Hi Everyone, My name is Kim and my 15 (soon to be 16) yr. old daughter has been experiencing a lot of what some of you are dealing with. I'm glad to have found this forum! She started by having a couple blackouts when she stood up too fast. I really didn't think that much about it, knowing about blood pooling your knees when you stand. Then on Dec. 29th, she blacked out and fainted while in the shower. I heard the shower curtain rip and when she hit the floor. I was unable to get in b/c the door was locked. I had to wake her up pounding on the door and hollering her name. It took at least 3 mins for her to answer me. We live in an older house with solid hardwood doors, so there was no way for me to break into it. When she came to, she managed to wrap up and unlock the door for me. She was pretty much incoherant as to what I was saying to her and VERY shaky. She had hit her head three times on her way to the floor and (we now know) severely bruised her ribs. I took her to the ER where the dr. did some blood work, a drug test and an EKG and sent her home with a diagnosis of syncope. The next morning I took her to her reg. dr. who called a cardiologist who saw her that same day and admitted her for testing. She had the following tests done: ECHO, which showed borderline pulmonary hypertension, +1 mitral valve regurgitation,+1 tricuspid regurgitation; CAT SCAN of head, normal; MRI/MRA, normal; xrays, normal; lots of blood work done, some things were high, some were low, like sodium was high, can't remember the rest; and a tilt table test, which they said was normal also. The tilt table test consisted of them putting her on a table and monitoring her heart and bp for 5 minutes, raising her to a standing position and monitoring her for 5 minutes, then injecting her with something to make her heart race and monitoring her for 10 minutes, then injecting her with something to counteract the first medicine. Is this how the tilt tests are normally done? She was then sent home on a 30 day heart monitor which showed irregular heart beats and the cardiologist said that it was nothing to suggest a serious heart problem but that he suspected she had autonomic dysfunction. At that time he diagnosed her with hypotension b/c her bp was staying around 85/60. We wanted to put her on Zoloft and I am not comfortable putting my 15 yr old on that medicine, so that's where we parted ways. She is now seeing a group of neurologists in a large town 2 hours away. They just did a 24 hr. EEG study on her which was also normal, so they said she is not having seizures. Here is a list of her symptoms she has developed over the last five months. fainted (only once) blackouts (sometimes two or three times a day, while sitting, standing, walking or running) dizzy spells severe stomach pains, ( usually right before a blackout) headaches ( along with a feeling of extreme pressure and fast heart rate) chest pain ( along with fast heart rates and trouble breathing) insomnia being weak and tired alot decreased vision (she just had to get glasses and her vision was fine 9 mos. ago) low bp/ high bp pain in joints ( especially shoulder that seems to pop alot, and knees) awaking from a dead sleep feeling shaky, fast heart rate and feeling like she's falling head shaking ( it happens very fast, back & forth 5 or 6 times, almost like an extreme shiver) head drawing back ( the muscles in her neck tighten and draw her head back and to the right side, only for a minute, and then when it releases, she has tingling down her neck, both her arms and into her fingers.) Does this sound familiar to any of you? Any advice any of you may be able to offer is greatly appreciated.
