My Story

• by SianXx
• 2009-09-15 01:09:30
• General Posting
• 1330 views
• 7 comments

Hi, I'm Sian, Aged 15, from Nottingham, England

I have an unusual condition. My consultant has never heard of such a serious case as mine, and neither have his other colleagues.

Basically, I have always fainted, since I was a baby. These faints were usually to do with the heat, dehydration, or shock. I think I was about 11 when it got worse.
I came downstairs first thing in the morning, after having a bath. I made myself some toast and began to feel really dizzy. I made my way to the sofa, and slurred out the words 'I'm going to faint'. I usually know when I am going to faint, but its not always the case that i have time to sit down or tell somebody. My mum and brother were at home, and next thing I knew I was awake and looking at my worried-looking mum. At first, I thought it had been a regular faint like I had had before, but aparently not. My mum waited a few minutes and then tried to get me to stand up, which i couldnt do for very long before my legs collapsed and I fell back to the sofa again.

My mum told me she wanted to phone for an ambulance, as she wanted to get to the bottom of this. It wasnt until I was in the ambulance that I knew what my mum and younger brother had saw. While I was unconcious, my brother (at the time aged 9), had shouted to my mum 'Sian's making funny gurgly noises and shaking'. My mum had concluded that I had had a fit, almost like an epileptic fit, except my heart had stopped, for about 2 minutes.

Doctors were puzzled over this last fact. I had MRI's, CAT scans, ECG's, Echos etc over the next few weeks. It wasnt epilepsy, my brain was fine. All they could guess that the problem was in my heart.

I had a few tilt table tests, which I hated. Basically they lay you down and then tilt you almost vertically to see if you faint. Inevitably, all mine were positive, the worst one resulted in my heart stopping for nearly 3 minutes. They were just about to give me CPR, but I came round myself, as I always did.

I was put on medication called Gutron, otherwise known as Midodrine, which help blood pressure, to see if this helped stop me fainting.
It worked, until I was 14. For some unknown reason, perhaps due to growth spurts, or hormones, I began fainting again. They increased my dose of Midodrine, which didnt work. It got so bad that I was fainting nearly every week. This obviously was affecting my education, as I was just starting to take some of my GCSEs. I have to go home after each episode, sleep for about an hour, drink plenty,have something sugary,and then I am usually fine.

So they went for option B. A Pacemaker. In February 2009 i had the implantation. So far so good, no faints!
I am so glad, that whatever it was my Pacemaker has solved!
I still feel dizzy sometimes, but theres nothing they can do about that. I am no longer on Midodrine, but if i faint again I will have to return to it.


Sorry about the really long story by the way but thats my life!

SianXx