so debilitating she cannot attend school.
“In the classroom, my teachers are very nice, but often I have to leave class which makes it more challenging for them to teach me,” C said.
When C is physically able to attend school, her many symptoms can be a distraction and continue to interfere with her learning.
“Sometimes when I am not feeling good that day, I think about it a lot and it makes it really hard to learn and focus,” C said.
This condition has not only affected C's academics, but her athletics as well. Before she was diagnosed with POTS, C was an avid runner and a part of the Watauga Cross Country team.
"Because of POTS I had to step back from running and some of my doctors say I might never be able to run as hard as I like," said C.
Physical therapy and medication have helped C be able to run again and be part of a sport she loves, but she will never be able to push herself to the level she was running before her diagnosis.
So how can teachers support students with this disability?
"We need a lot of education with our teachers, making sure we allow our students to eat in the classroom, lots of salty snacks and also making sure they allow water bottles at all times. It is important we have education on how to treat [POTS] in an acute situation and then knowing when we need to go to a 504 plan that helps with academic accommodations," said Klutz. "We need to address all the symptoms, not just the acute ones but the chronic ones as well."
Having education and awareness around POTS can help students like C succeed at Watauga, especially given the obscurity of this condition. Many who suffer from this condition look like normal teenagers, but daily they struggle with debilitating symptoms that often prevent them from doing the things they love.
"You can’t see POTS,” C said. "But it is still a very real issue that people need to know is happening.”
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