Post-op complications

Symptoms and Treatments Surgery and Recovery
1

Hello all,

I’ve posted here before…not nearly as much as I should, however. I’ve gotten wonderful advice, so I should check in more often :wink:

Anyways. I experienced a bizarre event a couple weeks ago and I’m wondering if anyone else has had similar episodes??? I was at work (I’m a veterinary technician) and I was helping to examine a patient when I started feeling “weird.” I can’t think of any other way to describe it other than I didn’t feel right. I went to sit down for a couple of minutes. Within five minutes of sitting down I got extremely dizzy/light-headed, my fingers and toes went numb, my vision both blurred and doubled at the same time, I started slurring my speech and nearly blacked out. I was rushed to the ER. The paramedics in the ambulance did all of the stroke testing, which I passed…meaning I wasn’t having a stroke.

The ER I was admitted to isn’t equipped for someone with Chiari (even though it’s a very good hospital and the area’s level one trauma center) and the doctor wanted to transfer me to the hospital that did my surgery (decompression on July 21st 2014). All of their tests came back normal…no hypoglycemia, CBC/chem all normal. They did a CT scan to confirm I didn’t have a stroke, that came back normal as well. I was discharged that same evening with orders to follow up with my surgeon.

Got ahold of my surgeon the next day and was told that I didn’t need to follow up with them, that what I experienced wasn’t related in any way to the surgery or the Chiari. Now, I’ve had nothing but problems with the surgeon’s support staff, to the point that I’m looking for a different doctor.

I have an appointment with my GP on Jan 9th to see where she recommends taking things. I had that same feeling of being “off” for a couple days afterwards but am feeling better now. I’ve never felt back to my normal self since the surgery. However, about six weeks ago I felt good enough to start a more-strenuous workout…a yoga-based regime. I skipped all the inversions. With working out again I’d been feeling better than I had since the surgery.

Anyways, I’m rambling, I’m sorry. I’m wondering if anyone else has had similar episodes post-op???

Thanks all and Happy Holidays!!!

Devon.

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Gees, Devon, I want to take a guess here but would never want to say the wrong thing or stop you from looking for answers, but I wonder if you are experiencing dysautonomia symptoms? I take a beta blocker for mine which keeps it under control, but for me symptoms were numb hands, nsusea, vomiting, dizzy, too week to form a sentence, heart racing, and over all weakness. Have you looked into Dysautonomia? Mine started AFTER my first surgery. Check dinet.org there are several different types. POTS is popular with us, but we have all types.

So, so sorry you got the cold shoulder from your NS. That is a very, very special feeling of aloneness. I got a letter from first NS telling me there was no reason to ever call them again…I cried. But please remember you are not alone there are many who have a positive experience and weeded their way to answered and symptom relief.

Do you think there is a connection with yoga?

Jenn

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Jenn,

Thanks for responding!!! I looked into the dysautonomia…specifically POTS…and that pretty much fits to a tee what I experienced. I have an appointment on Jan 9th with my GP and I’m going to mention this to her. I think it’s worth pursuing. Luckily it doesn’t seem to affect my every day life, so far. I also read that there are service dogs for this condition…maybe I can use that as an excuse to literally have my dobies with me at all times ;).

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Soulful, you may be referred to a cardiologist- that’s usually the specialty to diagnose dysautonomia. Let us know how it goes.

Jenn :slight_smile: