Vaso-Vagal Discussion

[ Home | Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]


vaso vagal reactions

From: sferguson@shaw.ca

Comments

My brother and I were recently having a discussion on his latest episode of a vaso vagal reaction. Like him I also have the condition as well as my mother and my daughter. There are four of us in the family with the condition. I have an older brother and to my knowledge have never known him to have the condition. My earliest recolection of a vaso vagel reaction occured when I was about 5 and was playing red rover with some friends and family. I ran across to the other side as you do in that game and took such a hit to the stomach that I blacked out, when I came to I was vomitting. The next episode I can remember was when I was 6 and just starting school, I was walking through a door to the bathroom and the door flung back and hit me, the next thing I remember was waking up on the bathroom floor and again being ill.

I can recall many other instances such as getting hit on the knee while riding a chair lift up a ski hill (I always knew when I was going to pass out but couldn't prevent it) I woke up dangling about 30 feet above the hill as my friend was losing his grip on my wrist. I managed to pull myself back up on the lift, I was very lucky to not have fallen to my death.

Another time I was getting into my car and leaned down on the floor to pick something up, felt a pain in my neck and blacked out, when I woke up my head was resting on my horn. There are many other stories like these as well as stories from my brother. His latest episode occured after his vasectomy a couple of months ago. When him and his wife returned home from the hospital he went to the bathroom, blacked out, fell so hard he cracked the toilet tank in half and when he awoke didn't know why he was laying in a flooded bathroom. He thought his wife was pouring cold water on him.

My daughter had an incident when she was about eight (the first one I was aware of) she took a fall to her knees after being tripped in floor hockey, I wasn't there but witnesses say she blacked out and had a seizure. After an emergency room visit it was ruled a vaso vagal reaction the same as other members of our family had had.

I'm curious to know if there is anything to do to prevent this reaction, I don't know any other people with it other than my own family members. Most of my friends are aware that I have it and they know to lay me on my back and elevate my feet. I once awoke after an incident to an ambulance attendant putting a oxygen mask on my face which I think made me feel worse I ended up vomitting all over him through the mask.


This web site is not a substitute for a thorough medical evaluation and diagnosis of your vaso-vagal type symptoms.  Medical treatment and diagnosis is the only acceptable initial response to these serious symptoms since they might present from any number of life threatening and treatable illnesses. It is for you and your physician to rule out more serious illnesses; Please don't use this online forum as an alternative to getting responsible medical attention and being under the care of a physician for the duration of any unknown, suspected or dangerous vaso-vagal syndrome symptoms.
Last changed: June 22, 2007