Vomit-induced fainting and "seizure"

[sportymusic]

Hi everyone! I'm a generally healthy 36 year old woman who has developed the habit of falling unconscious every time I vomit. It's followed by "seizure-like" symptoms (limb jerks, eye rolling backwards, laboured breathing, extreme sweating). I'm usually "out" for about 10-20 seconds. Has anyone experienced something similar and has a suitable management strategy? Thanks!

[lemunk]

Hey, sorry to hear that. I have RAS and have a very similar experience each time. Only thing I'm able to do is elevate my legs and put a thick towl under my head as a lie on the floor, that way i don't seizure, still get some symptoms , although its uncomfortable with vomiting. If you figure out a method to deal with it let me know! only other way i can think of is getting vexxed at something, this usually helps me if I'm about to seizure, or know there is a very high likely hood i will.

[sportymusic in reply to lemunk]

Hello and thanks so much for the tip. The problem is that I need to be on my front if there's a danger of vomiting so that complicates matters. I'll keep you posted!

[sedee]

hello, this is me! I'm approaching 30 and I have this exactly this same issue. I don't always pass out when I'm sick, but I also pass out when I just feel sick and I may not actually end up doing that. It's definitely gotten worse as I've gotten older. Nothing else has ever triggered this happening either.

My partner says my eyes roll back, weird breathing, jerky limbs, sweating etc - I can usually give him a shout when I feel funny just in case, now we put out a towel under my head and out to the side, because 9 times out of 10, as soon as I regain consciousness I will be sick wherever I've passed out.

It happened to me this weekend actually, on Saturday AM after some after work drinks - today is Monday and I still have an absolute cracking headache.

I can't give any tips or advice per se, but it's amazing to finally meet someone who has the sick thing - and from someone who isn't in their mid-teens or younger.

[sportymusic in reply to sedee]

Hi Sedee, thanks so much for getting in contact. Finally someone with the same trigger! For me, it's only ever happened immediately after vomiting (I mean, 'just' feeling sick isn't sufficient), but there's obviously something similar going on between us. I also have a towel at the ready. And my doctor has prescribed some anti nausea meds for those really nasty bugs where everything that needs to come out is out, and there's no "point' in continually vomiting. Hope you manage to control your situation. Good luck!

[sedee in reply to sportymusic]

That is a good idea - maybe anti-nausea stuff would be really useful for me. How have you navigated this with the doctors ie to get a solid diagnosis / other things being ruled out?

[DragonsRreal]

I faint and convulse when triggered by pain or nausea. And then regardless of the trigger, it will always be followed by vomiting. It's nasty business. I only have an episode about once a year, but I also have Sleep Syncope, where I'll wake up from a sound sleep, feel very nauseous, and then pass out while lying down. Followed by vomiting, of course. Then it takes me a solid 5-6 hours to fully recover from the weakness that comes after a faint.

My husband knows that if I ever wake him in the night, he better be ready.

[sportymusic in reply to DragonsRreal]

So vomiting is a trigger AND response to a syncope episode? That sounds like double trouble - I'm sorry. As far as you're away, you have never vomited whilst still being unconscious, right?

[DragonsRreal in reply to sportymusic]

I think I have. The last thing I remembered was feeling it coming on and trying to lay down on the floor real quick so I wouldn't hurt myself in the fall, and I woke up vomiting with my husband holding my head over the toilet. I think that has only happened once or twice.

[sedee in reply to DragonsRreal]

Oh, that does sound awful - did your husband manage to lift you up whilst you were out so that when you came around you were positioned right for the wake up?

Other than feeling sick, what are your other 'cues' as to when it's going to come on? I've started to lose about 10/20 seconds of memory when I come back around which is slightly worrying!

And how weak are you afterwards? I was asked, but I don't feel like 100% but not completely weak or anything.

Did you have any tests done to figure out what might be happening, or was it a process of elimination? I'm having my magnesium levels looked at next I think and being referred to neurology just to see if it's anything else.

[DragonsRreal in reply to sedee]

My husband was holding my head over the toilet when I woke up. That was weird.

I usually get real lightheaded and that's my only clue that a faint is coming. I am always extremely weak afterward. Can hardly speak, can barely walk and it will take several hours to get back to 100% normal. Sometimes I'll be sore and achy for a while as well, which I think has to do with the convulsing.

I had some heart monitoring done years ago and that's the only testing that I've had done.

[sedee in reply to DragonsRreal]

Oh wow that is quite extreme - I feel a bit tired, but nothing too much. I do get a bad headache for the next couple of days though usually.

Sometimes my vision starts to narrow and I can see static, and a hear a high pitched ringing in my ears (but not all the time) other than feeling sick.

[klaceyd]

Hello. I hope you've had answers since posting this. I have similar sounding seizures. Though I tend to vomit after the seizure, not before. And my breathing stops, rather than becoming laboured. I've just been diagnosed with 'Reflex Anoxic Seizures'. The only way I got the diagnosis was a combination of a loop recorder (a little heart monitor implanted for up to three years) and videos of the seizures. It's worth pursuing through cardiology if you are still without answers.