Light headed and feeling as you will pass out

Hi I am over 11 moths post op and I have been feeling weak and lightheaded at times. I have had a few moments if someone wasn't there i would have fallen. One day I fell and was lucky to not hurt myself. I have suffered from AFIB and now take Sotalol and Eliquis. I went to see my primary care physician and asked him to draw blood and checks my blood results. I was worried about my iron level being low. All levels are good. I am wondering if anyone has any ideas what could make me feel light headed and weak.

Look up orthostatic hypotension. Its very common the first year after surgery.

Are you on any blood pressure meds?

Thank you I will look it up. I have not been on blood pressure meds since surgery. I just started feeling this way a month or so ago. Thank you

Some days that is the most exciting part of my day! For me, at least, it's the low blood pressure thing -- my nurse said -- get up slowly, make sure your're not going woozy before you get a few feet down the road and drink more water and mkved me from the min 64 to min 100 oz. It helped me!

ive also seem some recomendations here to flex a bit before you stand/walk but I always forget.

That woozy feeling is not to fun. I will try to stretch more before getting up. I drink at least 100 ounces a day now. Trying to get more protein in also. Dr said if I feel like that I could also sit cross legged and put my head down in my lap to raise blood pressure. Thank You

I started having that issue at about three years out. Had a complete workup - nothing. However, I noticed while looking at my glucose level history that sometimes it was super low - and other times, normal - and I noticed one day that the symptoms came on strong a couple of hours after I ate a piece of cake. So I mentioned the possibility of reactive hypoglycemia to my PCP, and she agreed that could be what was going on. I could have gotten a glucose monitor to confirm, but my insurance doesn't cover it, so she suggested just eating something every three hours or so, and to avoid simple carbs. Ta da - that seemed to have solved the problem. Although you may be too early out for reactive hypoglycemia

During that workup, they did a lot of blood tests, a urinalysis to check for UTI, checked for blood pressure issues (i.e., orthostatic hypotension), checked my ears for an inner ear imbalance. So in other words, it could be due to a lot of things. It might even be due to a medication. At 11 months out, I'd agree with Grim that the most likely cause could be orthostatic hypotension, but I'd go in for a workup. A lot of things could be causing that...

Yup. In the first year, orthostatic hypotension is pretty common. By the time that goes away, we start getting reactive hypoglycemia, after year 1 or 2.

They are both complications, but neither are a big deal, as long as we pay attention and do what we should be doing.

I had that feeling a couple weeks ago and once up and moving I checked my blood sugar it was good for a morning reading, then checked my blood pressure and is 64/50 checked again on the other arm and it was around the same, I've stopped 1 of my 3 blood pressure meds and most days it's 110/70 which is good just an aberation that day.

I haven't had issues with AFib since I had surgery 10 year ago, but that also used to make me feel weak and light headed, the meds they give you i.e. Sotalol slows down your heart beat, when I was taking I was exhausted all the time as my heart rate was so slow.

It's always hard when you see different doctors for different things as one won't want to touch or alter medication altered by another. If you have a BP monitor at home you might want to check and record results so you have a history to discuss with your doctor, or if this continues they can order a longterm blood pressure check that you wear for a week or more which checks automatically (although it sucks when it checks in the middle of the night and wakes you up)

Hope you get this sorted out, the fear of passing out/falling is no fun.

Thank you. I have not been on in a while. All is good. Thank you once again