I am taking atacand and aldactone for high blood pressure I also had a stroke and I am paralyzed fro
from the waist down. When my physiotherapist tries to sit me up I always faint. Why? I also take neurontin. Please help I want to be able to sit without fainting.
Hello Anne,
From what you told me, you could have a couple of reasons for feeling faint or fainting when going from a lying to sitting position.
Firstly, feeling dizzy is a common side effect of neurontin, especially if you are taking a high dose. Second, your stroke could be altering the way your regulates blood pressure in your lowering extremetries. This could cause pooling of blood in your lower extremities and when you suddenly sit up, you brain "senses" that you don't have enough blood pressure to perfuse your brain which causes you to faint. This phenomenon, called orthostatic hypotension or postural hypotension, can be exacerbated by diuretics (drugs like spironolactone that cause you to lose water from your blood), a significant amount of bed rest (which if you had a stroke, I bet you've been in bed a lot), age, and host of other factors.
You should definitely bring this up with your physical medicine and rehab doctor and your primary care physician at your next visits. Though you are monitored when these happened, you will eventually be transferring on your own and certainly don't want to fainting then!
To your health,
Neil MD
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