Forum Discussion
Low blood pressure collapse
Well that was an exciting afternoon...
Last chemo was on Tuesday; fatigue in full flight, nausea present but not too bad after a slightly better than normal night's sleep. Had a long standing dietician appointment at 1230 today, which I should've moved but just didn't process it. Chemo brain. Two friends drove me there and afterwards we went to get some lunch at a Chinese restaurant. I ordered some green veg, something plain to slip down easily.
Before the food had even arrived I started to feel like just being there was all too much. Head went into my hands, then onto the table. Needed to lie down. Very quickly really needed to lie down. Folded over onto the chair next to me. Started to pass out. Felt like I was going to vomit and go the other end as well. Hot and clammy and I'm told white as a sheet.
At that moment, unbelievably, two ambos came in to get lunch. It's the kind of miracle that doesn't happen in my life. Instant first aid. Daniel and Curtis, angels both.
They asked all the questions, had a blood pressure cuff on me fast, 80/40, and very quickly I was on a stretcher heading to the hospital five minutes away. They put the end of the stretcher up so my legs were elevated. That instantly helped.
It took about two hours for my bp to get back to normal. Two ecgs, iv fluids (took two goes to get the line in...), blood tests, oncologist called etc etc. Husband called in from work, my friends rearranging their schedules, what a palaver! What an embarrassment :/
End result is they don't know why it happened. I'm home in bed now and will not be venturing out for quite some time to come. Anyone else have low blood pressure problems? How was your Friday afternoon?!
Last chemo was on Tuesday; fatigue in full flight, nausea present but not too bad after a slightly better than normal night's sleep. Had a long standing dietician appointment at 1230 today, which I should've moved but just didn't process it. Chemo brain. Two friends drove me there and afterwards we went to get some lunch at a Chinese restaurant. I ordered some green veg, something plain to slip down easily.
Before the food had even arrived I started to feel like just being there was all too much. Head went into my hands, then onto the table. Needed to lie down. Very quickly really needed to lie down. Folded over onto the chair next to me. Started to pass out. Felt like I was going to vomit and go the other end as well. Hot and clammy and I'm told white as a sheet.
At that moment, unbelievably, two ambos came in to get lunch. It's the kind of miracle that doesn't happen in my life. Instant first aid. Daniel and Curtis, angels both.
They asked all the questions, had a blood pressure cuff on me fast, 80/40, and very quickly I was on a stretcher heading to the hospital five minutes away. They put the end of the stretcher up so my legs were elevated. That instantly helped.
It took about two hours for my bp to get back to normal. Two ecgs, iv fluids (took two goes to get the line in...), blood tests, oncologist called etc etc. Husband called in from work, my friends rearranging their schedules, what a palaver! What an embarrassment :/
End result is they don't know why it happened. I'm home in bed now and will not be venturing out for quite some time to come. Anyone else have low blood pressure problems? How was your Friday afternoon?!
Views
Sign in to react to this post
34 Replies
- @kmakm really!! Bloody chemo!!!!
- Ouch!
- Well well, the plot has thickened somewhat on the low bp collapse front.
I was taking the new oncologist through my BC story and told her about the low bp problem that got worse as chemo went along, culminating in my rather dramatic collapse in Dumpling King. She is firmly of the opinion that I have Vasodepressor Syncope, and that it developed (in an already fertile environment of low blood pressure) as a result of chemotherapy.
When my blood pressure drops the valves either side of my neck are supposed to open making it easier for the blood to get to my brain. For reasons unknown, mine don't. The blood descends to my legs and I start to feel awful, get that tinny rushing sound in my ears, tunnel vision and then start to lose consciousness. My heart should start to beat fast in response but it doesn't.
I've read up on it a bit and I'm struggling to understand it. It's an involuntary response, governed by the sympathetic nervous system, which also runs the fight or flight response. I'll have a chat to by GP about it.
Anyway, I thought that it was chemo side effect and chemo being well and truly over, so were these episodes. The oncologist seemed to think not, and that I will be bothered by them in the future. She said I needed to advise doctors about it when I have operations.
It's the response that causes people to faint at the sight of needles, or blood. Neither of those things bother me, and I did read that sometimes triggers are unable to be identified.
Chemotherapy, the gift that keeps on giving... - @SoldierCrab #winning...!
- awesome kmakm that is a plus for me also :smile:
- Whoo hoo! Some good news for a change: I'm less likely to get dementia!
https://www.afr.com/lifestyle/health/low-blood-pressure-good-for-your-brain-as-well-as-your-heart-20180730-h13ci7 - @74Tiger Crikey that is low! I'd had what I thought was a pretty decent amount of fluid that day too.
It's continuing to bother me but at a low level. I'm glugging water, and taking it easy, but I'm not happy with either the speed of my heart after the slightest exertion, or my blood pressure. How long since you finished chemotherapy? - During and since chemo end, low blood pressure & high heart rate was the norm for me. During a hospital stay due to low wwc & iv fluids for 2 days my bp was 70 over 35 with bpm 114! Nurse freakked out & obviously thought her machine was broken. After r-echecking on another machine the poor lass switched it old school & dis it manually! Lols end result. .. No reason why bp so low, was advised to increase fluid intake! Um hello iv fluids for 2 days already, anymore fluids and id be a fish!
Blessings that you weren't alone & ambos on a lunch break. Hope you're feeling better . - Good idea to get things checked out.
- @primek Upon reflection I have had it all the way through as well, though yesterday was the worst. I don't know why I wasn't joining the dots. The heat has definitely played a part but not yesterday. The women in my family have low blood pressure and my mother told me yesterday that my grandmother used to keel over regularly with this problem! Which I never knew. If I was having more chemotherapy I'd be alert to it moving forward but thank goodness I'm not.
My heart rate tends to be low as well (when I was in labour with my son a midwife asked me if I was an athlete... I am SO not!) but the other night I noticed it was unusually and uncomfortably so. I measured it on my phone app and it was 46bpm. I think I might mention it to my GP next time I see her.
