3 episodes Syncope in a Year: Unrelated Causes

[pempem90]

Hi everyone, thanks in advance for any responses provided. I am concerned about some fainting that has gone on in the past year, and will be seeing my doctor soon, but would like to see if I can calm my nerves about my symptoms beforehand. I am a 20 year old college women and between last summer and this summer I have experienced 3 fainting spells, all under different conditions. The first two I feel like I have a basic understanding of why they occurred, but will share them anyways as I am concerned that my most recent one has no explanation.

Spell 1: June 2009
Night before I had been celebrating and drinking at a friend's birthday party. I had been outside in the sun that very day, and probably did not have enough water in my system when I began drinking. The next morning, I walked downstairs to get a water bottle, feeling dehydrated, and turned back around shortly after to go back up the stairs. Some point during my climb up the stairs, I lost consciousness. I had hit my head on the stair, gashed my face open, and noticed that I had urinated myself. I was pretty shaken up, and went to the hospital with the friend. I was honest about the drinking and they wrote it off as dehydration.

Spell 2: July 2009
Another night of drinking, but only had three mixed drinks that were not very heavy on alcohol, maybe one shot - one and a half piece. I remember feeling like the alcohol hit me hard, like I had had about twice that amount if not more. By the end of the night I had fallen asleep, and woken up to go to the bathroom. Before I entered the bathroom, I lost conciousness. I woke up to a friend standing over me asking if I was alright. Again I had urinated myself. The next morning the friend told me it looked like I had a seizure. I wrote it off as dehydration again, but talked to my doctor about it anyways, and she said if it was only happening with alcohol, that can be assumed to be the cause.

Spell 3: July 2010
No drinking the night before, but had drank 3 days prior. I was ready to walk out the door for work at 8 in the morning, and was talking to my mom at the kitchen table. I had been standing throughout this brief conversation, and went to open the backdoor, when all of a sudden I felt like my stomach had dropped (like on a rollercoaster) and I felt not only lightheaded, but light all over my body. I walked towards a chair to sit down, but before I made it, I fell to the ground. I woke to my mom calling 911. She said I had crumpled to the ground, no seizure activity, but my eyes rolled to the back of my head, and i had very shallow breathing. She said my coloring went from pale to red. The doctors did routine testing, and found nothing wrong with my blood, urine, breathing, or heartrate. The ER doctor wrote it off as basic fainting.

I am most concerned with spell 3, as it happened out of nowhere. Also, I am wondering if the three spells could be linked in any way? Should I be worried about the possible previous seizure activity?

Thanks...

[Admirer]

Most probably you are having seizures. You might be having complex partial seizures. Do you have automatism?(Automatisms are nonpurposeful, stereotyped, and repetitive behaviors that commonly accompany complex partial seizures (they define automotor seizures in the semiologic classification). The behavior is inappropriate for the situation. Patients are usually amnestic to their automatisms). You might be suffering from absence seizures. Do you have a family history of seizures or epilepsy? There is a chance that it wasn't seizure you were having but simple fainting. The most important cause of fainting is the abnormal activation of vagus nerve, which leads to the impariment of the blood supply to the brain. Are you taking some diuretics, hyponatremia can also cause fainting. You might simply be dehydrated. But I think you are most probably having seizures because the syptom of loose bladder strongly points towards seizures. Electoencephalography will help to do the right classification. Get EEG done and your doctor will treat you based on the results.

[Gina04]

I would definitely have an EEG done to see about seizure activity.  I have had a seizure disorder for the last 26 years.  Most of the time mine were absence seizures.  Unless people knew what they were looking for, they had no clue that I was having a seizure.