Heart Palpitations/Dizzyness/Fainting/Nauses

[lcampbell64]

Hi, my daughter is 17 years old, good health, softball player. Has to to take syntroid for thyroid and desogen for possible polysistic ovary? and acne.  She also take claritin for allergies.  For quite some time she has been extremely dizzy, always upset stomach/nausea and on occasion faints. A month ago she actually passed out for a few minutes after climbing a flight of stairs. Hands and feet are always extremely cold considering she is usually moving and blood does circulate. On occasion she will complain that her chest hurts and it's hard to breath. Regular CBC is normal, not check for blood sugars(why I do not know) but this has been going on for over a year. Always thought it was some type of cold, allergy, stomach bug or just trying to get out of practices.  Wore a Holter Monitor for 24 hours and pediatrician sent us to a pediatric cardiologist. He spent maybe 5-10 minutes asking questions, looking over reports we brought and told us that maybe it was vertigo because she didn't describe the spinning correctly.  Her report shows that her palpitations go as high as 179 bpm and then can drop to 50 bpm numerous time within the 24 hour period. This even happens when she isn't moving..it can go up or down.  Her numbers are all over the place. No Echo was done, just an Holter Monitor and an EKG for the minute it took.  The doctor suggested possibly a low blood pressure med and maybe that might work after that he said probably some type of anxiety.   I'm very discouraged....I know my daughter...I don't think it's some type of anxiety. She loves school, has a great home, family, friends everything anyone could want and if you ask her...she would say the same too. Does well in school & friends, doesn't have to work hard in school and is near top of her class and is totally content.  So...Anxiety...I don't think so.  Any ideas..or has anyone experienced this?  Oh...I think that the blood pressure meds are making her worse by the way besides her starting to retain water.

[rilesnic]

Personally, as a parent, I would insist on an echo of the heart. Your PCP can schedule it. Went through something similar with my now 20 year-old, when she was 15.

[MichelleP_3811]

I am not interested in arguing the point with you.  You obviously care very deeply and I don't question your pointing out the website for the mother to review but it is the language that is inflammatory and unnecessary and in my opinion can cause more harm than good.  And that is all I really have to say about the matter.  Take care.

[FruitFirst]

Especial if a person waits to warn a person until after they are dead! I would much rather warn a person about a bridge being underwater ahead of time then telling them the water is probably down by now and not to worry about it. I would like to know if you have read any of the stories about SADS and what the Doctors had told the parents about the symptoms that were presented to them?  I hope the young lady doesn't have any of the SADS Arrhythmia conditions but to tell them everything is OK is far worse then telling them to check a website to see if that describes their symptoms and the urgency if it. There thousands of parents that wish someone had told them about Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome before their child died, including my parents!

[MichelleP_3811]

Considering Fruitfirst's concern you may want to have your child avoid taking any cold or allergy medicines until she has been fully diagnosed.  You may also want to see if her BP meds are too strong which can cause dips in blood pressure to the point of causing someone to pass out.  

[MichelleP_3811]

I understand that there are cases where people do die from heart troubles but to needless worry someone when you yourself are not a doctor and cannot say for certain that a person has long QT is a bit reckless in my opinion.  In general most people are pretty mindful of the fact that they are not doctors and don't pretend to be.  You apparently have a history of heart troubles in your family but your situation is not the same as everyone elses.  We should let the teens doctors diagnose the child before jumping to conclusions about any possible condition.  It is possible you have more experience than others when it comes to Long QT but inflammatory words like "Kill" can do a lot of harm to someone emotionally.  

[FruitFirst]

Have you read every thing on Sads.org In many cases the EKG will not show Long QT when a person is a Genetic Long QT Person There are 3 of us in my family that have a Pacemaker and are effected by (drug induced Long QT). My younger sister had her first episode on Dec. 29, 2003. She went code blue 10 times that day until she was transferred to another hospital and an alert Dr. realized she had Long Qt and immediately installed a Pacemaker, the other hospital had also been giving her the wrong drug as listed at http://www.sads.org/living-with-sads/Drugs-to-Avoid.  Because of doctors that are not qualified to evaluate symptoms as listed in the above post many DIE before they get the proper treatment. I just had a cousin's son die at the age of 28 with a wife and 4 children because he wasn't treated properly for a Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome, 15 minutes after playing volleyball on his way home he slumped over and died.

[MichelleP_3811]

FruitFirst, I am a little confused where you got LongQT from, nothing in the post indicated that her daughter has that.

lcampbell, If your daughter had an EKG Long QT would have shown up.  You obviously want to stay on top of what is going on and get this resolved and ask for an echo to make sure her heart is structurally fine but there is no indication in anything you have said to suggest that your daughter will die suddenly.  

[FruitFirst]

Please go to Sads.org and find an EP Dr. in your area she needs to be seen by an EP right away.  I hope she don't have Long QT but if she does the next episode could kill her!!!

[MichelleP_3811]

I would definitely get her thyroid checked again.  I assume she is being tested every couple of months?  When a person starts hormone therapy there is an adjustment period where they can swing between being hyper and hypo thyriodsim so definitely go and get that checked out.  I might also keep an eye on her blood pressure.  Low bp may be causing a lot of her symptoms.  If this is the case then see if adding some salt to her diet helps.  Consult a physician about this but I tend towards low bp.  My bp probably averages around 100/70 but if I have a low sodium couple of days it dips to a point where I start to feel faint and woozy going below 90/60.  So definitely keep an eye on the bp.  Then finally check out the condition Dysautonomia.  It is an autonomic nervous system disorder.  The wild swings in heart rate may be an indication.  But again, adding salt might help alleviate her symptoms if she is very active and sweating a lot.  Take care.  I hope you can get to the bottom of this soon.  Keep us posted on how she is doing.        

[achillea]

It sounds as though your daughter has some complicated medical issues, probably too complicated to be addressed in any detail by non-medical people.  

You don't say what kind of thyroid dysfunction she has, but is she under the care of an endocrinologist?  If not, I think she should be, because of the possible polycystic ovary problem, but also because thyroid issues need to be checked regularly.  Frequently, dosages of Synthroid need to be adjusted.  Of course, you know that thyroid problems and even the wrong dosage of Synthroid can be linked to heart difficulties, too.

If she is under such care already and checks out OK, then the possibility of anxiety should be seriously considered.  Dizziness, nausea, cold hands and feet, chest discomfort, shortness of breath--all can indeed be part of an anxiety/panic thing.  There is no shame in this.  It's a medical problem like any other, not a moral failing.