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From: ElynnWQ@aol.com
Date: 2/27/00
Time: 10:00:46 AM
Remote Name: 171.217.221.69
I've been reading thru the postings - very interesting - and wanted to go ahead and share my story. I'm 28, female, and _every_ time I vomit, I pass out. It started back in my late teens. Luckily I don't get sick very often, but when I do, it's very disturbing to say the least - not to be gross, but I pass out cold right in the middle of getting sick. It freaks my husband out. I had no idea what caused it until 2 weeks ago. I went into the hospital to have an outpatient laparascopic surgery done by my gynecologist to evaluate and treat endometriosis. One of the standard warnings the staff gave me was that I might feel sick when waking up from the anesthesia. I made a big deal of telling the nurse and an intern that if I did get sick afterwards, I would absolutely pass out (so don't have me leaning over the gurney). They just smiled and nodded. Sigh. At the start a laparoscopy, the doctor makes a small incision in your belly button and then inflates your abdomen with carbon dioxcide gas. Supposedly, it is normal for there to be a blood pressure drop during this. Well my blood pressure dropped, and then my heart stopped for 15-30 seconds. They gave me a shot of atropine, and did manual heart compressions. When I came too (and didn't feel at all sick for the record), they told me I had had an extreme vasovagal syncope reaction. Apparently the CO2 gas put pressure on the vegus nerve at the base of my spine (to the best of my limited understanding). In hindsight, they recognized my vomit/pass out reaction as vasovagal. The doc said I have an overly sympathetic vegus nerve, and that it wasn't worth the risk to re-attempt the laparoscopy. It scared my family to death, sitting in the waiting room, to be told that my heart had stopped. The doctors kept me in the hospital overnight. The cardiologist talked about the tilt table test, but said that there was no point - my symptoms were so classic that even if the tilt test was negative, they'd still believe it was vasovagal. For now, the cardiologist just told me to eat a high salt diet (which I've seen several other people mention here). I'm trying to get pregnant, and he said he'd rather not put me on medication (beta blockers) if it can be avoided. Since to this point I've had no other triggers than vomitting, I'm willing to live with it. Has anyone had any problems carrying a baby (pregnancy) due to vasovagal? It seems to me that must put alot of pressure on the vegus nerve too. My doc says that's different, pressure building over 9 mos vs 2 minutes. But just a warning, if you have a vasovagal problem and your doctor mentions any kind of laparascopic surgery (I think they also use it for gall bladder surgery and tubal ligations), be sure to talk to him/her about the possibility of vasovagal complications during surgery. Best of luck to everyone! And thank you to the doctor who has made this forum available!!
From:
Hi..I was just diagnosed with it yesterday and all my tests...eeg...ekg....mri's...tilt..have been normal. I was told stress or pain infliction can bring it on and also exhaustion. Something we have to learn to live with and let close family and friends know in case this happens in there presence. LGood Luck to you.
From: srosinski47@aol.com
I had a heart attack 3 yrs ago, resulting in an angioplasty (clogged artery and blood clot). I was told that that I had tachacardia (when I was 19 yrs old) and have suffered from heart palpatations all my life (I am now 56). I have had a lot of stomach problems for the last 3-4 yrs, at one time I vomited and almost passed out, it sent me to the emg room w/irregular heart beats, I spent the night in CCU and my dr later told me that she suspected that I had a vagal problem. I asked her what could be done for this problem, she said not much and quickly dismissed it, concentrating more on my heart problems than the vagal problem. I even told my cardiologist that I suspected most of my problem was a vagal problem, which he quickly dismissed. I recently had a gastric bypass surgery (to loose weight, I have lost 100 lbs in 9 mos) and I still suffer from (what my dr calls PVC's) and I take Topral XL, it seems to help but I still have these "spells" from time to time,especially after I eat - one especially bad spell was a couple of weeks ago. I was at work and had eaten a small pizza, some of it got stuck and wouldn't go down,I could feel myself getting ready to vomit, all of the sudden I felt faint, the room started spinning, etc,etc. I went to the bathroom and gagged,nothing much came up but all of the sudden the fainting spell stopped and I was alright! I am convinced I had a vagal attack. Since my drs don't seemed concerned about this,what can I do about it? Is there medicine to take (at one point my dr mentioned excerises you could do??) Help!