The Joys of Orthostatic Hypotension

[Pandemonium 515]

So after 3+ months of advising my doctor that I was having issues with the onset of dizziness upon standing up from the couch, things finally came to a head - my head.

Sunday night marked the fourth time I blacked out from standing up and walking after being seated on the couch. The first time, I was able to brace myself against some furniture and stayed upright. The second time, I only managed to sort of brace myself and ended up dropping to my knees. The third time I slumped against a wall and slid down hard onto my knees and elbows.

Sunday night, I tried to brace myself against a wall when my vision started going dark, but must have leaned forward too much. Came to on the floor seconds later with blood pouring out of a gash above my eye and the entire left side of my face in utter agony. Oh...and all of my neck muscles screaming from when I have to assume my face hit the floor full speed and my head bounced.

4 hours in the ER with bloodwork that showed no issues, an EKG that was perfect, chest X-rays that revealed nothing, and a CT scan that (fortunately) showed no bone damage or bleeding in the brain. Aggravatingly, my BP also registered as normal, even when they had me do orthostatic readings.

I look and feel like hell. Have not slept well the past two nights (last night my upper left teeth hurt). And right now I've got some nerve issues due to the swelling in my face that have made my left nostril almost completely numb.

As far as post-op complications go, I am sooooooo over this one. I'll trade it back for the constipation! (Okay, not really because I don't really want to deal with THAT again either).

On the plus side, ending up in the ER with a head injury (5 stitches in my eyebrow) seems to have finally gotten my doctor to stop claiming that this crap is normal for bariatric patients and he is finally getting me the cardiac consult that I have been asking for since the first time I blacked out.

Less thrilled about this knocking me off track for the time being. I do not feel well enough or comfortable enough to workout on my treadmill, so my exercise is definitely going to suffer this week.

[Betty1971 386]

Three years ago I was diagnosed with POTS Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and for some strange reason it went away after I was on meds for about 7 months. It was horrible, I would stand up and black out, black out in the shower, get up to go to the bath room and wake up on the floor and oddly enough one day it went away as fast as it came on........

I was on a medication that raised my blood pressure and it was very strange indeed, it was called midodrine.

[kellym1220 473]

Oh my gosh!! SO glad they are finally taking this seriously! Take care and keep us posted!

[Arabesque 7,249]

How terrible @Pandemonium. I hope you recover from your injuries quickly.

Orthostatic hypertension is awful. Thankfully mine isn’t as bad as yours. I haven’t blacked out completely but my vision goes & it can take anywhere from 2 x 10 seconds for my vision to return & I get a little queasy for a short time. It used to happen all day long but thankfully it’s not occurring quite as frequently (mind you it’s happen three times in the last 4 hours!). A tendency towards low blood pressure is common in my family & when I was slim years ago I used to have a couple of attacks every month so I knew what they were when they started.

My doctor put me on fludrocortisone but it didn’t help me at all. Has your doctor put you on any meds? I read somewhere that compression stockings/tubes can help.

[GreenTealael 25,353]

I hope you are doing better!

You are far from alone. I also have experienced this but never bothered to ask a doctor to look into it because it’s so infrequent and a normal quirk post surgery. Now I see it is not. I hope a resolution is found quickly. Please take care and let us know how things go ❤️