Hi all,
I hope that folks are having a good beginning to 2015. So far, mine is uneventful but that's all a matter of perspective, isn't it?
I'm wondering whether other people with Chiari have terrible reactions to anesthesias and other similar drugs.
On December 26th, I went into the hospital for an outpatient angiogram to check whether head position and blood supply to the brain might be causing these terrible episodes that I keep having. They used a combination of Vercid and Fentanyl to keep me sedated but lucid enough to change head positions while they ran the test.
Six hours after I woke up from the procedure, I had to be admitted to the hospital because I kept going unconscious. Between passing out, my I had a burning headache and absolutely intolerable nausea. I could barely speak. But, my vitals were all normal.
That night, I passed out again. It went like this: huge wave of nausea and feeling of passing out, called nurse, vitals normal. Two minutes later, I was out. The nurses came rushing in and - for the first time ever - medical people saw one of my episodes.
I was covered in sweat (pouring off of my earlobes). BP was 60/40. Pulse was around 120. The nurses administered oxygen and kept hitting me in the chest until I came around (about five minutes).
After this, they moved me to a floor with heart monitors. I stayed in until Tuesday and they ran a bunch of tests (echo cardio gram, 24 hour EEG, stress test, labs). Nothing showed up on any of them. They hooked me up to a 30 day cardiac event monitor and I'm home, resting.
The up side of all of this is that I now have an episode with objective info and medical witness. They are taking this very seriously, which is a relief after all the "are you taking illicit drugs" responses to my visits to the ER.
I have had several of these episodes that are unrelated to any sedative. But, I also am usually intolerably ill after any surgery and generally bed ridden for up to two weeks after any procedure that requires these meds (colonoscopy, endoscopy…)
I guess at the end of this, I have two questions:
1) Does Chiari cause this kind of sensitivity to sedative?
2) What the heck are these episodes? They are increasing in severity and frequency. Seem to be particularly worse since the C4-C7 fusion in June.
The doctors are basically ignoring the Chiari because mine is so small. They are talking about sending me to a neurologist who specializes in the autonomic nervous system. I'm seeing my GP on Monday so any thoughts that will help me bring good questions to the table would be very much appreciated.
Thank you all!