POTS or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome is marked by an abnormal increase of the heart rate, lightheadedness or fainting, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The main symptom of POTS is that not enough blood returns to the heart when someone with POTS stands up after lying down.
According to the NINDS, the cause of POTS is currently unknown and anyone can develop POTS but young women and women between the ages of 15 and 50 are more likely to develop it and it can cause to avoid exercising in order to prevent dizziness or fainting spells.
Sadie said she was diagnosed with the condition earlier this spring, two to three months ago, but has lived with the symptoms for "a long time."
"Last year in sixth grade, I would go to the nurse multiple times a day for it because I always felt like I was going to pass out in class if I were to stand up and I'd be like, 'I have to go to the nurse. I can't do this.' Or I'll be in P.E. and I'll be like, 'I have to go to the nurse,'" Sadie recalled.
The teen said every time she would visit the nurse's office, staff there would dismiss her and her symptoms and assumed she was lying her condition to miss class.
"They were like, 'You're doing this to get out of class. It's probably just anxiety. Go back to class,'" Sadie continued. "They wouldn't do anything for it and that definitely was hard because it was like, I genuinely felt so sick and I was in a lot of pain and them not doing anything it definitely hurt me physically and emotionally because I was just like, 'This is rude. I feel sick and you are telling me to go to P.E. and run laps around the football field. I can't do that."
"When my mom's like, 'Oh, I'm kind of in pain right now. Oh, I'm having tremors.' If I didn't have this, I probably would be like, 'I don't really care. I don't know what you're talking ,'" she added.
