Kristaps Porzingis was healthy enough to accompany the Warriors on their current road trip, andhe took another step in the right direction, returning to the court Saturday night against the Thunder.

Before Saturday, the center had only played 17 of a possible 533 minutes since theWarriors acquired him at the NBA trade deadline. Despite his recent progress, his outlook remains a mystery.

That is the unfortunate reality of living with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, doctors who specialize in the autonomic disease told The California Post.

“It is a difficult, difficult thing to deal with,” said Dr. Tom Clennell, a physical therapist who works with POTS patients at UC San Francisco. That said, “I do think he should be able to contribute and be a productive player. … I don’t think it’s unrealistic to think they can get it under control.”

About 3 million Americans have been diagnosed with POTS, Dr. Alba Azola said. Cases in elite-level athletes such as Porzingis are rarer. But the Latvian said last fall that he got an answer to his unexplained absences toward the end of his time with the Celtics: He told The Athletic that doctors diagnosed him with POTS, which deregulates the nervous system.

“It hit me, and it hit me like a truck,” Porzingis said. “The breathing wasn’t good. I did everything I could potentially to feel as good as I could, but my engine wasn’t running the way I wanted. …

“You know how people say, ‘Oh, I’m so fatigued.’ I’ve never used those words. I don’t even like to speak in those terms, but I really was like that. At that time, I could just lay on the couch and be a house cat.”

The prone position — the natural state for many a house cat — is often the only comfortable one for a patient suffering from, as Clennell put it, “a POTS crisis.”

Without the nervous system regulating things we take for granted — heart rate, blood pressure, etc. — “the heart is not able to adjust to the demands of the body,” explained Azola, who treats patients dealing with POTS and chronic fatigue at Johns Hopkins.

Typically the body would send a signal upon standing to tighten the blood vessels in the legs and allow the heart to redistribute that blood to other areas, Azola said. The misfiring nervous system in POTS patients prevents that from happening, causing blood to pool in the legs and feet. Lacking blood flow, the brain sends a “fight or flight” signal,” Azola said.

Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos