Bridgette’s Story: From Bedridden with POTS to Rebuilding Her Life

When I first came to Paola, I was told by my cardiologist that I would never stand up or be outside again. I was diagnosed with POTS, and my entire life felt like it had disintegrated overnight.
They told me to accept my circumstances, no matter how grim they were, and prescribed beta blockers and immunosuppressants. 

In my appointment, they told me about other people dealing with the same affliction and how even with medication, they were going to live the rest of their life flat on the back in bed. It solidified my story. 

I was bedridden for a year and a half before I even made it to that appointment. 

I could not understand how I had taken a simple course of penicillin and it turned my life upside down. I was no longer sleeping, drinking water or eating. I turned into a carcass of myself. 

My heart rate would surge up to around 200 bmp... while laying down or sitting up. My wife became my carer and had to help maneuver me to fulfil the ability to sit up, hold a cup of water, showering or feeding me. Everything. 

I quickly realised that drinking water and eating food was excruciating. I had never experienced pain and nauseousness and fullness like this. Food sat in my throat and would not swallow. Water felt like a burning stone hitting my stomach and would nearly cause me to vomit. I survived that first year on a mouthful of plain cooked oats per day. All of my clothes were falling off me.
My hands trembled and I would black out just trying to smile or turn my face. I stopped being able to talk properly because my voice disappeared to a croaky rasp. 

I was unable to carry a conversation, read, or even think. Just laying in bed under the ceiling fan felt impossible - my whole entire body was pounded with tremors and tachycardia. 

At night, it would take hours for me to sleep because of how hard my heart was pounding and I was completely out of breath. I'd fall asleep around midnight or 1-2am... then I would be jolted awake at 3am with extreme adrenaline dumps and worsened heart pounding for the next ten hours. The first half of the day was spent curled up with a heat pack on my stomach, staring out and writhing in pain. I had grown up chronically ill: daily migraines and throwing up. Nothing compared to this. 

I remember when my wife would go outside, they would bring me pictures because I didn't know what it looked like outside anymore. I remember when my wife carried me onto the couch to watch some tv, it looked like I was staring at static. Nothing was online anymore, I was gone. 

By night time, I would just start to feel the pain subside and then I would wait to fall asleep again... only to be woken by adrenaline. This cycle went on for so long. I had no answers. 

Finally, I had help to attend a cardiology appointment and recieved my diagnosis of POTS to explain everything. 

I was put on medicated liquid nutrition and prescribed a blended baby food diet with the few foods I could tolerate: pasta, chocolate, ice cream and mashed potato. This was our first step before deciding if I would need a feeding tube. A speech pathologist confirmed that my muscles in my oesophagus had wasted away because I had been unable to eat for so long and my body had nothing to draw from to rebuild the muscles. This went on for a year and a half.

I started being cared for by a nurse who administered weekly saline infusion to accompany the 4L of pharmacy electrolytes that I was told to consume alongside constant glasses of water. I tried hard not to throw up all of the liquid and yet, I was still so dehydrated my throat was dry. 

I piled salt all over my baby food, and took my medication. Nothing was working. I was so desperately thirsty, I could not get a full breath of air into my lungs, and no matter what... I was so shaky, floppy and weak. 

Medication meant that I was sort of able to stand with the help of being held up, but within moments, my entire body collapsed like a noodle and I would faint. I went back to the cardiologist and my medication prescription dosages grew higher and higher until they were not comfortable exceeding what they considered dangerously high dosages. This was my life, I was told.
I could not believe this was the quality of life that I had even while on a tonne of medication and intervention from dietitian, gastroenterologists, nurses and so on.
My wife admitted to me that I looked like their own father who they cared for in end-of-life cancer, and they feared I was dying, too.
Then, something happened: I found PAOLA.
I was scrolling through instagram and found all of her posts about POTS, digestive issues, MCAS, commodities and so on.
I started putting all of her free resources to use: Circadian rhythm and sun exposure, filtering water, grounding my feet outside, and I already began to start feeling better. I bought blue light blocking bulbs and threw out all of my toxic makeup, cleaning products, perfumes and so on. Playing bird sounds, deep breathing between meals, and going to bed earlier.
I began to feel even better. But still, completely disabled and ill.
I knew I needed her help.
I had literally nothing to lose at this point except money that I was already spending on specialists who were stacking up my diagnosis list higher and higher, sending me for more referrals and scans and testing. Things like nutcracker syndrome, CSF brain leaks, tumours, gastroparesis, fibromyalgia, CCI, veinal flow issues, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Autism, ADHD, thoracic outlet syndrome, endometriosis, anemia, MRI's, surgery, CT scans, blood tests, and etc. I spent all of my time using medication to get me to appointments where I spent half the day in waiting rooms, collapsing and fainting in between offices and tests. Some tests could not be performed because I could not physically stay upright. Nurses would have to physically maneuver me onto beds because I was so weakened and slow moving. 
I was told that this was IT. This was my life. 

But something in me sparked with hope that had never truly gone away. 

I kept seeing Paola's posts and I booked an initial call with her: 

During our meeting, I was so unwell and frail that I could barely lean forward to pick up water to drink because I was at risk of passing out and my shoulders were falling out of their sockets. 

When we met, I remember it was her and I on video call, I was up at like 2 am with my blue light blocking bulb flooding the room and there it was: my life changed.
She gave me an incredibly long, compassionate and thorough call. I realised Paola knew exactly what she was talking about and she knew her stuff both from personal experience and rigorous study of literature and training. 

She told me tips and things I should start trying or looking into like brain retraining, hydration etc. What also stuck with me was how confident she was that I could heal. This completely contrasted my experience with GP's and specialists.
After the initial free consultation, I received a personalised outline of what she thought was going on based on my story and symptoms - with first steps, suggestions and what she would work on with me.
I went all in and signed up. From there, I sent through blood tests and we went through everything. She joked about how reading my blood tests would feel like she was reading my entire body/symptoms and history... and it was true!
I was in awe at all of the connections she made between markers, and was able to describe symptoms I had not even thought to mention based on the levels she was reading. 

Also, Paola made such an effort to analyse the functional parameters of my bloods and I realised that doctors were severely neglecting my results by ignoring the markers or not exploring them further. This was when I realised that GP's are overworked, and are there to prescribe or give referrals... not help prevent, restore and teach health.
From then on, it was constant support - week to week - checking my supplement dosages and how I was tolerating them. I was given lifestyle changes, food changes, and a protocol to follow that went beyond just supplements. Paola provided tools, videos, links, suggestions, recipes, nervous system tips and more.I never felt like I was broken: just that I needed help to understand my body. 
Believe me when I say that within just a few weeks of following the very basic foundational program: I was able to walk for 40 minutes without barely any effort for the first time in YEARS.
Fast forward in time: I was able to actually sit through our appointments via video call without feeling like I would pass out. I grew stronger and stronger. I was eating more than ever. I felt more stable, and calm. I was more energised and felt my brain fog lifting away. I was able to read again, and my voice slowly, slowly came back after being non-existent for nearly 5 years. I started socialising and catching up with friends and family, going on dates with my wife again, going to the beach, doing physiotherapy, going for long walks, I went on a round trip of the UK, and wrote a book. 
I began to reduce all of my medications, and I even managed to remove an entire line of medication from my body.
Unfortunately, I didn't realise that I was living in a mouldy building so coming off immunosuppressants flared up a lot of MCAS symptoms and my nervous system. 

However, with the right protocol and support, over time, the symptoms are slowly calming down as my body adjusts to the loss of a medicated band aid that was masking the severity of my symptoms reacting to mould. I am still in the mouldy building, and my body is still stabilising. My window of tolerance is expanding. This says a lot. 
I have learned lifelong tools that are invaluable to support my body.  

I know that the lifestyle changes, therapy, nervous system support, diet, supplements and functional blood levels and tests all have helped create a stable foundation to be able to handle external stressors.
Paola has equipped me with an entire life change to be able to withstand what may come up in life. It's a cohesive, overall sense of wellbeing that goes beyond blood tests and supplements.
We have spent a lot of time stabilising my body, detoxing, clearing estrogen dominance, supporting the body and replenishing its minerals and levels - tending to hormones, hydration, and rebuilding gut integrity.
To say that Paola's support has given me back health that I was never promised again is an understatement.
I found her during a time that nobody spoke about nervous system regulation, supplements, long COVID or POTS. 

She was truly a light at the end of a very, very dark tunnel and helped guide me through the other side.
If anyone I cared about was sick, I would tell them to see Paola. May you be well again <3