Chronic Vertigo and Dizziness After Open Heart Surgery

Next month it will be the three year anniversary of my ascending and descending aortic dissection.  I still struggle with chronic dizziness, light headedness and vertigo.  The feeling that I may pass out at any time really hasn't gotten much better and I refer these symptoms as my 'Swirling Head Syndrome'.

Vertigo, Dizziness and 'Blacking Out' are, I think, a result of 'Pump Head' and Blood Flow Issues

Unfortunately, I feel like I am going to faint at almost any given point during the day.  The wooziness though is especially pronounced when I move, stand up, bend over, walk, ride my bike or try to drive.

I do not drive any more for a number of reasons.  First and foremost I recognize I am a danger to those in the car with me and others on the road.

If you have had open heart surgery requiring significant time on a heart-lung machine then you too may be experiencing chronic dizziness, loss of memory, vertigo and other balance-awareness issues.

Some call this phenomena 'Pump Head' after the heart-lung pumping process.  My neurologist refers these symptoms as a result of 'embolistic events' occurring during and post-open heart surgery.

But I have pin-pointed four main symptom-sources of my Swirling Head Syndrome.  They include:

1. My eyes, especially my right eye, will loose focus and everything turns dark grey at random times.  These episodes last for five to ten minutes or so and when they happen I have to sit or lay on the ground to keep from falling over.  As soon as this begins I stop my bicycle, lay it down on the ground and sit until the vision returns.

It takes about three to five seconds for the eyesight to be completely gone and the blurry part lasts about two to three minutes usually.  My eye doctor does not know what causes this but she has told me I do have a small aneurysm in my right eye.

2. Secondly there is that tingly feeling in the top of my head I can best describe as like what I feel when breathing the knock-out gas before a colonoscopy; the kind of fuzzy feeling where my ears start ringing and my awareness seems to dissolve into a state of unconsciousness.  This I usually feel throughout the day and is usually associated with standing up, moving, walking, turning or any activity involving motion.

3. Third reason I become faint is when my right kidney starts hurting really bad or the false lumen in the descending dissection begins to tug and pull.  This is not an incision pain.  Rather this pain is an intense, strong hurt.  I experience this pain most days and have learned to 'breath' through the waves of intensity until they pass.

Sometimes my brain thankfully shuts down and I black out momentarily.  I have never had any of my doctors, not one, ever discuss pain management with me beyond the narcotics I was given for a brief period of time after the open heart surgery incisions.

4. Finally I have a difficult time processing complications.  When I say 'complications' I mean anything non-simple.  If I am walking and come up on a section of walkway with different color paver tiles laid in different patterns then I will quickly become dizzy and have to sit down and look up for the sensation to subside.

Before my drivers license was suspended I would encounter the same situation at intersections.  Soon I became terrified I was going to hurt someone with my inability to process how to navigate the automobile in and around other vehicles.

Well stocked grocery store shelves with hundreds of colorful, different shaped containers send me reeling.

But I am focusing on trying to improve my Swirling Head Syndrome issues through memory and concentration exercises, diet and physical therapy, and writing my blog.  But the blog writing is so frustrating.  Where before I had excellent word recall now I must use a thesaurus or dictionary with the composition of each paragraph.

Maybe, over time, the pump head and other aortic dissection related effects will begin to subside and resolve themselves.

I would really like to be able to drive again someday - that is if I can do so safely.

Apparently 'pump head' or 'Swirling Head Syndrome' is a fairly common challenge aortic dissectees deal with.  After three years it is still swirling through my head.  If you are struggling with the same, don't feel alone.

Post-dissection Repair Everyday Challenges, Vertigo and Dizziness

I don't want to fall so I pace myself and have learned how to look for the signs of a vertigo or dizziness onset.

Post-dissection repair cycling has its own set of challenges, but is good PT and good for my mental state too!

I am also learning to recognize some of the post-dissection repair triggers.  This is good because I do not want to fall.  Falling and cutting myself or breaking a blood vessel while on Warfarin could be bad.  As it stands I still have a bruise and lump on my left arm after a small tumble almost two months ago.  Any type of trauma where bleeding is involved can have serious results while on anti-coagulants.

Most of the time I do not black all the way out and if I do it is only briefly so it seems.  But the sensation starts with a quiet ringing in my ears and head.  Very quickly my vision goes from ok to grey out.

When this happens I need to lower my center of gravity quickly.  Sit down Kevin, sit down now.  Falling over while sitting on the ground is much easier on my body than a tumble from way up there where I usually am in a standing position.

These sessions typically occur when I transition from laying or sitting to a standing position, though they can happen anytime during the day.

I suspect that they are a result of my very low pulse rate (less than 40) and lower blood pressure than what I have been used to for most of my life (now running 110/65).  Possibly though the dissected descending aorta and the huge false lumen hog most of the available blood leaving my heart, also contributing to the dizziness.

Either way, it is the new normal for me.  I am slowly learning to deal with it.

If I feel like I a going to pass out I sit or lay down.  I just need to reduce the risk of trauma from a tumble.

Honestly, a couple of times when I was out hiking last year I got so dizzy for so long I thought I was going to the great hiking trail in the sky, sat down, held the cross and hearts hanging around my neck and waited.  But the dizziness left, like it always has so far.

Yesterday on my bike I had a similar incident and had to sit down until the vertigo and fuzzy vision left.  Falling off a bike would be bad too.  So as soon as the ringing starts in my ears and the tingling begins in the top of my head I find a nice grassy area, dismount and plop myself down.

The doctor and the medicine containers all warn of dizziness.  Yes, the whole thing is an inconvenience  but it is the new normal.

So those of you out there with seriously dissected aortas on all types of meds who live with the lightheadedness, I can relate.  You are not alone.  It is a strange new normal.