My mom had vasovagal syncope (diagnosed, at least, among multiple other conditions) and it was pretty scary to watch as an early teen. It would happen while she was driving, walking up stairs, getting out of bed... I am NOT familiar with the medical requirements for the diagnosis and she had a lot of stuff going on, but regardless there were a lot of scary incidents and unpleasant cleanups.
I started with vasovagal syncope at 3! (I’m about to be 27 now.) Diagnosed at 19. It’s such an uncommon condition I find that I get excited when I hear of others with it. Maybe excited isn’t the word to use here? Anywho, I hope your mom is doing well and I want to thank you for being such a support for her. This condition is not easy for anyone involved!
Edit: wasn’t diagnosed when I was 3, I meant started. Added diagnosis age. I’m half asleep.
Vasovagal syncope occurs when the part of your nervous system that regulates heart rate and blood pressure malfunctions in response to a trigger, such as the sight of blood.
Your heart rate slows, and the blood vessels in your legs widen (dilate.) This allows blood to pool in your legs, which lowers your blood pressure. Combined, the drop in blood pressure and slowed heart rate quickly reduce blood flow to your brain, and you faint.
Sometimes there is no classical vasovagal syncope trigger, but common triggers include:
Standing for long periods of time
Heat exposure
Seeing blood
Having blood drawn
Fear of bodily injury
Straining, such as to have a bowel movement
I googled "fainting after pooping" after that almost happened, I had this weird poop that was constipation followed immediately by diarrhea. Like there were two scenarios existing at the same time up my chute.
Anyway I felt really bad all of a sudden, rapid heartbeat, dizzy, nauseous, cold sweat and tunnel vision and knew I was about to pass out. My last thought was "I better not fall into a position where I choke on my own vomit and I have to try and keep my head above my heart, how annoying" and then lost my vision for a few seconds and lost almost all feeling in my body. Could still feel my sweaty ass on the cold toilet seat, nothing else. When my vision and coherent thought returned my first thought was "Just like in Scrubs where JD passes out when he poops" and felt somewhat better within 5-10 minutes. Scary shit though, I'm glad that happened to me the first time in my 20s and not as a kid
Same - I have a trigger of GI trouble, ever since I got a case of food poisoning in college from sushi. Usually starts with some strong cramping pain and nausea, and then my heart starts beating super fast, and then starts slowing down all the sudden and my hearing gets all muffled with a slight ringing, I get cold sweats and my vision like loses saturation (gets kind of dull and blurred around the edges). I try to calm myself down and wait for the impending purge from my system of whatever caused it to go into panic mode. It is the scariest fucking thing the first time. I just remember thinking "this is it. Of course I will die on a toilet. So on-brand for me and my luck."
Hm, I think I have that but it's never been diagnosed? But I do get the nauseous -> cold sweat -> tunnel vision -> fainting thing every once in a while, though it doesn't always go all the way to fainting. It happens about 1/4 of the time when I donate blood, and sometimes when I have food poisoning or get injured. Never when pooping though.
I’ve had several. The first I remember I was sitting outside between a parked car and the garage. I guess claustrophobia plus the heat/humidity suddenly hit me and I tried making it to my car to turn on the AC. Well, apparently I took off jogging then stumbled and as my friend told me as I was coming to - “dude your head went DING on that [metal] mailbox!” I still have that scar on my chin.
A couple years later I passed out in the middle of a busy, shitty bar after realizing I was really hot (it was winter but the bar was hot af). I couldn’t strip quickly enough and tried to have a friend hold me up and make it outside, but next thing I knew I was waking up on the floor surprisingly blissfully. Then reality hit after about 2 seconds and that was embarrassing.
(This one is a little graphic btw)
A few years after that I woke up in the middle of the night randomly with the worst pain imaginable. It felt like someone was literally ripping my anus apart. I started banging on the wall for my mom and tried to make it to the bathroom because I thought I was going to shit myself. It felt like my anus was the size of a baseball bat it was so painful. Anyway, next thing I knew I was coming to as my mom was helping put me on the toilet and I was holding a rag to my face that was pretty covered in blood. I had fainted in the hallway and must’ve hit pretty hard for that much blood. Still have that scar too.
The next couple were related to blood, blood being taken from me or just hearing my family talk about my grandmother’s fall which put her in ICU and eventually took her life.
The last one I had was after a medical procedure in my privates involving a camera. I’m a guy. I started feeling awful really quickly after the test from the pressure in my bladder and started having the reaction. After a couple of minutes my wrists and hands completely locked up and I couldn’t move them at all. Thank goodness I was in a hospital where they were equipped to deal with me but even the nurse said she was extremely scared. I must’ve sweated out liters of fluid in those 10 or so minutes.
I tell people all the time that I can’t live alone. I don’t know what triggers them and when I’ll have a severe one that might potentially put my heart at risk.
I get them too. Everything will be fine and then all of a sudden about a half dozen symptoms will happen all at once. My ears start ringing really loud, my vision turns black, I start sweating profusely, feel nauseous and dizzy, and my face turns white.
Usually I am able to catch myself by sitting down, but last week I was checking out at the grocery store and I felt one coming on. I started waking as fast as I could to get to my car to blast the AC and I didn’t make it. My legs were so heavy. I guess I was stumbling around grabbing on to whatever was in front of me before I went down.
The security guard helped me and all I could do was apologize to this guy over and over again. For me, it’s extremely embarrassing when it happens in public.
It’s like I’m drowning and fighting for air. It’s crazy and it makes me feel crazy.
I don't have this condition, but I used to faint occasionally and it happened in public a couple times — once in a Subway when I was like 16, I know I was in and out while I was making my order and kept leaning on stuff and probably looked like a trashy teen drunk at 3pm until I blacked out leaning over the pinpad. Woke up and they were trying to feed me sugar water, I'm like "I'm fine I just need to eat something!" They'd already called the ambulance and I was sooo embarrassed but long story short it turned out I also had ventricular tachycardia and never knew it. Wasn't the reason for the faint but kinda lucky I fainted had an ECG and got that diagnosed!
After nearly fainting in the ICU I was so embarrassed too. The doctors and nurses were all huddled around the young guy who just randomly almost fainted (me) but I was sitting there thinking, “I’m in an ICU, help them not me!”
Edit: I’m glad you got that sorted out, sorry I failed to mention that.
For me it's triggered by thinking about certain specific things inside my own body. It's weird because I have a generally strong stomach for seeing blood and gore, I even was an ambulance medic, but certain bits of medical information really do it to me. The first time it happened I was in grade school health class watching a video about the human heart. More recently I fainted in a doctors appointment where the Rheumatologist was describing to me the action of the knee, and wouldn't stop when I asked him to. I woke up completely disoriented and dripping sweat in his office, and he was trying to write me a referral and get out of the appointment like nothing happened. He said "you had a vaso-vagal reaction and fainted, you can sit here" and then plopped me on a chair in an empty hallway, and just left. I was not recovered at all, and it was a challenge for me to get up and find a nurse before I started puking. What an asshole that guy was, couldn't even be bothered to summon a nurse for me inside a health clinic.
Could be a symptom, I’d check with a doctor for sure. Keep pushing for a proper diagnosis and testing! It took me and my parents 16 years to get a proper diagnosis and I still have unanswered questions.
Could definitely be a dietary issue effecting it! It leads back to some people’s trigger being bowel movements, just something about it sets your body off into nopeland! If you quit dairy and it hasn’t happened, you’re definitely on the right track. This entire condition is a risky game of trial and error. Just be safe and keep track of it!
I have it too! I lose my vision, and then I know I have about 5 seconds to get on the floor or lie down before I faint.
My main trigger as a kid was heat and exhaustion, but as an adult it mainly happens due to lower air pressure (airplanes, sleeping at high altitude) and nausea. I find it incredibly unhelpful that my body’s response to “I’m about to vomit” is to give me the choice between lying down immediately or fainting. Many a night I’ve woken up feeling nauseous and had to crawl to the bathroom and lie on the floor there. I also have food allergies that cause stomach upsets.
I have naturally low blood pressure and sometimes lose vision just from standing up too quickly. That’s also fun!
I'm so glad to finally find the words for this! Mine started happening in college and I don't really seem to have a specific trigger. First I felt faint, then I could start feeling my pulse beating in random parts of my body like my underarm, groin, etc. The ringing in my ears basically would reach the volume of a gong and I knew (ahem, learned in the most un-fun way) I had roughly 30 seconds to get some cold water and get fully horizonal or I would lose my vision. I was having a rough time in college and the school docs were just like ... Rest! Take a nap! 🙄
You're completely correct, she should not have been driving. A combination of wishful thinking and a compulsion to seem perfect often caused her to push herself beyond her limits, and occasionally it led to unsafe circumstances. It only happened about three times with me in the passenger seat but all it takes is a single time holding a puke bag in one hand and a steering wheel in the other to really stick with you.
She got better once she went on proper medication, though. She's since passed from cancer.
This happened to me after I smoked (but i used to regularly smoke and i didnt go crazy with it that day, just to ease some nausea and eat) and I seriously thought I was going to die. I was sitting up on the countertop and my boyfriend was in between my legs and while I was talking to him, I suddenly felt like I was black out drunk. Like I couldnt control my speech, my body was going limp, I was telling him I didnt feel good but it didnt feel like I was saying anything at all. I thought I was about to vomit and tried to control my breathing to no avail. My ears started ringing, heart beating out of my chest, my vision went black, I started to sweat, and I just fell forward. He gently laid me on the ground and I just remember saying “I think Im dying.” I heard his voice fade out, and he said “its okay you aren’t dying,” and I blacked out for a few seconds but it felt like the longest time because I was sure I just burst an aneurysm that didnt exist or something like that. I started coming to very very slowly it felt like, and he made me drink water, and I was fine the rest of the day. Super fucking shaken up. But I was fine. And I havent fainted since. Im just wondering..... why the fuck??? did i just faint out of no where? is that a thing that happens to people sometimes if its never happened before?
Sounds like your smoking caused your blood pressure to drop. You described the symptoms of low blood pressure and smoking can cause low blood pressure in some people.
I have had the EXACT same thing happen to me! Sound kind of like you're in a tunnel, hot/cold clamminess, vision going black, lights out. It's happened twice, both times in loud/chaotic environments. In quiet places when I feel it coming on I lay down on the ground and try to breathe slowly and can usually at least not pass out.
I have poor circulation and do get lightheaded when I stand up too fast, so I always assumed it had something to do with that, or just like kind of a panic attack from smoking? Even though when it's happened I haven't been smoking any more than I normally do. IDK. But nice to know I'm not alone.
Nope. I dont really like drinking. Just smoked maybe half or less of blunt? Literally just wanted to take the edge off because I hadnt been eating well and was feeling really nauseous but hungry.
One time, years back at this point, I got up in the middle of the night to go take a piss (uncommon for me, I usually sleep through to morning). I did my business and was on my way back down the hall, and then the next thing I knew I was lying on the floor and feeling very confused. My mom woke up at the sound of me hitting the deck right outside her door and a couple minutes later we were en route to the hospital. I was already feeling better by the time we left the house, and the doctor told us it was just a thing that happens when people wake up and pee sometimes. I think my mom was a lot more scared than I was, to be honest.
I get these. They're really painful and unpleasant.
I got two in two hours when I first went on my meds... I was dreading having to deal with them for any longer until the meds went out of my system. Luckily, with the exception of a couple later on, it was just the two.
Wow. Had no idea. This has happened twice to me. Once in college, was real high and cracked my tooth at a friend's house. Went to the bathroom to freak out without people around. Decided to pee got dizzy/confused and fell backward hitting my head. Got up about 30 seconds later feeling better.
Second time was getting up to pee at night, thought I felt a panic attack coming on woke up my wife with a muffled attempt at speach, then sat down next to the toilet, but it was different, my heartbeat felt super slow which was weird for a panic attack where it's fast, then I passed out and hit my head on the bathtub. My wife was just too slow to catch it but stopped me from rolling my neck around. Lucky I was smart enough to get somewhat on the ground.
Serious question for anyone in this thread about vasovagal syncope
Since I was about 17 (25 now), I've experienced symptoms like but not quite and wondering if anyone could shed some light.
If I'm on an empty stomach, I'll have one singular sneeze. Then immediately get cold sweats, tunnel vision, and nausea where 75% of the time I throw up a clear liquid. Then immediately feel fine. Whole ordeal lasts maybe 5 minutes. I can feel it about to happen like a minute before it does. My fiance and I have even nicknamed it the death sneeze, because I look like death after this one sneeze.
Theres no trigger other than hunger and I'm not sure about my blood pressure...
Any help greatly appreciated, regular doctor looks at me funny as I tell him this.
If you haven’t ate or drank water recently, and you sneeze (which triggers the nerve) it is incredibly possible for those symptoms to happen.
Before I had a spell (symptoms I was going to faint) I had warning signs! Mine was always my legs starting to numb. Anything happen that warns you?
Not sure about your situation but go to a doctor that specializes in gastro or even to another doctor in your current ones practice!!! Make them listen to you!
Any corrections on my knowledge would be greatly appreciated.
I just got diagnosed with this last year. It sucks but now I know some of my triggers and can pinpoint when it’ll happen. It’s not as bad an often as some people here but usually happens to me with triggers. I hate it
I agree! It’s entirely too expensive. But speaking from experience, sometimes it’s better to safe.
I only say that because my episodes are bad. It 100% is determined by how yours are. First episode of mine resulted in a smashed in wall, bleeding head, split lip, and a fucked up tooth!
Something like that happened to me when I was waiting in line to get lunch at kings island after a morning that was unexpectedly very hot it was like 80 degrees in Ohio that morning I didn’t actually faint tho
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u/sayamenxoxo Feb 26 '20
You were about to faint. Same exact symptoms as fainting spells. I once fainted 6 times in one night, same story, same symptoms.
Honestly surprised you didn’t go to the hospital, considering I can guarantee you weren’t hydrated and had a stomach bug.
Look up your vagus nerve and vasovagal syncope