Inside Pitch: Duke Freshman Infielder Kennedy Barron & Her Scary Medical Story… “Going Public with My Disorder That Causes Dizziness & A Racing Heart When I’d Stand Up”

Kennedy Barron is a freshman softball player at Duke University and was eager to hit the college fields with the same level of success she had at the club level with the Birmingham Thunderbolts (from 10U to 18U) and at the high school level for Pisgah (Alabama) High.

However, the outstanding athlete has hit a stumbling block with her health, but rather than suiting back and waiting for the impact of the medical disorder to pass, Kennedy is attacking her situation with the same aggressiveness that has made her one of the top overall athletes to come out of the Class of 2021.

The 5-foot-10 collegian can look back on an outstanding prep career that saw her win letters for six years in high school as she began playing varsity sports in the 7^th grade.

Amazingly, Kennedy played in eight state championship games at Pisgah High and captured six championship titles—two of them coming in softball.

From 2016 to 2021—six straight years–the athlete was named All-State and All-Region by the Alabama Sports Writers Association (ASWA) and also was a three-time All-Tournament selection (2017, ’19 and ’21) and twice was a State Player of the Year: in 2017 at the 3A level and earlier this year at 2A.

Ranked #32 in the 2021 Extra Elite 100, Kennedy also graduated with a 4.0 GPA and all kinds of academic honors—she was even an award-winning poet!—but her first year in college has been anything but easy.

Here, in the athlete’s own words, is her story of how she has been slowed down physically with a medical condition that affects blood circulation, but is still pushing hard to get back on the field and also to publicize the disorder to help others who may someday face what she is experiencing…

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Most people are familiar with the feeling associated with a racing heart. For athletes, the racing heart pushes blood through the body, delivering oxygen to well-conditioned muscles and, for us as softball players, helps us analyze the next play, the next pitch, the next swing.

This pounding—the rhythmic thrumming in our ears as we swallow down our anticipation— indicates the body is working at maximum efficiency.

What happens, however, when this isn’t the case?

What if the racing heart, the dizzy feeling, and the fatigue continue to persist… often following some of us both on and off the field?

If this sounds familiar at all, read on…. Because I am here to tell you about my experiences with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, more commonly referred to as “POTS.

As a former multi-sport high school athlete, I have always taken pride in being an extremely fit, highly conditioned player. There was never really an “off” season during my high school years, with one athletic season blending into the next.

From playing travel softball with the Birmingham Thunderbolts travel ball teams to competing in varsity softball, basketball, and indoor track for my high school, I frequently played at least one, sometimes two sports, year around.

Additionally, when not training or working to fine-tune my softball-specific skills through hitting and pitching lessons, I could usually be found working out or biking several days a week.

Many of these activities would be considered physically demanding, yet beneficial for an athlete’s overall development. During the latter half of my Junior year, however, after experiencing unusual bouts of fatigue, testing revealed that I had contracted Epstein-Barr Virus—more commonly known as mononucleosis, or simply “mono.”

However, despite battling extreme fatigue and general malaise, I concluded my Junior season of basketball as a state champion and within a few days was on the softball field competing in games.

Only a few short weeks later, though, as the world collectively was thrust into the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic, our school and Spring sports abruptly came to a halt.

Usually, the Spring softball season ends in early to mid-May; my Junior season of high school softball—although I did not know it was over at the time—ended on a rainy Saturday in March.

Fortunately, with added precautions such as masking and social distancing, I was able to return to high school, in person, for my Senior year. While finishing up the Fall travel season with the Birmingham Thunderbolts Premier team and getting ready to begin play in my final varsity season of basketball, and competing in indoor track, I contracted COVID-19.

Luckily, I recovered after a few short weeks and was once again on the basketball court and on the softball diamond to complete my Senior year. After graduating high school, I began my final season of travel softball with Thunderbolts Premier before I enrolled at Duke University to compete as a student-athlete for the Blue Devil softball program!

Prior to enrolling at Duke this Fall, I traveled a somewhat strenuous journey but learned quite a few lessons on the power of persevering while traveling with the Thunderbolts as the team competed in many of the major Summer showcase events.

As the Summer season ended, I was thrilled to embark on a new journey as a small-town girl hailing from rural Alabama. I was beyond excited to begin living my dream of becoming a college softball player for Duke!

Unsurprisingly, there were many exciting moments my first week on campus. Starting my academic classes, meeting professors, training for the fitness test and generally trying to survive as a Freshman in a world in which everything seemed new, these new experiences would often leave me feeling as though I could literally feel my heartbeat thrumming in my chest.

Oddly, though, my heart seemed to begin racing any time I stood up. In the mornings, upon waking, many days, I felt shaky and weak, but often would feel better after a few hours of “getting up and going.”

Strangely, I also noticed that I would feel dizzy when doing routine or remedial activities, such as bending down to pick up a dropped item or to tie my shoe. After returning upright, I would feel dizzy but brushed off these feelings of a racing heart and dizziness, instead figuring they were due to nervousness and anticipation of the softball-filled days ahead.

During trainings for the run test, however, I would feel out of breath and exhausted prematurely. Oftentimes, feeling sick upon standing up, I felt as though I was struggling in every sense of the word.

I was secretly afraid that somehow, in some way, I hadn’t trained hard enough, and that this was the world’s way of telling me I didn’t deserve to play at the D1 level.

Still, I continued to train alongside my teammates for the upcoming fitness test. However, prior to the test, I encountered a problem during the routine physicals conducted by the Duke athletic training staff.

My heart rate was generally too high and would spike drastically when I would go from sitting to standing—a concerning issue which completely sidelined any participation in training, lifting, running, and practicing softball for many weeks.

Luckily, I quickly realized just how blessed I am to be a student-athlete at Duke University.

Over the course of the next several weeks, numerous medical tests were administered as I completed blood tests, adrenaline tests, urine tests, an electrocardiogram, an echocardiogram, a treadmill Stress Test, a QSART test, and even wore a Holter heart monitor for a week.

[That was an interesting conversation starter in all my new classes!]

Eventually, a tilt table evaluation confirmed what the team athletic trainer suspected was the problem: Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (“POTS”).

I immediately began treatment for POTS, which included a strict regimen of beta blockers and blood pressure medication.

To put it simply, POTS is a recognized form of Dysautonomia which is an umbrella term referring to various rare syndromes, diseases, and other medical conditions that dysregulate the body’s nervous system.

In POTS, there are a wide array of symptoms and no two cases are the same.

The symptoms can include gastrointestinal issues such as bloating or nausea, fatigue, chest pain, dizziness, poor thermoregulation, blood pressure fluctuations, and heart rate fluctuations.

The hallmark symptom of POTS, however, is orthostatic intolerance which means there are difficulties as a person experiences normal postural changes such as transitioning from lying to sitting or sitting to standing.

Such movements are a major challenge for people with POTS due to the body’s poor reaction and regulation of the central nervous system.

To employ a visual representation, I typically describe my experience with POTS as a half-empty water bottle wherein the bottle’s cap in this metaphor is my “brain” while the liquid inside is my “blood.”

When lying on its side, the liquid is evenly distributed through the bottle. This supine position is when most POTS patients, including myself, tend to feel the most comfortable.

However, when you tilt the bottle upright, the liquid flows to the bottom. Suddenly, the “brain” has decreased blood supply. When this happens in someone with POTS, blood pools in the legs and the heart starts racing, working hard to pull blood back up to the brain and the result is a pounding heart with increased nausea, and dizziness.

All side effects which are never fun to wrestle with, but especially not while you’re trying to concentrate on the proper way to field a ground ball!

As a college freshman, I’m reminded daily that life is about learning.

Some days I’m learning subtle nuances of the Italian language, other days I’m learning how to chart pitches; most recently and unexpectedly, I’ve been learning about POTS—one of approximately 15 different types of Dysautonomia.

I have also recently learned that October is Dysautonomia Awareness Month, which focuses on awareness and advocacy for those experiencing autonomic nervous system failures.

Yesterday—October 25^th, specifically, was POTS Awareness Day.

I’ve also newly learned that POTS develops at a 5:1 ratio in women to men, with typical age of onset between the ages of 18-25. Additionally, there is also a link between joint hypermobility and POTS.

During testing for POTS and associated conditions, using the Beighton Hypermobility Test, my doctor concluded that I am, indeed, hypermobile.

It was always a point of immense pride to me since I could stretch into a split on command to make close plays at first base. However, this degree of mobility has a drawback: it means my connective tissues are stretchy and loose.

If the connective tissues in your joints are stretchy and lax, as my doctor explained, your blood vessels are more likely to be stretchy and lax as well. This laxness contributes to the lower extremity blood pooling that so often occurs in POTS patients.

Additionally, a prior viral or gastrointestinal illness is often linked to the development of POTS.

So, as fate would have it, I check many of these boxes for the onset of POTS: I am a young woman, I am hypermobile, and I have contracted mono, COVID-19, and a severe stomach virus over the course of the past year and a half.

If you are like me, maybe you have never heard of Dysautonomia or POTS.

But for now, these new terms have become my current reality. For athletes, if the information on Dysautonomia has sparked an “aha!” moment in you, please talk to a parent, a coach, a trainer, or another trusted adult.

You should never feel afraid or ashamed to talk openly and honestly about your needs with trustworthy adults in your life.

Parents and coaches: if you read this article and have a revelation about your child or player, I implore you to take the time to listen to your athlete. Don’t let words like “Dysautonomia” and “Orthostatic Intolerance” and “Tachycardia” or any other confusing medical jargon terms or acronyms deter you from seeking help when you suspect something isn’t right!

To be honest, this has been an incredibly difficult experience for me, to be away from home for the first time, balancing challenging coursework along with a demanding softball schedule, while grappling with a health issue that has sidelined me from playing a game I love, but it doesn’t have to be this way for other young student-athletes with POTS.

I believe with increased awareness; this problem could have been much less stressful for me; thus, I felt it important to share my experiences in hopes of raising awareness for others who may be experiencing similar issues.

An increased awareness in signs pointing towards Dysautonomia will hopefully make it to easier for others to recognize symptoms and to seek help to ensure a better quality of life.

At the end of the day, I know I am one of the lucky ones.

I am truly blessed to be a student-athlete at Duke University where the coaching staff and trainers have been nothing short of amazing in their support and encouragement of me and my journey to wellness, ensuring that I have access to the best medical doctors and specialists.

Oftentimes, they also serve as a surrogate parent, scheduling appointments, and driving me to doctor’s offices. Luckily, my teammates provide a much-needed daily dose of laughter and friendship too.

Still, some days are not easy. I have bad days.

Everyone has those days where they aren’t feeling their best, and that’s OK. I know how lucky I am to be surrounded by a dream team of coaches, doctors, trainers, and teammates who show their support daily!

I believe that I am in the right place, at the right time, surrounded by the right people and since arriving on campus a few short months ago, I’ve learned that I have medical condition that I had never heard of, but now I have a treatment plan to help me along my path to wellness.

I’m taking medications to lower my heart rate, although I’m still working with my doctor and trainer to find the best dosage for me.

I’m drinking about 160 fluid ounces of liquid per day, which sounds almost excessive. It certainly is a lot, but one of the key strategies to managing POTS is staying well-hydrated.

Ironically, I also salt my meals generously. While there is a preconceived notion that salt is unhealthy for POTS patients, this is not the case. Salt simply raises an individual’s blood pressure but since POTS can cause one’s blood pressure to drop as the heart rate spikes, I have been advised to salt my meals. (I even carry a saltshaker around in my backpack!).

I have also invested in some compression socks. While my knee-high “little lad socks,” as my friends have dubbed them, are certainly a wacky fashion statement, they help prevent blood pooling in my legs to a minimum and keep me feeling overall better.

Personally, I’ll happily take the fashion faux pass over feeling fatigued all the time!

These, of course, aren’t the only management strategies one can employ as there are varied approaches that can be employed with affected individuals. The important thing is, through trial and error, I have found some strategies that work for me, and that I am on the right track.

In conclusion, POTS can be considered a serious medical condition that falls under the blanket of Dysautonomia. Many people battle symptoms for years, maybe even their entire life, although it is important to note that some cases of POTS diminish or even go away entirely over the course of time.

Sometimes as one re-acclimates to their accustomed activity level, their symptoms fade away into a half-remembered problem of the past. It’s entirely possible that, in the span of a few months, maybe years, my symptoms could disappear entirely. I like to think that I’m never more than a few days, at most, from feeling one hundred percent.

While this may be extremely optimistic thinking, this begs the question, “Can you really achieve the best outcome possible without being willing to look for it?”

To use a softball analogy, if you aren’t actively looking for a pitch you can crush each time the pitcher winds up, how can you be ready to hit it out of the park?

For me, every day is a new pitch. I could swing and completely miss, but which is a more productive hitter’s mentality? Not swinging for fear of missing, or attacking the pitches you can drive?

For me the answer is an easy one—in the words of baseball legend Babe Ruth: “Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.”

For those battling Dysautonomia, we may already have one strike in the count as we step in the batter’s box, but as Ruth so aptly reminds us all: “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.”

To all my fellow softball players, I encourage you to get in the box and battle. Accept the challenges and adversity you will encounter along your softball journey, for those challenges will make you grow.

Grow into a better player, a better teammate, and a better person. That’s the gift of softball! Embrace every opportunity to play the game you love. Best wishes to each of you in this and every season.

If anyone has questions about POTS or Dysautonomia that I didn’t cover, please feel free to reach out to me on social media!

I would love to meet some fellow “POTS-ie” athletes!

— Kennedy Barron

Twitter: KennedyBarron18
Instagram: kennedy_barro