Five years later

Am now one week post pacemaker and doing well.There are two things that I find unusual about my case or maybe they are not.Five years ago I passed out for approx 15--30 sec,had complete neg w/up,all went well till last week when I again passed out in a grocery store,again for 15-30 sec.Taken to hospital and in the ambulance my ekg was flat for 18sec.! My Ekg except for that 18 sec has remained normal.Am glad it didn't happen 2 weeks ago when I was up on my roof.

2 Comments

Welcome!

by sboissonnas - 2007-09-28 10:09:38

Hi Haggen,

Congrats on the pacemaker and welcome to the club! We're glad it didn't happen when you were on the roof, too. :-) Did they tell you what the cause of your fainting was?

I think I'm a similar case, but I've always fainted fairly easily. Usually it took some kind of pain to set it off, but like you, it would only last for a few seconds. I got tested for it in college and my doctors decided I had vaso-vagal syncope (also known as cardiogenic syncope), but for some reason they never actually did the one test for VVS to prove it...

So, just about a year ago now when I fainted on a commuter train for no reason at all and a kind stranger got me to the hospital, the doctors there decided to test me for it once and for all. Not only did I faint on cue, but my heart stopped for 29 seconds in the middle of it. (They told me later that they wouldn't even have woken me up yet at that point except I'd started to fall off the table!) A couple of days later, I left the hospital with my own pacemaker and a prescription for beta blockers and haven't fainted since. Makes me wonder how many times I "almost" died all those times I passed out during my life!

Anyway, welcome aboard and I hope things keep going well for you.

-Stephanie

Depends on what tests they did...

by dward - 2007-10-01 02:10:39

All my cardiac tests were negative also. They even did the one where they take somewhat of a 3-D picture of your heart. Everything was "normal.
It was the 24 hour Holter Monitor that showed by slow heart rate and pause in beats - while I was sleeping.

I wasn't passing out, but was just feeling like crap and could feel the odd PVC. But since I got my PM, I DO sleep better (my wife says I don't snore NEAR as much - always a good thing!) so I FEEL better.

But yeah, all my other cardio tests came back negative too - and without fainting episodes, you start thinking it's all in your head!

Anyhow - welcome!!

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