SOB

Shortness of breath and lightheadedness when bending over

by Gemita - 2020-07-27 12:29:39

Hello Belinda,

I can relate to this experience when a few years ago I was doing some gardening and the bending forwards and looking downwards used to trigger breathlessness and lightheadedness.  In fact there is a condition known as "bendopnea" (link attached below)

https://www.verywellhealth.com/bendopnea-a-new-symptom-of-heart-failure-1746192

where excessive fluid retention, especially in heart failure patients can cause these symptoms on bending over (to tie shoe laces for example).  I am not suggesting you have heart failure, although you might?, but with any increase in abdominal girth (from extra weight to fluid retention), we may experience these symptoms on bending.  But clearly there are many other conditions that could cause these symptoms to occur.

I have gastric problems and when I bend forward too soon after eating, I can often trigger breathlessness, lightheadedness and arrhythmias and it was the latter that used to cause my shortness of breath and lightheadedness.  What do you think are your triggers ?

Of course you are a new implant patient and these symptoms may just be from the procedure and hopefully will settle when your heart gets used to being paced.  I was feeling quite weak and a bit breathless on walking uphill, upstairs initially for a few weeks but this soon settled.  Do you feel any better with the automatic heart rate response turned on ?  It may take a little while for you to adjust but I do hope you will soon feel better

follow-up

by Janet70 - 2020-07-27 14:20:23

Thank you for the follow-up. I have a good EF and SV. Not herat failure, was more worried something is wrong with the pacemaker. I know the timing can be adjusted. So i plan on call my EP docotor to see if he can adjust the timing. Thank you for follow-up and I will keep you posted. 

Pacemaker

by AgentX86 - 2020-07-27 21:28:26

The chance that there is something wrong with your PM is a large value of zero.  ONOH, its settings may be totally whacked, though most likely it's a meds problem.  They may have to adjust things. 

The other possible problem is orthostatic hypotension.  I would have thought you'd have had problems before but it could be a combination of all of the above.  Since it's repeatable, if I understand you, your doctors should be able to track this down.