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From: tambra@centurytel.net
my son has vasovagal syncope. He is 17 and has been passing out since he was 6. Everytime I would take him to doctors they would check blood sugar, etc. never finding anything. Then they did MRI, EEG, etc. and still nothing. Last year when he passed out he said he couldn't move his left arm, and he had tightening in his chest. I took him back to the dr. again... this time again, to a different one. They sent us to a neurologist who luckily knew of this disorder and did a small test with his blood pressure in the office and scheduled him for a tilt table test with a cardiologist. after being on the tilt table about 5 minutes he passed out and his heart completely stopped for about 5 or 6 seconds. The dr. said he was still explaining the test to him, when he started trying to tell him he was going to pass out. His cardiologist said that he had enough then to put the pacemaker in him, but he tried him on Norpace (medicinal pacemaker) my son was allergic to that so they tried several other meds for about 9 months. none worked. in April of this year he had become so weak he couldn't walk from one side of the house to the other without having to sit to catch his breath. he was having a lot of tightening in his chest and felt like he would pass out at any time. he did this for one week before we could get in to see his regular physician. (he passed out once or twice in that week) she hooked him up to an EKG in the office and even tho he told her he was actually starting to feel better at this time... she called the cardiologist and they put him in the hospital(on wednesday) and they put his pacemaker in on Friday morning. it has been 7 months since he had the pacemaker put in. The pacemaker is designed to work only when his heart rate slows to 40 it kicks in and goes at 115 for one minute then slows to his normal rate. he has had one "bad spell" about 2 weeks ago, but he didnt' pass out.. he just couldn't breathe and was dizzier than he had ever been. His episodes usually only occured when standing.. (the fluctuation of blood pressure) but this time he was laying in bed almost asleep. If anyone is worried about the pacemaker, my son is so grateful for his (and so am I!) he feels 80% better than he had since he was 6. The pacemaker has come a long way in the last several years. tammy