Somebody please help-heart disease??

[DGOULD]

My mom had an episode in May. She was out to dinner & suddenly felt what she described as 'tingley'. A moment later, her head dropped in her plate. Paramedics were called & arrived in approximatley 10 minutes. This whole time, she was out cold. The paramedics worked on her for a while in the ambulance before transporting her to the hospital. Once there, we were unable to see her for what seemed like an hour. When I finally went in, she was lying on the gurney and she felt sick. A nurse raised her head as she was going to vomit. As soon as she was in a sitting position, her blood pressure dropped very low (appr. 29/15??) She passed out for a brief moment and was kept in the hospital for a few days for tests and observations. She also moved her bowels with her initial deep faint. The hospital decided to move her to a local heart hospital where they did more testing. At one point they did say one side of hre hert was enlarged. They kept her a few days & released her with a prescription for beta blockers. After her release, her family doctor advised her to stop the beta blockers which she did. Since then, her blood pressure has been erratic as well as her heart rate. She has palpitaitons and her heart races to over 140 beats at times. She also describes a funny blump-blump feeling in her heart. We are very concerned about her. Her heart doctor ordered a test for late October (first opening available) but we are very worried as she is now getting very dark circles under her eyes. Please help in diagnosing her condition as our local doctors don't seem to be able to help her.

[ed34]

A pulse of 140 is not particularly fast, but when the heart reaches a rate which is too fast
for it to cope (It cannot refresh with blood quickly enough for the nex beat) blood pressure
will drop. This will cause a sharp drop of oxygen to the brain causing dizziness and nausea. Some people can have an episode like this and never experience one again.
However, the hospital should have had some idea what was wrong, something caused
the AF event. The beta blockers will help prevent the heart from taking off into overdrive
again and I'm still shocked why a GP would go against the recommendation of a hospital. Does he know what beta blockers are?

[ireneo]

It's my understanding that when the BP drops, the heart rate will increase to compensate. So your Mom still has some problems going on in there. Considering she doesn't know what's causing the black outs (besides low BP) she shouldn't be driving at all. I know that's very inconvenient but so is getting into a terrible accident.

Yes, she should be seen by a competent doctor, a cardiologist and soon.

[ed34]

Her family doctor is nuts. He should NOT tell her to stop taking beta blockers until a
Cardiologist has examined her. She was put on beta blockers to keep her heart relaxed
so it can sort itself out. I would resume the beta blockers until tests have been run.
When I came off beta blockers I felt awful and had to go back on them. I was then
slowly weened off of them, taking one pill every two days for a week, then three days
etc.