Daily Scripture Reading: Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; 2 Samuel 7:23-29; John 3:31-36

Our adventure began July 29th 2014. Haley was 16 years old and about to begin her Junior year in high school. To all accounts she was a typical teenage girl. She had a summer job, a new car, and lots of friends, and she was beginning to gain some independence. The only thing different about her was that she was having "allergic reactions" to something, or so the doctors thought. We were told that she had idiopathic anaphylaxis and would just have to carry an epi-pen the rest of her life, and basically learn to live with it. The three times she had the "reactions" I was not around her, so I had to rely on the word of others about what these reactions looked like.

On July 29th, I was finally around. What I saw was NO allergic reaction, I could tell immediately that she was having a seizure. Not knowing that it was the wrong thing to do, I jumped on top of her and held her as tightly as I could. It was, to say the least a very scary moment. John came and got us and we headed to Baptist hospital. We sat in the ER for almost 12 hours and while there she experienced two more seizures. The doctors could not find anything wrong with her and decided to send us home. I KNEW something was wrong, were they not seeing what I was seeing? One doctor suggested that this was all in her head and that we should seek psychiatric help. I pitched a big, embarrassing fit and refused to leave. I was scared to take her home, for the first time in 16 years, I was scared I was going to lose her.

The next few days it seemed like every test known to man was run. Everything came back normal, but things weren't normal. She was still having seizures. Finally, a cardiologist, Dr. Braden, came in and took her for what they called a tilt table test. Before the test was even finished, he had diagnosed her with POTS. What in the world was POTS and what were we going to do about it? POTS stands for Postural Orthopedic Tachycardia Syndrome. Her heart rate was jumping up at the same time her blood pressure was falling, therefore causing her to faint. She was one of the lucky 50% that also seized. There is no cure for POTS and it is so rare and basically unknown that no one really has anyway to treat it.

We were released from the hospital a few days later with an appointment and several different kinds of medications. Haley was having 2-3 seizures every day. She had to have 24 hour supervision to prevent her from busting her head open during one of her seizures. A week before, she was driving herself around and experiencing freedom for the first time in her life and now her parents were having to sit in the bathroom while she took a shower. Things seemed pretty bleak. Very few friends visited her, but I chalked that up to them just being teenagers and we moved on.

School started and still the seizures continued. There was just no way for her to continue going to school like this. She certainly wasn't learning anything and the interruptions of her seizures were hindering the learning of others. My mother came to stay with us until we could figure out what to do and where to go from here. We heard about a treatment center in Dallas. It was for 2 weeks and pretty expensive. We didn't care, we would have done anything at that point to give Haley her life back. She and I left Sept. 1st and she had 2-3 treatments daily. We learned a lot of valuable information, but the seizures continued. What were we going to do now?

I had always believed in prayer. I knew prayers worked and I knew God answered them. I also knew that everything was in God's time and I was having a hard time with that. We prayed fervently for what seemed like forever. There were prayers flooding in from all over the country, but still Haley wasn't getting any better. I could feel the prayers for her and for our family. I guess they sustained us enough to get up every morning and fight through another day. She was going to school as much as possible, but her mental state was beginning to decline. Her friends and the world were moving on without her and she was heart broken. My once straight A, beautiful, fun, sassy, daughter was slowing slipping into a person who took 26 pills a day and never wanted to leave her room. She was slipping away from me and there was nothing I could do.

Around Christmas I began to see light. Things began to turn around. The seizures began to lessen, we were going weeks at a time without one. They were leaving as quickly as they appeared. God was listening to our prayers and haley was beginning to improve. Haley will always have POTS, but her disease is managed. She has only had one seizure in the past 18 months. She was able to go to college and leads a normal life. Our prayers were answered.

Our lives have forever been changed by POTS. Some things have even gotten better. We don't sweat the small stuff nearly as much as before. We are thankful each day for our health, and we learned that God still performs miracles. Each time someone ask what made Haley better, there is only one answer- God!

—Stephanie Perry