‘I went to hospital over 50 instances after my Apple Watch informed me one thing was flawed’

Jennifer Vilchiz was 28 when her Apple Watch told her something was drastically wrong. She was sitting down watching TV in her home three years ago when her alerts started beeping; telling her that her heart was running like a galloping horse.

Her heart rate was 140 bpm for more than 10 minutes and rising. Worried and feeling dizzy, Jennifer called the emergency services and was told to go into hospital where she received multiple tests.

Doctors concluded that her heart structure and bloods were normal, but the terrifying symptoms continued.

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Jennifer, now 31, from Chicago said: “My blood pressure was erratic like an uncomfortable sea storm and I started experiencing convulsions every day and lost 30 pounds in two weeks due to developing allergies to almost all food.

“Worst of all, I couldn’t walk 10 steps without wanting to faint. My days and nights were consumed by crippling fear, sadness and uncertainty about my future.

“Over a few months, I was hospitalised more than 50 times because I had no idea what was going on and things kept getting worse as days went by; blood pooling, seizures, body pain, temperature deregulation and more. I was only able to walk five steps at a time and the more I walked, the more my bpm would escalate and I would feel faint.”

The artist was eventually diagnosed with a type of dysautonomia, known as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, a condition that causes debilitating symptoms including tachycardia, fainting and convulsions among others.

“‘I remember sitting next to my doctor on a Monday morning during the summer of 2022 as we both read and figured out my labs together that I had gathered from different specialists.

“She held my shoulder, took her glasses off and told me: ‘It’s hard for me as a doctor to say this because most conditions are normally controlled or helped with medication, but in your situation, there is no cure for POTS. I’m sorry.

‘I can order you a wheelchair so you can get around and some movement exercises so your legs won’t become skinny,’ she told me calmly. I was upset and angry and felt like part of me was gone.

“I was anxious about how I would go on in life, how I would build a career and make my parents proud, while feeling like I was dying every second of the day,” Jennifer remembers.

However, she started to look online for other people with the condition, and found that it would be possible for her to live again through physical therapy and retraining her autonomic nervous system.

“With every fibre of my being, I trained under a physical therapist. Over two years, we began to slowly see results. Five steps became 10, then 20, then 30. Two years later I was walking a mile again and I couldn’t believe it. The rest of my symptoms were also subsiding.

“I approached my recovery the way you’d take care of a plant. By giving my body the basics it needed. Getting some sunlight, rest, nutrient-rich foods, hydration, and movement.

“Over time through consistency and with physical therapy, my symptoms gradually subsided. I occasionally have very few sick days now but overall I reclaimed my health.

“After years of intense effort, today my chronic illness no longer holds me back. I am walking more than ten thousand steps and even running. It makes me cry that I thought this would never be possible. It’s a miracle,” she adds.

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