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From: Nancy C
I could write a book, but I experienced 2 fainting spells-complete blackouts with falls- last year. The first one was just taken in stride, the second time I fell head first into a door frame and had 24 staples in my skull. My doc ran me through every test and specialists. The final one-the tilt table test-got me to the fainting point during the nitroglycerin trial. What was explained to me was this mimicked dehydration. I am supposed to drink a gallon of water a day and cut caffeinated beverages to 1 cup a day (only because I whimpered!). Also a beta blocker was prescribed but I refused that. Both fainting times had these same characteristics: I was sick with a sore throat, fever, 4th day of my period, no water ingested for 24 hours because I was sleeping most of the time, and then woke up to nausea, went to the bathroom and collapsed, coming to in seconds. Like an idiot I got up and fell a second time, thus needing the staples! I was 48 yrs. old then and never had this problem before. My BP and heart rate are on the low side normally. My plan is if I have a fever, I will treat it (before I wouldn't--I would "just ride it out"), drink lots of water,and crawl if I have to go to the bathroom! It has been almost a year since my last faint, but I have been healthy. I hope this helps someone. I also suspect a glucose/insulin connection, but the tests are not pointing in that direction, but I feel I am very sensitive to changes in my blood sugar.