J M Wetherington Sr

Spent most of the day at the hospital with Cindy and my father-in-law as the doctors try to determine why my mother-in-law has suddenly started passing out while standing.

It started last Thursday when Cindy’s parents were out of town visiting some relatives and my mother-in-law passed out while standing talking in the living room. Then it happened again Monday in a parking lot. Both times she hit her head causing her to have a couple of nice goose eggs on the back of her head.

Last night she was home and standing by the kitchen closet when she passed out again. Fortunately, since we were aware of the possibility, I was standing behind her and Cindy to the side so when I saw her start to fall away from me I wrapped my arms around her waist and held her up, then we slowly lowered her safely to the floor. Then this morning, between 6am and 8:30 am she passed out 4 different times; each time we were there to prevent any falls or serious injury. These occurrences happen with no warning; no feeling of dizziness, no blurriness of vision and no nausea. Just a sudden “lights out” as if someone flipped a switch. And they only last 15 to 30 seconds.

We got to the ER at 9am and it took 2 hours for them to get her back to a room for observation and then another 5 hours to get her transferred to a room for the night. Brain scan and chest x-rays reveal no issues in either of those areas and they are now wondering if there is a blockage of some type between the heart and brain so they will be doing an ultrasound on her neck tonight or tomorrow morning. There is a huge difference in her blood pressure from lying, sitting and standing with it dropping quite a bit from lying to sitting and even more from sitting to standing, so they are looking at what might be causing that, as well.

We’re hoping for some good news tomorrow. Thankfully she is in no pain or discomfort, just a sense of being tired of feeling like she blinks and then suddenly finds herself staring up at faces of loved ones hovering around her.