About Me

Hello, so this is me. I’m Nicole, an average 17 year old, with a medical condition called IST ( inappropriate sinus tachycardia ) which caused my last year alone to pass out nearly 40 to 45 times. It’s scary to wake up on the floor and not know what is going on, or being in a room full of people and feel that you are alone because of a condition.

I was diagnosed with IST in January 2019, and honestly it is the most odd feeling when you can feel you heart start to beat that fast that when I was not in medication my heart rate ( get up from sitting for an hour (in a class)) would be in the 180’s or 190’s. This was the cause of me fainting about once or twice a week, which meant that I was fainting quite regularly. But before my doctor’s came to the conclusion and fully diagnose me with this condition they started me on Ivabradine at 5mg in the morning and again at night.

But, it’s okay to be different, and it’s difficult, I may not be diagnosed with a chronic illness, but for me this is the worst my life has been. This condition for me limits my life, and my true self, as for the moment I can’t drive and in the process of getting a disabled students allowance for University which I start in September 2019, and trying to attain a disabled person’s bus pass. So whether or not you like that I find Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia extremely difficult at time is in your opinion , but this is me. I look normal. I have a unicorn onesie and can pose in a mirror okay. But until I faint, it’s invisible, no one can notice whether I’m normal or if I’m sometimes feeling my heart so high that all I want to do is just sit on the sofa and wait for it to go back to normal.

Telling people is hard for anyone, but I hope as I tell my story more that it will be easier for more people to understand and that I am more than a girl with a heart condition, I am just who I want to be, and that’s me.