When I get out of bed, I feel dizzy and weak and my headache intensifies, but if I stand for a long time, my organism begins to stabilize, and then I experience the same symptoms as soon as I lie down. It's like blood rushes into my head, overwhelming me. So it's not just orthostatic intolerance, but sensitivity to any change in posture.
Do other people get this too?
After I climbed the stairs at work while struggling with a viral infection that worsened my POTS symptoms, I experienced severe tachycardia and dizziness and ran out to go to the ER. My GP later put me on sick leave for a week, and I wrote to HR to apologize and explain that I have a viral illness which has lowered my physical condition, which was already poor due to underlying POTS. They sent me a very kind and empathetic response, asking me not to worry about work and to put my health first.
I also requested to be placed on the ground floor, so that I would not have to climb stairs anymore, considering that they have strained me since the beginning, but I was trying to endure them silently for fear of being perceived as "difficult" and "problematic" and being accused of seeking attention or whininess. After this episode, I decided that repeatedly climbing the stairs every day - for every tea break, for every bathroom break etc. - was too much, especially since it was already impacting my work - I could not pay attention to my colleagues during video calls because I was distracted by my dizziness and tachycardia. I also mentioned to them that it took me six months to recover the last time this happened to me, so I also requested work from home as a backup plan in case I cannot come to the office at all. HR was very understanding and offered me both accommodations.
A week later, my viral infection has resolved, and I feel mostly as I did before it, but it remains that I find the stairs at work challenging. I therefore informed HR that I would be returning to the office, but that I would like to work on the ground floor. They agreed, and now I feel very guilty and ashamed. I feel that I do not deserve such a generous company; that I should just have put up with all my symptoms without even going on sick leave for my viral infection; and that I should have continued to climb the stairs indefinitely, at least until I fainted on them, which would have visibly "proved" that I have a legitimate problem with such physical exertion. I am afraid that they all see me as dramatic, spoiled and a liability for the company. I am beset by devastating anxiety as I await my return. Rationally, I believe that I ought to be allowed to work on the ground floor because climbing the stairs was objectively harming me, but emotionally, I cannot accept the fact that I requested an accommodation. I had not done this at any of my previous workplaces.
I developed POTS symptoms in August of 2024 after viral illness which swept across our company, sending many people on weeks of sick leave. Not having access to knowledgeable doctors in my country, I went through months of agony until I self-diagnosed and started making lifestyle changes, which led to a gradual recovery. In May of 2025, I finally received an official POTS diagnosis from a specialist in Germany, along with recommendations which largely overlapped with what I had already been implementing. Over the next year, I improved further and even considered myself virtually cured. I could climb multiple flights of stairs, walk for hours, and eat fairly large meals without distress.
However, a few weeks ago, I started noticing a decline. After climbing up a moderately steep slope, I could not calm down for hours, but I kept walking, until I had to sit down on a bench, and I felt dizzy and disoriented. I recovered shortly after that, but the following week, after an hour or so of walking, as soon as I sat down on a bench, I experienced a severe headache and weakness. I recovered from that too, but a few days later, after coming out of the shower and lying down in bed, I suddenly experienced chest pain and a severe headache and I've been deteriorating ever since. I'm now back to my original condition from August of 2024 - extreme orthostatic intolerance and tachycardia in response to mild exertion (including sitting up), constant severe headaches with a migrainous quality, nausea and loss of appetite, fatigue, caffeine intolerance and general malaise.
I had even put my pulsimeter away in a drawer. Now I'm back to constant measurements and urgent visits to doctors. Again, the severe exacerbation coincided with new viral symptoms (sore throat, sinus pain, mild cough). I'm wondering if I will ever recover this time, and if so, whether every mysterious viral illness will incapacitate me for weeks or months. I don't even know whether the viral illness brought my decline on, or whether I have experienced some sort of burnout, after leading too carefree a live, because once I felt better, I started drinking lots of coffee, sleeping irregularly, walking for hours at a time, and constantly getting in and out of bed, as if postural changes were not a burden for me. Maybe I should have lived more conservatively.
Hello,
For many areas covered by Street View, images are available from different periods, e.g. I was just exploring a street in Sofija, and there were images from six different dates between 2012 and 2024. I am glad that such historical data is available and I use it myself to see how certain places have changed over the years, but it bothers me that when I want to explore an entire neighborhood by clicking on the arrow shown on the screen, the view jumps between dates, seemingly at random, even when the whole neighborhood was covered on the date I initially selected.
For example, I might start exploring a neighborhood taking a 2012 image as a starting point, but after a while, a click on the arrow will take me to an image from 2019, and after a few more clicks, to 2021, even where 2012 images are available and offered in the bottom menu. Is there any way to filter the images so that when I am going on a virtual walk through a neighborhood, I do not experience such discontinuity?
I just got my new glasses, made with Eyezen lenses, with a strong prescription for myopia, and while cleaning them, I noticed that there are three markings on each lens, near the outer edge: it says Eyezen on the top, there's an empty circle in the middle, and then it says Eye on the bottom. The markings are white and only visible under light at a certain angle. Is this a defect? Did they fit placeholder lenses with advertising on them, intended for display in the shop, instead of using new, blank ones?
Can someone recommend the best AI translation tool for me given the following factors:
- cost is not an issue
- the tool should remember style guidelines and terminological decisions and apply them consistently
- the tool should translate larger sections requiring a prompt for every paragraph
- I need to translate books from source languages which I do not understand (e.g. Latvian), so I cannot check the accuracy
- it should translate idiomatically and localize as instructed
I am currently using ChatGPT Plus (paid subscription) and the workflow as well as the results are catastrophic. I have to upload the books page by page, into the chat (it doesn't handle documents as well as chat messages), which takes ages for 400-page books, and the software doesn't apply any of the instructions I provide, except in the first page or two translated after they have been submitted. It cannot even remember a basic orthographic rule (it omits diacritics in the target language). Repeated admonishments do not achieve anything. It also does not translate naturally at all - the output screams AI. Would switching to another tool, e.g. DeepL, help, or is this simply the limit of current technology?
Can someone help me identify the manufacturer of this Daihatsu Compagno:
The signature seems to read MVP. I also have a Nissan Skyline with the same marking:
When I look for these models online, I get hits for Ebbro models, but Ebbro models say Ebbro on the base:
I have had POTS for almost two years and a half, and during the last year, I've mostly kept it under control, but tonight I'm going through a very bad episode, which reminds me of what I endured in the first weeks after developing the illness as a post-viral complication. The trigger was instant noodles which I had for dinner. Almost as soon as I finished my meal, I could barely breathe, my heart started to pound in my head, my vision became blurry, and I developed a migraine. My brain feels like it's swelling and trying to burst out of my skull. I can't find a comfortable position, and whatever side I lie on, within seconds I get a sensation of my brain sagging and pressing on my spine. I almost started to worry that I had been poisoned with some neurotoxin. Two hours later, I think I feel a bit better, but still horrible.
As is well known, large, carbohydrate-intense meals exacerbate POTS symptoms, but I have pasta for dinner every day, and today's portion was only slightly larger, so I think that I'm reacting to one of the ingredients.
I also don't know I should consider this a POTS flare-up, or just a migraine. I don't know if the distinction is relevant for me, since I developed migraines along with the POTS and I think that they're related.
I also think that I might have overexerted myself - I am under severe stress at work and I've also been travelling almost every weekend, which is very exhausting, especially the packing, car rides, unpacking and adjusting to hotels.
Can someone help me identify this small black bug I found on a kitchen towel next to the sink. It was about the same size as the varied carpet beetles I have encountered many times, possibly a bit smaller. It was black as shown on the picture (it's not because of the lighting) and crawling along the towel. I have never seen one like this before.
The location is Skopje, North Macedonia.
