Steady My Heart.

I've realised recently just how unknown POTS is. Unless you know someone with it, you probably have no idea what it is and even when you know...you don't really know. As such...I thought I'd do a couple of posts about what is is, where you can find out more info, how it affects me day to day and the like. So first off...symptoms and diagnosis.  It was around 2006/2007 when I first started having episodes of fainting - my GP and the paediatrician we saw put it down to my height and therefore my blood pressure dropping when I was stood. Quite a logical solution and I was told it'd improve with time - which it did. However, I still seemed incredibly prone to fainting and once at University they realised my postural drop and resolved yet I was still having these faints. In September 2011, I was generally unwell and had multiple collapses over the course of a few days. During which I hit my head. After CT and MRI scans I was transferred to the local neurology specialist...

I didn't go to church this week. I was tired, I didn't feel like it, I was busy, all manner of excuses - when in reality, I was feeling vulnerable and I didn't want my friends to see me like that. Instead of beating myself up for not going, I looked back over a recent preach by Alex Wood who is student pastor at St. Peter's. His talk really spoke to me yet I walked away from church that day and didn't really take what I'd learned into the new week. As such, it fits nicely into Monday Ministry over on Tania's blog . These are just my notes/my interpretation - if you want to hear the talk for yourself, it's a good'un and can be found here. Judges 7:1-7 is a passage of the Bible where God strips Gideon's army from around 32,000 men to just 300 and yet still promises him the victory. However, that victory is to be recognised as His strength, not the armies numbers! It is often when we are stripped right back that we see God's resurrection po...

It's been a long time coming, but here is part two of the course I've been attending with the Brighton ACT ladies. My blog on the first part of the course can be found here . This second session was quite reflective, involving us looking at our own lives and our own weaknesses. I guess that's why I've postponed writing it - it wasn't necessarily always comfortable and in some ways left me feeling weirdly vulnerable. It's nice to revisit it with a bit of distance now. We began the session thinking of a time when we had felt helpless or out of control and how this made us feel or react. I am not good at being out of control and not knowing the outcome of situations. I find it immensely stressful, become overwhelmed, panicked, frustrated and lose perspective. I tend to withdraw, become quite tearful and depression rears its ugly head. However, you cannot stay in a crisis forever and for me, that's often where my friends intervene and help out. Fr...