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From: Luke
Hi, I just found this forum tonight and thought I'd see if anyone has words of wisdom for me. I'm 30 years old...historically, very healthy all around. I fainted a few times in high school/college...mostly due to shots or giving blood. Then it happened about five years ago when I was sick and nauseated already. Each time, there were no lasting effects of the fainting, and I've just been careful about shots/IVs/giving blood, etc.
Then on April 25 this year, I passed out at a restaurant while traveling for business in NYC. My dinner wasn't especially big or heavy, but I've learned that VV attacks can happen in such situations. The odd and distressing thing is that this particular episode triggered a whole host of disparate symptoms that greatly affect my ability to live anywhere close to a normal life. Symptoms include abdominal pain, loss of appetite (lost 35 pounds so far and wasn't overweight to begin with...yikes!), dizziness, eye pain and vision "issues", spatial imbalance, tingling in my hands, feet, and head/brain, some ringing in ears, and so on. I've had tons of tests done but I'm too normal for my own good. The only thing that comes up is vaso-vagal, but nobody has been able to explain all the symptoms that just stick around. They speculate anxiety, and I understand that anxiety can make things worse, but they've been there from the start and will flare up when there is no anxiety whatsoever.
My symptoms had slowly been making some progress over a couple of months. Then I fainted again about three weeks ago during a "rotational chair test" at the ENT's office. Once again, there were no adverse effects other than what I already had. Last week, I had the tilt table test done and passed out 5 minutes after being given the nitro. Just like my April episode, it's like the fainting flipped a switch, and my symptoms came roaring back very strongly again. Appetite that had been getting better was gone again. Tingling that had gotten a LOT better is back even stronger. And so on. Very frustrating!
Sorry for the length of this. Is there anyone that can lend any insights as to what might be going on here? I would greatly appreciate any insights! I'm going to see a naturopath tomorrow and have already seen a chiropracter a number of times.
Luke