The Home Board

Yesterday Maria was gone and she took the housekeeper with her and the handyman had called in sick. I was alone.
The first indication of problems I was in the bathroom in the garage when I got so dizzy and short of breath, I thought I was going to pass out. Although I got very close to passing out, I didn't and the episode pasted. An hour later I was in the kitchen, looking for something cold to drink, when the next episode happened. I grabbed the kitchen island and hung on, waiting for it to pass, but it didn't it got worse. I turned around and grabbed the back of a dining room chair and dropped to my knees, knowing that the cement floor was coming up pretty fast. The next thing I know I was laying face down on the tile. I don't know how long I was out but when I came to I was face down on the cement floor, looking at the bottom of my fridge. I don't know how long I was out but when I come to I was hurting.
When Maria got home I told her what had happened and she said I had a small bump between my left eye and my left temple. No biggie. It didn't hurt very much. Today I don't look very good.
Made an appointment to see the cardiologist as soon as possible, which won't happen until noon on Monday. Today about noon I had that feeling come over me again and I had Maria fetch my blood pressure cup. It turns out that it appears the problem is caused by low blood pressure. I do not know what I have to do to get my blood pressure to come back up when I get hit with one of these episodes. I guess I just need somebody to hold my hand while this old 77 year old body reboots.

I hope you get it sorted out, Jim!

I had ONE episode of that several months ago. Went from slightly dizzy to VERY dizzy to flat on my back on the floor wondering what the hell just happened all in about 10 seconds. The daughter of the friend I was visiting at the time happened to be there and is an RN and she said probably my blood sugar tanked. Gave me a cupcake and a glass of grape juice and I was fine, hasn't happened since.

Low BP will do it as well, of course, but mine tends to run high rather than low. I track both BP and sugar now.

When I get to feeling weird the very first thing I do is check the blood sugar. If that is OK, the second thing is the blood pressure but a lot of the times the blood pressure will come back up before I get the blood pressure cup on my arm. I got lucky this time and got the blood pressure cup on before my blood pressure returned. So I know when these blackout, dizzy spells happen it is my blood pressure and not my blood sugar.

I’ll be blunt and state the obvious: you should see a doctor and not try to figure this out yourself. My Mom had a similar problem, and it turned out there were multiple causes, not a single one.

Her doctors were able to tease out the correct solution (medication, a couple of lifestyle adjustments, and better diet control, in her case). But before that solution happened, she made several ER trips, and looked far worse than your picture on one of them.

Now’s the time to be cautious and let the professionals figure it out!

Blood pressure tanking is your heart failing. It's failing to adequately preload. So that in turn increases your afterload, meaning its taking your heart longer to fill with blood before pushing it out causing your bp to tank and you to pass out. You need to increase your lopressor and maybe your blood thinner slightly increased as well. Love you Gpa

I meant decrease the lopressor aka Metoprolol. Blood thinner will help your heart fill during systole to push out adequately during dystole therefore preventing your blood pressure from randomly tanking and causing you to fall or pass out.

Love ya gpa.

Your Grand Mother probably knows what you're talking about but I don't. I haven't had the medical training you have had.

GP

Thought maybe the rest of the story would come out by now. About how Maria finally got tired of his guff !!

Take care you ole fart !!

Gene

I made a joke about her sticking a fist in my eye. She did not take it well.