Orthostatic hypotension is kicking my Butt!

[Elode 8,093]

@@zackly I just self diagnosed myself, It could be something else but o have classic symptoms. Maybe I just need to breath more!

[Bndtoslv 292]

My mother (a PICU RN) is making me drink 3 cups of Water after every cup of coffee.....coffee doesn't taste as good now, too much work!

Smart. I am going to try that.

[Elode 8,093]

@@Bndtoslv Good luck! My belly gets too full! I think she's doing that so I won't want to drink the coffee! I'm on to her!

[Tootsietoes 84]

@@Elode, twitching comes after passing out suddenly form a total state of getting up,,,and all that back down again. ..memory subside, but only a min. Don't try and fight it

[Elode 8,093]

@@Tootsietoes Well that's not pleasant! I hope you get all yours worked out too!

[Restoration15 6]

I had that and it sounds like hypoglycemia...low blood sugar. I have not lost much weight at all. I had my band removed in December 2013 and sleeved March 2014 and only lost 34 pds and gained back 13 pds. Now I've learned I'm battling hypoglycemia. I worked out hard over the past few years watched my fat intake and now I'm told I'm not getting enough fat in and to stop working out. Been battling dehydration for over year. I get headaches and acid feeling from my stomach which triggers headaches. I really regret this surgery. All of them

[CanyonBaby 1,852]

Well, that explains my dizziness (the physical dizziness, that is!!!). I've have been wondering about that for awhile, now. I did ask my primary about it, but she said "I don't do dizziness"....good thing she retired, huh? My next appt. with my nurse prac. is in December. She pulled me off the b-Vitamins...could that have something to do with it, I wonder? I take plenty of Iron...but I AM neglectful on hydration (shame on me), I just forget....or is it my old age???

Thanks, Elode, for sharing the research. We all are looking forward to hearing about your situation. I am SURE it will help many of us, as well! I sure hope you feel better, soon, and this is no longer an issue for you. All the best.....

[shellyd88 463]

This happened to me as well after only a couple of weeks after surgery I was warned about this pre op by my surgeon and my reg dr that if it happened to let them know right away I was on blood pressure meds which were discontinued that week by the dr and it still happened I had to get some blood work and I was told I needed potassium and magnesium meds but I have AFib which I take meds for As well as some circulation issues so don't assume anything get checked out I hope everything gets better

[Folly 308]

@@Elode

My DR and I have went around and around over this issue. I was lucky enough to never have metabolic disorders even at my highest weight - it surprised the heck out of me when this started. It can be incorrectly diagnosed as A-Fib, surprisingly. I wore a monitor for two weeks when my symptoms presented. My Dr thought I would come back with A-fib but it turned out orthostatic hypotension is the culprit. We can't figure it out specifically (diet is good, labs come out good, electrolytes in balance, etc) but it's being attributed to my weight loss. I haven't figured out how to prevent symptoms but they are much, much worse when I'm thirsty or hungry.

[choosehope 233]

I have ortho static hypotension and naturally low blood pressure even being pre-surgery. I was told to drink G-2 and increase my sodium intake when I'm low.

[Daisee68 2,493]

I don't have this (yet - hope I don't) but I was going to say I haven't seen @@Djmohr comment yet and I am pretty sure dr's decided she had same. I think they said more electrolytes / salt - i.e. G2 or Powerade Zero.

[Djmohr 6,965]

@@Elode

Oh boy do I have this! Mine started in month 9 post op and it was severe.

I have had every work up know to man and other than a very low resting heart rate (mine gets as low as 30) and low blood pressures (85/55) there is no explanation.

I saw 2 cardiologists, and endocrinologist and my bariatric team.

The good news is it has gotten better. Initially it happened every single time I stood up. The room would go black and once I actually passed out which sent me to the ER.

Now 4 months later it happens once or twice a day. I have been instructed to simply get up very slowly, wiggle my feet and hands before I get up to get the blood pumping.

I still really don't have answers as to why other than my heart rate runs very low and so does my blood pressure. Funny thing is, I had high blood pressure before bypass and was on meds for it.

I hope you get answers and feel better soon.

[Thinside 155]

Well, thank you Elode, et al. This is certainly a timely topic for me. I'm only 5 weeks out and I haven't lost a huge amount at all yet. (Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with where I am.)

But last week I started getting dizzy every time I stood up and had horrible fatigue. I thought it might have been a sinus infection. But reading this, I'm going to really watch out for this. I've always had somewhat low blood pressure. I hope the sleeve hasn't made it worse!

I, too, have noticed it might correspond to when I'm hungry or haven't had enough fluids. I'm going to start logging it when it happens and try to correlate it to my food and Water logs. ( I take a multi-Vitamin, Iron, D, Calcium, Biotin, and B-12 every day, so I suspect it's not a Vitamin deficiency.)

Thanks for this useful topic!

[Elode 8,093]

I have been really pushing the fluids these last few days and it has finally seemed to stop! I took my bp yesterday and it was a perfect 121/70, I'm still going to tell my surgeon about it Wednesday just so he knows in case it starts up again. Hopefully this is all I needed.

[Djmohr 6,965]

For me the fluids definitely helped but you have to be a little careful because the more fluids you push washes the salt and potassium out.

When I saw my bariatric an for the issue on July 30th he told me to stick to 64 and no more and increase my salt intake.

I religiously get my 64 now and sometimes a tiny bit more. I increased my salt intake with salted nuts and beef Jerky.

It has definitely improved but I still have that low heart rate when sitting so I have just learned to be very very careful when standing up.

Be careful everyone, when I passed out I did it 2 weeks after my spine surgery. I had triple cervical fusion. I was terrified I screwed up my surgery but thank goodness that is not the case.

I still wonder besides the hydration what has caused our pressures to go so low which of course is what is causing the dizzied.

I had an echo, stress test, adrenal tests all of which were negative. It all comes back to WLS for me.