OT - Have you ever fainted?

[LiveMusic]

"Passed out" or "fainted," same thing, I guess. I am not looking for sympathy, it's just that this is a very active forum and it's amazing what you learn sometimes. Maybe you can think of some reason for this or know something similar.

 

I spent four days in the hospital last week. One morning, I passed out. Just sitting at my computer and BAMM, I was on the floor. I assume I was out a few seconds. I had been awake from overnight sleep for about 30 minutes when it happened. I called 911 but sent them away after they stayed for about 30 minutes and all seemed to be okay.

 

Two days later, I felt faint a few times, called 911 again. I had a stent put in my heart last January, so, I was 100% positive this was heart related. After four days in running tests, they could only say "we don't know what happened." I guess the good news is that my arteries are clear. Which is a shocker, as I had what I thought was textbook examples of heart related pain August - October.

 

I went to ER in October for those continuing heart pains and a rise in blood pressure. Doc did a stress test and had to shut it down after a few minutes when BP rose too high. I was then scheduled for a heart catheterization for Dec. 27. I said "Heck, I'll be dead or fixed by then!"

 

I had been on a low-fat diet all year due to the heart disease. I figured that it, obviously, was not working since heart pains (heart, left neck, left clavicle area, left shoulder area) returned in August. And the rise in blood pressure. So, I decided to change to a low-carb diet in October, immediately after the stress test. Lo and behold, one month later, heart-related pains were 95% gone! The only thing I changed was diet and I added some supplements: fish oil, vit E, vit C, cal-mag, co-q-10, hawthorne.

 

Ironically, just two days before I passed out, I went to the doc for another checkup since the pains were gone and I was hoping to cancel the heart cath. My blood lipids were fantastic and blood pressure was, too. So, the fainting things was a shocker!

 

I write this because I have spoken to three people who it either happened to them or to someone we both know... a passing out that the docs could not find a reason for and it never happened again.

 

If you know a story, please share it. With heart disease, I am eager to try to figure out how this could happen, if possible. I'd rather figure it out than not! If it does happen again, I would think they should focus on brain tests this time.

 

I think the docs were good; it is a teaching hospital. (They all were Indian, every single one. Must be some smart people over there!)

 

P.S. I forgot to add... while in hospital, I had numerous episodes for the first two days where I would feel faint and they would note a sudden drop in heart rate. My pulse runs pretty low anyway... 48-58. While laying in that hospital bed, it was running about 45 and would drop to 33-35 when I'd have a "spell." But later, that quit happening. Docs said that if this happens again, I'll be a candidate for a pacemaker. I guess it's possible this is why I passed out that day... heart rate went too low... but I do not recall how I felt beforehand. (When heart rate drops, I can usually feel it happening.)

[boosh]

Dang,..... dunno what to say man.....

 

I never fainted.

 

Don't do it again man! And especially not when sitting in a bathtub. I hear that can cause you to drown.

 

Hope you get better soon.

 

Booshy

[blackpig]

My father had major surgery to fix an aneurism a few years ago. He was experiencing similar episodes to yours - a sudden fluctuation in blood pressure would bring on a "dizzy" spell. Sometimes he would actualy pass out. It turned out that his cardiovascular disease has affected the baroreceptors in the carotid artery. This works with similar receptors in the brain's hypothalamus in a feedback loop. When one receptor detects a BP change, the other one acts via hormones to counteract it. As his arterial baroreceptors are more or less shot, his hypothalamus simply sends signals to the heart to pump more blood until the pressure increases beyond a safe threshold and he keels over. The condition, however, is easily managed with drugs. Have your cardio team fit a BP monitor for a few days and the problem should manifest itself in a quantifiable way. The fainting episodes are useless for a diagnosis on their own unless they can be measured when they're actually happening.

[spokenward]

Here's a link to a Merck page on something that is unlikely, but that can be aggravated by prescriptions or a neurological condition. It is probably not that because the condition is more typically seen in geriatric patients. I am sure that you have had your blood pressure checked a zillion times in the last few months. Do they ever take it while you are standing or just after you rise from a seated position?

 

There is also a link toward the top of the page about fainting. The best advice is Booshy's. Don't do that. Try to observe your surroundings when you have an episode. How you are sitting/standing. What you ate. How you slept. What you are doing. What you are worried about. You might find a candidate there. I had something similar that I came to realize was a muscle spasm in my back that would trigger a lights out. It still happens sometimes. But now it is less scary and more like being tapped on the shoulder by the creepiest friend I have.

[Tedster]

I've had some situations where, usually in hot weather, if I've gotten up from, say, laying on the couch vegging on TV, when I stand up, the world goes awry for a few seconds. Sometimes the same thing happens if I blow my nose hard. I think it has something to do in my case with the inner ear. It usually passes in a few seconds.

[chipmcdonald]

Synchronicity is a funny thing.

 

So, I'm overwhelmed doing this "guitar orchestra" thing for a Christmas show for saturday.

 

Being as I am, I basically stayed up all night last saturday thinking about all possible aspects of what could go wrong.

 

Sunday morning, I can't stay out of the bathroom, and realize I've got food poisoning (had it once before...).

 

I got dehydrated, I presume. Food poising is a weird feeling - it's sort of like a panic attack, but in slow motion? Anyhow, at one point mid day I got to the point where I thought "I've got to throw up" -

 

.. except I hate nothing worse. I really, really hate throwing up. I was feeling really sick, and was sort of crouching on the floor... the furnace came on, really dry air starts blowing..

 

.. and I start feeling really, really bad... I sort of jump up to turn the thermostat off, and right afterwards

 

I fainted.

 

Which has never happened to me before.

 

Very strange, one moment I was looking at the bathroom door, the next I'm sort of starting up at it.

 

My "I don't have medical insurance" and hopefully lucid explanation is that between basically having a panic attack and being dehydrated+ food poising, my bp dropped?

 

FUN ENTEROLOGICAL FOLLIES:

 

I haven't had an appetite until about 2 pm today.

 

While feeling nauseous for 2 days, the thought of the *word* "food" is revulsive. Likewise, until today I've been operating on a diet of sips of water and about 3 sips of chicken soup....

 

..and now I still feel debillitated, but at least my appetite has somewhat returned. I'm still too sick to describe the dish that made me ill, though...

 

WHAT I'VE LEARNED BY BEING LAZY AND SLACK ON THE SOFA FOR THE PAST 2 DAYS:

 

I haven't watched so much tv in probably 10 years. While being forced to channel surf constantly to avoid tv commercials involving displays of food, it would seem I now have a very thorough 48 hour+ education on how to build choppers....

 

/ sorry for the tangent, I'm still kind of ill

[Anderton]

Any chance it was a petit mal seizure?

[jackpine]

As a young man I would randomly "pass out". It always happened at non active times. Over the course of 5 years it maybe happened 3 or 4 times.

 

Now I was an ACTIVE musician, athlete, and general wild man. So it's 1978 I'm at O'hare airport to file a claim for a lost bass and long story short I had a mild heart attack. Ended up with a pacemaker....AT 19!!!!!! Had six of them since. Mine was mostly an electrical blockage My heart rate would go so low I would just fall over from a lack of oxygen to my brain.

 

Oddly enough I had my last one removed about 7 or 8 years ago..... guess I healed myself. But thats a topic for a whole other post. Your heart rate has alot to do with this....

[EccentRick]

 

Originally posted by LiveMusic P.S. I forgot to add... while in hospital, I had numerous episodes for the first two days where I would feel faint and they would note a sudden drop in heart rate. My pulse runs pretty low anyway... 48-58. While laying in that hospital bed, it was running about 45 and would drop to 33-35 when I'd have a "spell." But later, that quit happening. Docs said that if this happens again, I'll be a candidate for a pacemaker. I guess it's possible this is why I passed out that day... heart rate went too low... but I do not recall how I felt beforehand. (When heart rate drops, I can usually feel it happening.)

 

 

The possible need for a pacemaker or a corrective procedure (e.g. ablation) may be in the ballpark. It's possible that what you described above may be due to arrhythmia, which is what it sounds to me like your docs may be suspecting.

 

I'm no doc, but a 24-48 hour Holter Monitor test may be in order, if you haven't already had one. This is generally a 1-2 day ECG taken using a portable unit, with the leads attached to your chest just as they would be with a regular ECG. There's no pain involved, of course, and you would just go about your normal day and activities during the period of time that the test is being done.

 

Whereas a regular, non-portable ECG can be considered just a short "snapshot in time", so to speak, the longer period of time that the Holter Monitor is worn greatly increases the chance that any electrical/conductive abnormalities will be recorded and documented, if and when they occur. If you should feel any abnormal sensations/symptoms while wearing the Holter Monitor that you suspect to be heart-related, you would also note the date and time that you feel them in a small diary.

 

http://www.healthline.com/adamcontent/arrhythmias

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holter_monitor

 

 

Just a thought. Hope this helps.

 

 

Rick

[LiveMusic]

Yes, I wore a Holter monitor for two days. One of the days was my last 24 hours in the hospital, so, I thought it was kind of wasted. They could have just used the normal hospital monitors. Anyway, nothing unusual happened in the 48 hour period. Thus, my logbook is empty.

[coyote-1]

First off... LiveMusic, get better! Feel better. Wishing you that for Xmas.

 

Now my fainting story. Year 1980. Right out of high school, I got a job in an airline catering place. Third day of work I'm riding my bicycle home (6am) and I start to feel slightly woozy... next thing I know I wake up sprawled out on the road. AND there's a big black guy peering out of a pimpmobile, saying "You look like you could use some action"!!! The only way I know that was real and not a figment of my imagination is that I didn't pass out again. I said "no thanks" and tried to get back on the bike but felt my had spinning... so I just walked the bike 8 miles back to my apartment.

 

When I finally arrived I called my Dad and said "I don't feel good". He picked me up later that day and took me to his summer house. I spent the next three weeks doing absolutely nothing, too weak to even get off the couch. To this day I have no idea what happened.... it might have been simply exhaustion as I'd been working in a restaurant AND playing an off-off-Broadway show AND training for bicycle racing AND finishing highschool all at once, and perhaps it just caught up to me.

[D Charles]

I know you guys probably won't believe this, but there was a time in my life where I used to smoke this green stuff.

 

Now there was a certain kind that came from that place where the famous coffee comes from and for some reason, it just wiped me out.

 

Once I was visiting a good friend when he offered some of this substance in a tubular smoking device and I was sitting there and could feel this tidal wave coming and about to wipe me out. I stood and said I had to go do homework.

 

So he keeps talking to me like nawww, not yet, have a cold one etc. and the next thing I knew I was flat on my back with three faces peering down at me with shocked expressions.

 

As it turned out, my head was almost exactly where I had been standing. My shoulder and neck were really sore the next day.

 

They said they thought I was doing gymnastics. Apparently I crashed straight down to my feet and did a sumersault. I sure didn't remember any of it.

 

 

Probably not the research you're looking for Duke, but let me echo Coyote and hope you feel great this holiday season. Sending prayers/good vibes your way.

[LiveMusic]

 

Originally posted by D Charles As it turned out, my head was almost exactly where I had been standing. My shoulder and neck were really sore the next day. They said they thought I was doing gymnastics. Apparently I crashed straight down to my feet and did a sumersault.

 

 

Haha. At first, I didn't understand but after re-reading a couple of times, a clear mental image comes to me. That's pretty funny!

[philbo]

Watch the medics for that magic word, "idiopathic" - - This is secret code medical-speak for "We have no frickin' idea what the problem is"

 

I've fainted twice in the last year. Both times were associated with dehydration, exhaustion, and alchohol. (I tend to only get into 2 of these 3 at a time any more, and it's helped a lot.)

[blue2blue]

I've almost fainted a couple times, mostly for understandable cause.

 

Once when I was a fat little kid on a very hot day when I'd ridden my bike down to the component hi fi shop I hung out in many summer days (yes, I was a hopeless geek, even then). I stopped in a supermarket on the way to get a soda and came very close to passing out (far as I could tell) in line.

 

Another time, a number of years and many shed pounds later, I was "fasting for peace" (making sure my weight was under the draft limit in 1971) and hadn't eaten much of anything in a number of days. You know how they say, "I felt my knees buckle beneath me..."? Well, that's how it feels, all right.

 

 

I also used to apparently have low blood pressure and often felt faint after suddenly standing up -- but I'm happy to say an adult life of excess has apparently raised that blood pressure into the creased-earlobe range. Maybe I'll see that fainting from the other side of the blood pressure gauge soon enough...

 

 

Uh... does getting knocked out in a fight count?

[EccentRick]

Originally posted by LiveMusic Yes, I wore a Holter monitor for two days. One of the days was my last 24 hours in the hospital,

 

IMHO (FWTW), the longer the better. ECG's of any type are a good example of the kind of test that can tell one a whole lot, or conversely, absolutely nothing definitive at all i.e. if there's a potential problem and it doesn't show itself immediately or occur during the testing period, then that potential problem can truly neither be confirmed nor ruled out.

 

At least your docs apparently aren't of the ego-freak variety who can't bring themselves to utter those three simple little words: "We don't know." And there's definitely a LOT "we" don't know. (There's a test that I use to find what I feel is a good doc. During a consultation, I "innocently" ask him/her just in passing an apparently naive question concerning a related condition that I know that medical science has absolutely no answer for as of yet. If he or she immediately pretends to know the answer and starts throwing BS, I move on. If he or she freely says: "You know, I/we really don't know very much about that", I stay. "Dr. God" can kill you. IMO, the only place that ego, over-confidence and arrogance (within limits, of course) can at times be a positive is when you're dealing with a surgeon. To a fair degree, personally I want the person wielding a scalpel to be confident in his/her abilities, even if that confidence can sometimes border a bit on the obnoxious.)

 

You said that you found out that your arteries were clear. How? Did they do a cath while you were in hospital that 4 days, or are you still scheduled for one on the 27th? The reason I ask is that no one can factually tell you that they're clear at this stage of the medical game without a cath. That is, unless they have X-Ray vision! Given that you had your stent placed in January and have experienced chest pain in the time since, a cath may be something that you may want to consider, while also being fully aware of the relatively minimal risk(s) involved. As you probably already know, if they are going to, most stents will close back up (the process of "restenosis") anytime within the first year after they're placed. A very general rule of thumb is that if a stent stays open a year, it will likely stay open more years.

 

One has to assume that a full blood workup was done during your stay and that your electrolytes were within their normal ranges. Was that the case? I would think so, or your docs surely would have mentioned any imbalance to you. It's always a good practice, IMO, to get copies of all of your records, so that you not only have them to read and refer to, but you also have them on hand to hand-carry to any new doc or docs that you may deal with in the future. Always a plus, IMHO.

 

Anyway...sorry...I'm really writing a book here. All I can recommend is to actively stay on it and get the answers you need. No one out there in the medical world cares more about your health (or even has the time to care more about your health, unfortunately) than YOU. It's super easy to get lost in the shuffle. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and all that. I feel that you are exactly right in wanting to find out exactly what's going on, instead of being an "ostrich". Make it your priority to find out. The stress caused by the unknown is far, far worse than that of the known, and it can take quite a toll on your life and accentuate - even over-accentuate - any of your entirely natural fears.

 

...so, I thought it was kind of wasted. They could have just used the normal hospital monitors. Anyway, nothing unusual happened in the 48 hour period. Thus, my logbook is empty.

 

Well, the only problem is that the standard monitors only monitor in real time. The Holter monitor keeps an ongoing linear record as long as it is used that may be referred back to at a later time. But anyway, so far so good.

 

Hang in there, Live! You'll get it worked out and be fine. Keep us updated.

 

Take care and Happy Holidays,

 

 

Rick

[daveski]

EVERY time when I have to give up a blood sample, I almost pass out. I have tried very hard to overcome this. Many times I get all the way through it, and I'm ready to get up and leave, and it hits me.

My own blood or pain doesn't bother me. Recently I cut my finger and it must have been deep because it squirted 9" before I could get it cleaned out & covered. I took a swan dive yesterday while climbing over a pile of old lumber. I tripped and fell into the pile and couldn't get my arms out to stop myself and hit it from a deadfall. Luckily no nail punctures in my face or vital areas - I was more pissed at my own stupidity for climbing over the pile than from any minor pain from a few nail punctures.