Track the Impact of Orthostatic Intolerance on Your Life

There are some other kinds of information that are helpful to explain how the orthostatic symptoms affect your life. They are not a regular part of the an office visit with a physician (although some do address the issues.)

It helps to have a standard way to record the information. There are some standard evaluation forms that are used to report these things. Some of the forms work well for OI, some don't quite capture the information needed:
    •  the level of fatigue
    •  level of orthostatic intolerance - how often you get orthostatic symptoms
    •  how it affects your daily activities: bathing, cooking, eating, laundry, shopping, cleaning.

We are looking at the forms to find the ones that will work the best and help you record how orthostatic symptoms are affecting you. This type of information is valuable to record if your condition is not resolved in a year and you need to keep track of how you are doing, e.g. for use with disability applications.

Questionaires and Forms

Grading Orthostatic Intolerance: This grading system was developed by Dr. Low and colleagues at Mayo Clinic. It was first published in 1995. They recommend using the scale in determining when additional medication or intervention is needed. It can be used to help you and your team track your progress or status over the time.

There are other systems that ask for more detail about the impact of orthostatic symptoms and about your daily activities. We will post these as we confirm their value and appropriateness for use with OI conditions. Sign Up to find out when things are posted.