New here, would love some advice/support

• by jillybird
• 2014-03-30 10:03:39
• General Posting
• 964 views
• 6 comments

Hello all, I've been lurking on and off but decided to register as I'd love to have some support and bounce ideas off others who can relate to me! Here is my story - I don't have a pacemaker as of now but feel like things are heading in that direction. I am 36 years old, married mom of 3, and have always been active and healthy. I have had a tendency to pass out here and there, and low-normal blood pressure all my life. The passing out could almost always be tied to a trigger - blood draw, stomach flu, etc. But I had a really bad episode in 2009 where I fainted repeatedly, and even in the ER they were trying to discharge me when it happened again and my HR dropped extremely low so they scrambled to get it up then admitted me for a couple days. Got some IV fluids, echo came back normal, so they chalked it up to vasovagal syncope and sent me on my way. Things were ok for a few years but now recently it's been happening more often. In June I had sudden intense back pain and passed out. Then again in Oct. I felt like it was still a vagal response since it could be tied directly to that event. In January I passed out after feeling nauseous and bumped my head (not the first time). It became clear that it was the stomach flu because my husband got sick that day too, so I'm thinking, ok, I know I'm at higher risk when sick. But now, last week, I passed out with no apparent trigger. I was sitting on my son's bed, it was the middle of the night and I probably had low blood sugar and low BP, but felt the wave of nausea and laid on the floor. Still passed out...that is the problem - even when I lay down I am passing out. And the other concern is that I am losing bladder control on some of the faints but not all. I have been witnessed having seizure like movements but upon research know that this is pretty common and not indicative of epilepsy. But I wanted to ask, does anyone else loose bladder control when they faint? It's hard to find info on that. I have had an EEG and CT scan of the head - no indications of epilepsy. I have worn a 24 hour holter, 30 day event monitor, had another echo, many EKG's and everything has come back normal. I am not so sure the syncope is merely vasovagal anymore and my concern is - this seems to be a drop in BP and bradycardia concurrently - so which one is the culprit? I am getting myself into an experienced EP lab/cardiologist and will be doing the tilt table test to see if I can get some answers. My concern is that they will say - oh your heart stopped for a few seconds, you need a pacemaker. But what if I have one inserted, but then still have this issue with sudden drops in BP and am still passing out, just with a better heart rate??! Does anyone have similar issues to mine? I guess I just need some guidance and need to find a cardiologist who has dealt with people like me. I am partly terrified to get a pacemaker (my mom had a horrible complication with hers and nearly died) and eager to get one and stop living with this fear. Thanks for listening to this long ramble and I appreciate any words of wisdom you all can give!