Dysautonomia from vagus nerve damage

[michele005]

I have vagus nerve damage from having my thyroid out on December 21st 2011.  Since that date, I have not been able to walk with out having heart arrhythmia's and severe shortness of breath.  I've gone to the hospital numerous times thinking I was having a heart attack.  A tilt table test was done due to my passing out episoides verified that I was having Orthostatic Hypotension.  I also had a qsart indicating the Dysautonomia.  

I don't know what happens from here.  It has been two months.  I am not on fludocortisone which has helped the passing out episodes but that is it.  I have very limited quality of life.  My face is always tingling and I can barely walk without my blood pressure going crazy, shortness of breath and chest pain.  

Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Michele

[michele005]

You don't know how thankful I am for your reply.  I hope you don't mind me asking you some questions about your heart.  I can barely walk without it going out of rhythm.  My pulse is going higher just upon standing now.  It's the pain that scares me.  When I walk across the room, it feels like I am having heart attack.  The pain is severe.  It goes through my heart into my back, up through my chin and down my arm.  I am waiting to next Thursday to go to Dr. Fouad, who is the best at the Cleveland Clinic for Autonomic Dysfunction Heart problems.  I'm just so frightened I'm going to have a heart attack in the mean time.  Thank you so much for your reply.  I'm saving it for future use and going to look up in the medication right now and saving this too.  

[Rlawson2765]

Vagal nerve is as you probably know, part of the autonomic nervous system. An electrophysiclogical (EP) cardiologist would be the specialist to see. (I don't know why the neurologists don't treat it, but they don't) I have POTS and am sure I also have vagal nerve damage, was seen at Mayo clinic in FL. Beacuse I also have heart problems, the neurologist and cardiologist got together and prescribed DIGOXIN. Altho I have not see anything on the INET about the use of digoxin in auto neuropathy, I don't know why not. It made a tremendous difference in my pulse, bp, and even in decreasing stomache nausea and constipation (stomache is also controlled by vagal nerve). I felt almost normal. Digoxin is the only drug I know of on the market which strengthens the vagal nerve. It is an old drug which was used for heart failure years ago.  Unfortunately, I had bad side effects and had to cut my dose in half. Even if the MD does't go along with the digoxin, they are the specialists to see for the vagal nerve. Good luck