“If I’m upright too long, I am in so much pain,” Lyndsi Johnson said.
A Maine woman describes herself as being “allergic to gravity” and suffers multiple symptoms, including fainting multiple times a day.
“I’m allergic to gravity - it sounds crazy but it's true,” said Johnson, the Independent reported.
Twenty-eight-year-old Lyndsi Johnson, former member of the U.S. Navy, has taken to social media to help raise awareness and share her experience with an illness she refers to as an allergy to gravity.
In February 2022, Johnson posted on TikTok announcing she was diagnosed with postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS).
PoTS is a condition that impacts blood flow and is seen usually when the one impacted stands up from a seated or laying position, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
For Johnson, she feels the impact when standing or sitting.
“As long as I stay flat, it keeps pain levels bearable but if I’m upright too long, I am in so much pain,” said Johnson wrote on Facebook.
Johnson also shared on TikTok that she has been slowly losing her vision over the last few months, hearing squirting-fluid sounds in her neck, migraines that mimic strokes, fatigue, paralyzation, and facial drooping.
“When I tell you the amount of fear I had when I was only able to move my EYES, It was pretty intense. I’m having drooping in my face still but trying to avoid the ER,” said Johnson on Facebook.
Johnson has expressed multiple times via social media her fear of emergency rooms, due either a lack of help with her condition, inadequate treatment, or long wait times.
Johnson first started experiencing symptoms in 2015 when she dealt with chronic back and abdominal pain. Her symptoms worsened over the years to the point where she was projectile vomiting and would faint roughly 10 times a day, according to the Independent.
When she first started experiencing her symptoms she was still in the U.S. Navy, serving as an aviation diesel mechanic, the outlet reported. With the symptoms she was experiencing it became increasingly difficult to fulfill her duties and in 2018 she was medically discharged, according to the Independent.
Due to medication, her fainting has become less frequent but other symptoms are still present, the Daily Mail reported.
With her condition she is not able to perform many tasks by herself, so she has a caretaker and her husband, James, help her with a lot of her activities, according to the Daily Mail.
“I can't leave my house anymore. There is no cure but I'm so grateful for James and what I do have,” said Johnson, according to the Daily Mail.
