Gastroparesis And Vasovagal Syncope: Related?

[pinkspore]

Hello, new member here, I just found out about dysautonomia a few days ago and my mind was boggled. My friends have been telling me I should declare my body to be a lemon and demand a refund, one is even in medical school right now and has vowed to figure out what in the world is wrong with me when she's finally a doctor. The consensus is that there are too many totally weird things wrong, and they must somehow be related.

I've had vasovagal syncope episodes since I was five years old, I'm now 29 with no signs of growing out of it despite the insistence of my childhood doctors. I have some usual and some fairly unusual triggers including low blood sugar, high blood sugar, needles, pain, the sight of blood, and thinking too hard about blood. Hypoglycemia, epilepsy, and obvious heart problems were all ruled out by the time I was 8. Eventually I was told "Well some people just faint."

I've had chronic idiopathic gastroparesis since 2007 when I had my appendix removed. It's weird. I did a blog post about it a couple of years ago: http://wrongguytoask.blogspot.com/2010/08/cosmic-metabolic-karma.html

I get exercise-induced acid reflux. Sometimes when I run, sometimes just from getting out of bed and walking across the house. It's like the opposite of normal reflux. It's really, really weird.

I have severe ADHD, general anxiety, and a medical phobia so bad I have traumatized many a phlebotomist.

I have an auditory processing disorder and a convergence insufficiency, both were diagnosed last year and overlooked most of my life because I was an excellent student and a voracious and fast reader. Finding out I have a vision problem other than nearsightedness was amazing. It had never even occurred to me that lines and words didn't slide around the page for other people.

I get dizzy when I stand up too fast. I always attributed it to the vasovagal syncope since the feeling is the same. I guess I don't notice it much, mostly only in gym classes with exercises that involve going from flat on the floor to jumping upright. Nobody else in class falls over after doing a few of those.

Energy drinks make my heart do weird things. Staying up too late makes me incredibly queasy. Nausea is pretty normal for me, I might scream at the next person who giggles and asks if I'm pregnant.

I've had several minor surgeries that required general anesthesia. I have recently discovered that general anesthesia does not normally cause people to spend a couple of weeks getting weak and dizzy when they've been standing up for more than five minutes. Apparently that's just me.

A couple of days ago I ran across the DINET page and read about POTS. At first I thought there was no way I could have anything with "tachycardia" in the name because I spent a couple of weeks running around wearing a heart monitor in elementary school. That should have detected any hear problems, right?

While helping my friends dye their hair, I have discovered that kneeling down and bending over the edge of the bathtub does not render other people incapable of standing up for 10 minutes. Sitting on a small stool and leaning back over the tub makes one friend slightly dizzy, but not so much that she staggers around drunkenly for several minutes after standing up. Apparently that's just me.

It's a lot like discovering that checkerboard squares don't move around for everyone else. Does it sound like I'm on the right track with POTS? Would the heart monitor I wore for a week at a time as a child have picked it up? The only weird heart rhythm experience I've had was after drinking a couple of cans of Red Bull.

[Kellysavedbygrace]

Welcome to the forum. You've found a great place to share and learn from others with multiple symptoms that most doctors cannot explain. So glad to hear you have a friend in medical school who wants to help you.

It is unlikely, even if you wore a heart monitor several years ago and you demonstrated POTS on the monitor, that those reading the results would even recognize POTS. And, if you do have POTS it is possible that you have not had it all your life.

Many of the symptoms you've mentioned are commonly found in POTS patients (syncope, gastroparesis, reflux, anxiety, etc.) but when you mention reactions to anesthetics and dizziness following giving a hair color it makes me think of my issues with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS.). So you might also want to look into that- the key to MCAS is do you have multiple symptoms in most or all organ systems. If so, I'd suggest exploring MCAS.

As far as POTS you can easily assess whether it is likely you have POTS by doing your own Orthostatic standing test at home.

Lie down flat for 5-10 mins. Take your Heart Rate that is your baseline resting HR.

Then stand for a min or two. Take it again.

Stay standing a few more minutes. Take it again. (It might be helpful to do this a few times and record your findings.)

If you had a 30 point increase or more in beats per minute you should consider going to your doctor with your documentation of the standing test(s) and ask them to help you rule out POTS. It is likely they have never heard of it so print off information from the DINET webpage about POTS and give that to them as a reference.

If your doc won't help you rule out POTS fire that doctor and find one that will.

Also, anxiety disorder is a common misdiagnosis for POTs patients. Our condition does create abnormal adrenal levels and erratic symptoms bit usually anxiety issues are secondary to POTS.