Autonommic Dysreflexis (Hyperreflexia)

[LaLa4]

Hi All,
I have a question(s) for a good friend of mine who's new to autonomic disorders.  She recently became paralyzed (at the C6 level) after diving head first into the ocean and hitting her head on a rock that she couldn't see.  This took place about 8 weeks ago. Her BP has been unstable ever since (flatlined twice and passes out on tilt up, she recently made it to 60 degrees tilt before passing out I think).  Until a few days ago her autonomic dysfunction consisted mainly of the drop in bp upon being raised, no sweating, heat intolerance, pooling (she's been wearing compression stockings and taking midrodine).  But a few days ago she had an "autonomic dysreflexia" episode, which I've been reading about and I understand the general physiology of it and it sounds pretty serious. Do any of you out there have this or know much about it?  How serious is it? Now that she's had one episode will she continue to get them, and if so do they get progressively worse or more frequent? Is she not to ever be left alone again? I don't understand how they medicate for it when you have a combination of conditions of bp drop and then also episodes with an extreme rise in bp and extreme decrease in heart rate...
I'm sure her doctors have gone over this stuff with her but I want to educate myself about it. I spend a lot of time with her and I worry about her and I really want to know what we're dealing with and the severity. So any info, advice, *anything* you can share would be much appreciated.
Thank you!!

[LaLa4]

Thank you for this article, it's good and concise info, very helpful :)

[LaLa4]

Thanks Heiferly, I definitely appreciate any info :)

[Heiferly]

I know a bit about autonomic dysreflexia.  I just wanted to pop in and let you know that I'll try and give you a good answer to this when I'm "back in business" later this week.  If you see that it starts dropping off the front page, feel free to just add a one-word reply to it yourself (people usually just say "bump") to bump it back up to the more current posts so I don't lose it.  Thanks and sorry for the delayed response.  Excellent question here though!

-Heiferly.

[mtgardner]

First of all this is such a major event for your friend and I am so glad she has a caring friend like you.  Her situation sounds very complex.  There may well be others on the forum here who can respond to this or parts of this but I am also thinking you may want to also try the neurology expert forum.  Good luck to her and I hope you find some answers.  Marie