On May 11, 2011, Traci B. was diagnosed with a relatively unknown disease called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).  It was one of her happiest days in recent memory.

The first signs of the disease presented themselves more than a year earlier when Traci gave birth to her second child in late February 2010.  The delivery was not especially difficult, but several seemingly minor complications would eventually lead her to a place where she would be thanking a doctor for telling her that she has a chronically debilitating disease.

In the 15 months between those two dates, she made visits to both primary and urgent care doctors, as well as saw specialists ranging from allergists to phlebologists.  She can remember details of at least six emergency room visits.  While several tests showed abnormalities, taken individually these tests offered little reason for anyone, other than Traci, to be concerned.  Most medical professionals wrote her off almost immediately as a hypochondriac.  One doctor refused to see her, another referred her to a psychiatrist.  Throughout it all, she knew something was seriously wrong, and the first acknowledgement of that fact came on that morning in mid-May.

This project aims to explore the emotional energy that it takes for her to not only live with this illness, but also to deal with doctors too busy to really look into understanding her disease and all of the people along the way who have not been able to “see” anything physically wrong with her.

**This is an ongoing project which was began in 2011 as part of the Young Photographers Alliance mentoring program, under the theme of Energy is Everything.