tachycardia, fainting spell and sweating at night

[sonnyb11]

i am 41 year old, had kidney transplant 9 years back , so i am on steroid and blood pressure and anti cholesterol medications.i am also going through very rough and stressful  divorce .my recent creatnine level is 2.7. first episode happened last year july  and then again April 25 2008. a similar episode happened today early morning.in all three episodes , it has happened between 2.30 am to 3 am , starts with me suddenly waking up, finding myself short of breath, as if i am drowning, my heart racing hard(tachycardia ?), and gradually i lose concsiousness. when i wake up i find myself in bathroom,with my eyes fixated, hyper excessive sweating (it did not smell urine, so much sweat like someone has poured glass of water). i cannot recollect how i got into bathroom, feel very tired and drained, and had sore spots on right side of my body probably from abrupt fall.Doctor had done stress test and EKG after earlier episodes but it was normal.please help

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Thanks for writing to the forum!

The episodes could be due to postural hypotension (blood pressure falling with change of position), internal ear problems, cervical spondylitis, anemia, GERD, hypoglycemia or low sugar, stress and anxiety and some endocrine problems.

In your case I would look at anemia, hypoglycemia, endocrine problems and GERD first. Stress and anxiety definitely add to the problem. However first get the above medical conditions excluded. GERD is common with steroids.
Please discuss this with your doctor and get yourself investigated accordingly. Do keep me posted. Take care!

[Encephalomalcia]

Stress can do a little of strange things to the body.  Being that you are going through a stressful divorce, it most likely is that stress.  You can try a vitamin B complex stress formula to see if that helps.  Otherwise, severe sweating at night is a symptom of lymphoma, so you may want to check that out just in case.  Try to reduce your stress.  Divorce is extremely stressful, but you will get through it.  Been through a nasty one myself.  Life gets better again.