Passing out? (Long)

[MarkU]

I had my AVR (St. Jude) on 12-15-00, and have felt great for the past 6-8 months with no symptoms other than related to the healing from the surgery itself.

Since the first of the year I've worked out a the gym five days per week, stuck to a very consistent diet and sleep schedule and managed to loose 15 pounds. My PT/INR has been consistently between 2.6 - 2.8.

We went on vacation last week to attend a family wedding in Michigan, and on the way home I passed out while driving on the interstate. Fortunately my wife was in the front seat and grabbed the steering wheel and started yelling at me and shaking me. I snapped back almost immediately and pulled off the road. I was pretty shakey the rest of the afternoon and that evening I developed a fever during the night. My wife wanted to take me to the nearest emergency room, but I decided to hold off as I really didn't feel that bad and we were going to be home the next day anyway. By the next moring I felt fine, but I did let my wife and college-age kids drive the rest of the way home.

I called my cardiologist's office as soon as I got back in town and told them what happened. They had me come in immediately for a PT/INR , and found it had dropped to 2.2. (Ten days of motels and restaurant food I figured). They bumped my Coumadin doseage and scheduled another blood test in two weeks. (I also indulged in a couple of glasses of red wine that night to help speed the blood-thinning process along...)

My cardiologist said my valve sounded good with no obvious signs of clotting. He has scheduled me for a Holter monitor on Thursday and an echo doppler on Friday.

Pending the results of all the tests, he speculated that my problem possibly could be the result of the low PT/INR, a random clot sticking momentarily in the valve, an irregular heartbeat, a transient infection (a theory supported by the fever later that night), or (most probably) a freakish occurance that they'll never figure out for sure.

I guess I'm more curious than anything else. I'll let you know what develops.

Any similar experiences out there?

Mark

 

[Nancy]

Mark, Mark, Mark--

Don't ever not go to the ER when these things happen, ever, never again. Passing out isn't anything to fool around with. It might be inconvenient to go but you should alway go. You are not just some ordinary schmoe any more. You have a valve replacement which means that you had a very serious heart problem. You must check these things out ASAP.

My husband has two valve replacements and a pacemaker. He has had several faints. Those were from a heart beat that was too slow and the heart was also pausing, plus he's in afib. His heart rate was also at times too fast, 160-180 bpm. He now has a pacemaker which keeps his heart from going too slow, and takes a beta blocker to control the fast heartbeats.

He has also had many, many TIAs, some of which made him dizzy or faint. After having his mitral valve replaced, these have not returned. So apparently his faulty mitral valve was throwing off clots.

After all of these episodes, he returned to feeling OK, but tired.

In the past he has had Holter monitor tests and also had an event monitor at one point.

A good friend of mine had fainting episodes and had an ablation done at Cleveland Clinic. It was her second one, and it seems to be working.

I am not trying to scare you, or to suggest that you have the same conditions as Joe, but you must not take this lightly. Fainting episodes come unexpectedly and you might not have any warning. You could endanger your life, or that of someone you love.

I'm very glad your cardiologist is checking things out.

Please take care and be well.

 

[srwieland]

Hi Mark,

Listen to Nancy. She's given me and others here lots of good advice and has now given you some too.

I had AVR on 5/16/02 and had 8 months of remarkable recovery. Then they discovered the new valve was leaking when they did a routine follow-up echo. See the thread 'roller coaster' in the pre-surgery section (since I'm probably going to have to have surgery again) for more about what I've been through after that.

Anyway, when they restarted me on meds for the leak, I immediately that day had a near fainting episode that landed me in the ER by ambulance. Since then, I have been feeling woozy a lot and was in the ER 3 times, twice in the hospital where I was working at the time and once again by ambulance. Two of those times I was hospitalized for 2 days each. They definitely took it very seriously.

Although the cause of your fainting is probably different from mine (which is most likely due to the meds they have me on), you should take it seriously. I read somewhere that 6% of all ER visits are for fainting and 3% of those get admitted. Whatever it is that is causing your fainting, you want them to find out right away and deal with it, serious or not. Especially if you want to keep driving!

Hope you get it all sorted out soon. We're praying for ya.

Steve

 

[MarkU]

Thanks for the kind words and advice guys. I truly appreciate your concern.
Just to let you know, do take my condition very seriously and am normally very careful. One of the things I always carry with me when traveling is a copy of my EKG with my Dr's notation that my inverted T-waves are "normal", just in case an inexperienced EMT would mis-read it.
In my original post I neglected to mention that I called my cardiologist's office using my cell phone from the side of the road and talked to them about what had happened. We were in the country about 50 miles from the nearest ER at the time, so we made the decision to procede on our own. By the time we got to our motel I was feeling much better, so I made the decision to wait another day to get home to my own doctor. Maybe not the absolute best decision, but fortunately everything worked out okay so far.
The other possible cause that I didn't mention was a wasp sting from the previous day. I had mentioned it to my wife when it happened, but completely forgot about it until she reminded me later. I had an allergic reaction some years ago to fire ant stings, so maybe that's a possibility also.
Like I said earlier, I'm very curious to see how the test results come out. My doctor seems to thing they'll be inconclusive, so we'll see...

 

[Igor]

How are doing, Marc? I completely agree with Nancy here. I do hope there was nothing serious. Of course keep us posted on this. I live in FL about 50-60 miles north of Sarasota and wondering how are you doing with your physical activities. I am almost 6 weeks after the surgery and trying to think of how and what I will be doing in terms of my physical activities. I used to be very active, spending about 10-15 hours a week on gym and bicycling. If you have a chance please get back to me via my personal email: [email protected].

 

[MarkU]

Passing Out - Update

Passing Out - Update

I met with my cardiologist Wednesday to review the results of the Holter monitor and echocardiogram.

They showed... nothing.

In fact, the echo actually showed some measurable improvement in the slight LVH that I had developed prior to my surgery.
Blood pressure was 104/70, and I've lost 12 pounds since my last exam in January as the result of my diet and exercise program.
My INR, which had dropped to 2.2 had jumped up to 3.9 as a result of upping my dosage, but they cut it back to my "standard" dosage and scheduled another re-check in two weeks.

So why did I black out? My doctor thinks I simply fell asleep from fatigue: I had driven a total of about 1200 miles in the previous three days, had been having trouble sleeping in a motel bed, it was a gloomy overcast day and we were on a long straight boring stretch of road.

Supporting his theory is that I only blacked out momentarily, where as if it were due to a valve problem he felt I would have been completely out and have required recesitation. I also have been doing 30-40 minutes of cardio workouts five days per week for six months without the slightest sign of trouble.

So I guess it's good news about the heart and a serious wake up call about driving when you're tired...

Mark

 

[starkone]

passing out...

passing out...

Mark,
Glad to hear that all is ok with you!
I hadn't seen your earler posts so was in the dark about
it all. Anyway, glad to hear that all is well!
Again, thanks for the emails!
Karen