Unfiltered Story #385553

October is Dysautonomia Awareness Month. I’m hoping this silly little story will help spread awareness about this disorder!

My wife and I are watching a medical drama with her sister.

Character: *intensely* “Her heartrate is 140! It’s way too high, we need to calm it down now!”

Me: *deadpan* “Oh no. How terrible.”

(My wife laughs but my sister-in-law looks confused.)

Sister-in-law: “I don’t get it.”

Me: “Well, to be fair that heart rate is kind of high for a normal person but…”

Wife: “[My Name] has POTS, remember?”

Sister-in-law: “I remember you saying something about it but I don’t actually know what that is. It’s a heart condition, right?”

Me: “More or less. That’s what I tell people when I don’t really want to explain Dysautonomia. Here, I’ll show you. This is a pulse oximeter. The bottom number is my heart rate. Now, sitting down, my resting heart rate is 80, which is pretty good. Watch what happens when I stand up.”

Sister-in-law: “Holy crap. That’s higher than [character’s] was and you’re fine. But all you did was stand up!”

Me: “I’m used to it. And my record high heart rate is over 250 beats a minute.” *SIL’s eyes go wide* “Yeah, we were in the hospital for that one.”

Wife: “Ask what her record low heart rate is.”

Sister-in-law: “I’m almost afraid to.”

Me: “It was under 30 beats per minute. We went to the hospital then, too.”

Sister-in-law: “I think you should see [Doctor Character] instead of [other character]. I think you need him more.”

(She’s not wrong!)