Fainting

[micahgirl]

My 16 year old daughter has experienced 4 fainting spells this week, 2 within 20 minutes of each other and the second one resembling a small seizure(she went stiff, eyes wide and blank, laughing hysterically but eerie like and then cried and then "came to". She was admitted overnight for observation. Yesterday morning, the school called to say she had fainted again while sitting at her desk. This morning she fainted again while in her bed. A month ago, she woke up in the middle of the night with a body jolt and then fainted shortly afterwards. In Feb. she suffered her 3 rd concussion which was deemed severe. She was playing hockey and was sandwiched between 2 players which caused her to faint and collapse to the ice and receive the concussion. She no longer plays hockey because of the high risk. Drs. have run alot of tests and most show nothing(CT, MRI, EKG,blood and urine, EEG). Those tests which have come back with a little something are an ECHO which detected mild mitral valve prolapse and Holter monitor which detected a first degree AV block but Drs. rule out that this is playing a part in her fainting spells now. I'm not convinced of this though. She has now been referred to a neurologist and for the Tilt table test but this will more than likely take a lot of time since we live in a very small remote area. We are returning to see a pediatrician on Wed. who saw her in the Spring following her concussion. He said to return when her symptoms returned. We will insist to be sent down south(Ottawa, Ont.) to the Children's hospital (CHEO) for a complete work up. Before she faints, she does get a loud ringing in her ears several hours prior and sees dark spots or sometimes purple stars. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks alot, Jocelyne

[worriedmiz]

My daughter is 17 and has had every test imaginable done EKG,CAT scan, CBC you name it but continues to faint either before her monthly cycle or the first few days......I picked her up from school yesterday because she had some dissiness and she came home ate dinner and was in bed sleep by 5pm. slept all night, when she got up to use the bathroom she crawled because standing brought on the dissiness. I had her stay home from school today thinking she'd feel better later...ran out to get some juice for her and returned to find her face down on the kitcken floor don't know for certain how long she was out....I was gone maybe 45mins. She came to right away blood pressure was 150/85 couldn't do her blood sugar.....gave her oj and some soup to eat....she wanted to sleep her head was hurting. She is on iron vitamins and may not have been taking them on the regular...but the fainting is scarying the h....out of me...any suggestions on where to go from here????

[RockRose]

micah - my son is 18 now,  and last year he had a couple fainting episodes.  He was going to the gym twice a day and taking a lot of protein drinks - trying to "buff up",  I guess,  he's kind of small.

Both times he fainted after working out,  but he had buzzing in his ears too.  Once one ear actually went deaf for a period of time before he fainted.  He had several tests run - MRI,  Cat Scan,  stress tests,  and everything came back normal.  It hasn't happened again - I think he was just working out too hard and not eating right.  

I have migraines with aura,  too.  It seems like there is something there related,  a correlation with her seizure type appearance,  and migraine symptoms.    When you add in her brain injury,  it just seems very confusing,  but I think those things are all correlated somehow.

Are these occurrances happening at the same time in her menstrual cycle?

[micahgirl]

Thanks for your post. Most of the time, the spots are dark ones but on two occasions they were purple stars where her spells sort of mimicked a small seizure. I've suffered from migraines with aura for many years but she says that usually it's just black spots that are moving, not coloured ones. A bad headache to the left side of her head always follows for about an hour and she feels drained for hours afterwards but doesn't require medication, just a good nap. You mentioned some connections with your son. Mind sharing them? In my previous post, i forgot to mention that my daughter is quite small for her age(100 pounds, 5'2") and quite thin but eats very well, just doesn't put on weight. She is often very pale looking too with a pink line on her cheeks resembling a blush when she isn't feeling 100%. When she feels well, her cheeks are rosy.

[RockRose]

Are the dark spots flashy,  or are they more like big black patches in her field of vision?    Some of what she is describing sounds like a migraine like aura.  

My son had fainting spells last year,  so he went through a huge battery of tests,  and I learned some of the connections,  but I"m not a medical professional.  I'm just adding clues.

The mitral valve abnormality is interesting,  but doesn't sound related.  If she's faining while sitting and even lying down,  I think that pretty much rules that out as a cause.

Here is an interesting article about TBI,  traumatic brain injury.  Look at the bottom paragraph,  with cranial diabetes insipidis.  

Best wishes.

http://www.braininjury.com/littleknownsymptoms.html