u/Euphoric_Discount_ME

I'm just struggling with the call I got now about a month and half ago, I've been exhausted the past two years and been in and out of specialists and oncologists. Aside from slightly higher bad cholesterol and low good cholesterol, I'm fine according to all my results, up until I went to a cardiologist for a second time.

My heart looked perfectly strong and healthy when they took a look. But my heart rate would spike when I sat up, it would drop back down when I laid on the table, it was consistently over 115bpm when I walked. My average was 114bpm but it would get as high as 150bpm.

I didn't get an official diagnosis in my record yet, my Healthcare got cut off so i couldnt go to my last appointment to discuss my results but I got a call from a nurse basically saying that I likely have POTS, to eat more salt, and to keep track of what triggers my highs & lows with my heart rate, then make an appointment if something new happened.

I ended up doing research on POTS more, I wasn't able to get much more information about it from that office, I've always been big on drinking a ton water but I've been adding cranberry juice and electrolyte powder and its very quickly turned my energy level around. I can actually get a full day's work done without feeling like I'll drop, I'm not 100% but I can actually function.

I use to only be able to put my energy into work, barely that and still have to call days off, but I can actually go home now and vaccum, do some dishes, take a shower, never been happier to do a chore in my life. I can also be HUNGRY without feeling like I will fall over immediately if I don't get something to eat, I can actually just feel hungry without dizziness. Its almost maddening that just adding something to my water made this much of an improvement to my life.

I still feel extermely lost without more advice though, and I'm still tired, everything still takes more energy than it did 2 years ago and I feel embarrassed any time I bring up needing to sit/lay down for a minute when I'm at work. I've been preforming better but I can tell just asking for some breaks to sit have been irritating for the people & my employer at my job.

If you have any advice, GENUINELY anything, or you sharing your experience living with it, medical limbo, I'd love to hear it.

I only am making this because of a old archived post where someone was asking how to get the rich flavor in Pho broth that they missed in the past, and I couldn't find anyone else bringing up too many answers.

Folks kept reccomending oils & coconut oil specifically, which isn't a bad replacement but its not the same.

I'm not a expert in Vietnamese cooking but I am a expert in POTS making me sick as hell so I've lived off broths like water and I've broken down at least a couple soup bases I relied on to understand why they've helped me, Pho being one of them.

The main reason why traditional Pho has the rich & silky flavor/texture to the broth is the collagen. And the salt content never hurt too. Compared to the animal based process you're not going to get that soup flavor or texture from just vegetables but thats does not mean you can't.

If you have flavorless Vegan collagen you can incorporated it into your Vegan broths. I really reccomend it. I personally just take some very hot broth aside in a cup or bowl and incorporate a bit of collagen throughly with that side broth and add it to back to the pot once it's mixed in completely, make sure its free of clumps though I've never added enough for it to get a chance to clump. You can add it during cooking the full broth or after. You don't need a lot to get that texture, honestly you can test how much works best for you.

Also I use a soup base in mine in addition to onions, veggies, ginger etc and its Shanggie vegetarian beef flavored broth mix, very great brand and it does get me the closest to the old pho broths I use to enjoy when i add it.

My bad if other people already have gotten to this, and I'm just late to the party, I just had that post in my mind for more than a day and wanted to share.