Stayin’ Alive CPR (You Tube video)
ACE inhibitor, right?
I had the cough from that (though night-time only) and yes, it did settle down after a week or two off of it. Never had things go quite as dramatic as you did, however!! :eek:.
Heh - just read more of the thread and yep - mine was even lisinopril.
As a side story, however, that probably saved my life. My cough manifested at nighttime only, and behaved EXACTLY like a reflux-induced cough. Several months attempting to treat it as such, and I got a referral to a gastroenterologist. By the time I saw him, I’d switched to an ARB and the cough was gone, but given that I do have reflux, he recommended an endoscopy anyway (risk of a precancerous condition).
Well, that didn’t turn up anything scary… but “while we’re at it, let’s do the screening colonoscopy”.
THAT was where the precancerous stuff came up.
So I have love-hate feelings about the lisinopril, and now routinely contribute to the “Colonoscopies Such” threads on the boards :p.
Or “Another One Bites The Dust”. 
If your daughter was 100 lbs and 4 years old, that would certainly be amazing in some sense, but probably not a good way.
I’m glad that you’re doing okay!
Oy vey, this sounds way too familiar. I’m really glad this had a good ending – and that you did speak with your doctor about it!
Something relatively similar happened to my sister and me last year. She was dealing with a urinary tract infection that was, as most are, very uncomfortable. Having had a few over the years, she was home-treating it the usual way (drinking unsweetened cranberry juice, etc.) that had always worked for her.
Anyway, she was over at my place for dinner, and feeling a great deal of discomfort and went to the bathroom. She was apparently pushing in with her diaphragm – it’s sort of natural to do so when you have a UTI since you feel a constant need to urinate that isn’t being satisfied – and while I was in the other room getting dinner ready, she sort of weakly called out “I’m really not feeling well…” Concerned, I went to the bathroom door (which was partially open) and of course asked her what was she feeling. She said “dizzy, cold…” I said, “You probably have a fever from the infection, let me in to see.”
She didn’t respond except for some basic moaning. So I went in and she was sort of bent over and rocking a little. I told her to let me feel her face/head. She leaned back so I could check, and I noticed that while the back of her head was warm, her forehead was clammy and cold, and she looked white as a ghost. I’m a hypochondriac and worrier by nature so I barked out, probably a bit harshly, “What exactly are you feeling, hon? Honey?”
She didn’t answer, and I let go of her head to get a better look. This made her fall backwards (did I mention she’s on the toilet at this point?) and just stare up at the ceilling. At first I thought she was just trying to concentrate and get some air, but then I looked at her eyes. … Jesus, I can’t explain it even now, but I can see them still… they looked flat. No life to them. I don’t know how open eyes can look so different, I mean an eyeball is an eyeball, right? But there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that she was not seeing anything at all.
I said her name a couple of times, loudly, and lightly patted (okay, maybe slapped) her face. Nothing. And that dead look continued. Terrified, I quickly glanced down to see if she was breathing and I happened to notice her hands were moving… sort of plucking at her sides.
Now by some coincidence, almost twenty years ago I’d done research for a romance novel with a hero who had epilepsy, I had read that signs of a mild seizure can include a blank affect and hands plucking at one’s side. So my immediate thought was : holy shit she’s having a seizure of some kind.
I didn’t wait any longer. I let go of her (rather unceremoniously letting her fall forward) and ran to my phone to dial 911. I was loudly describing exactly what was going on and giving my address when suddenly I heard my sister’s voice: “Who the hell are you talking to?”
Well, obviously I ran back to see, and she was now again sitting normally, bent over a bit but not in any way looking the way she had before. I was that weird combination of relieved and angry that you can get after being scared, y’know? So I said “What the fuck do you think I’m doing, I’m calling for an ambulance, you just lost consciousness! Shut up and let me talk to them!” (Other people get this way too, right? You’re so relieved but you’re also pissed off at the person who made you feel so frightened even though it wasn’t really their fault? Or is it just me?)
My sister, being my sister, insisted that I was being an over-worried, paranoid hypochondriac (to which I plead guilty on all counts) and to hang up the phone. I said “I SAID shut up and keep breathing” and ignored her, continuing to give the info to the dispatcher, who said the ambulance would be around soon. My sister now stood up (after, um, finishing her ablutions from the bathroom) and walked out to my main room, a bit slowly but not looking like someone who’d been figuratively dead to the world two minutes ago. She kept demandng that I not call an ambulance and I kept ignoring her.
Finally I hung up and explained exactly what happened. She didn’t believe me. But she said she was feeling much better now, and I had to agree that her complexion was normal and in all respects she looked fine. She took a seat and we waited for the ambulance. The EMTs arrived, took her blood pressure (a bit low but not worryingly so – frankly if they’d checked my blood pressure I have no doubt it was through the roof!) and her heart rate was a little fast in the mid-90s but nothing alarming. (Mine was about 120 at this point. But I’m prone to panic attacks and this surely was causing one.)
We explained what happened and the EMTs asked if she’d been drinking enough water. My sister admitted that she hadn’t been drinking very much at all, and nothing but the cranberry juice, because it was hurting her to go to the bathroom. They also asked if she was straining from her UTI. My sister admitted yes, and to my surprise the EMT turned to me and asked, “were her hands moving weirdly at all?” I had almost forgotten that part and practically shouted “YES!!!” because I was so shocked that someone would be able to describe that so specifically.
Anyway, they said that it was almost certain that she’d experienced Vasovagal syncope. We both looked at each other in surprise because my sister, as a graduate social work student, had just learned about the vasovagal response the previous week! Anyway, they explained that sometimes straining too hard (due to constipation or, in my sister’s case, a bladder / urinary tract infection) will cause syncope (fainting) due to the sudden loss of blood pressure. Often the hands will spasm (hence the plucking appearance). The body reacts by losing consciousness and usually once in a prone position, the blood pressure will normalize with blood returning to the head and returning consciousness.
That’s basically what had happened – when I’d made the decision to call 911 and dropped her like a sack of potatoes, she’d fallen to bend over her stomach so that her head was lowered and the blood came back to her head and she revived herself.
Of course the EMTs gave her the option of going to the hospital, and also of course my beloved nimrod of a sister said no, she felt fine. They told her to follow up with her doctor re: the urinary tract infection and obviously to call again if there was a similar episode. The UTI cleared up, and she’s been much better about avoiding dehydration, and there’ve been no episodes since.
Anyway. So speaking from the other side of the story, yes, this situation DOES scare the crap out of your family, and they were smart to call 911. Thank God this is a different ending than we’ve had recently. Knock wood.
Love the video! The less-appropriate song with a similar beat is Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust.” :eek:
Love it! The henchmen feeling the groove cracked me up.
Shhhhhhhhh! We don’t tell that to people who just collapsed and stopped breathing!!!
It’s not much fun being on the fainter’s side of things either, sometimes. A couple of years ago, my husband and son were away overnight, and I was home alone with my daughter (then 13ish). 11 PM, she’d gone to bed, I went upstairs as well to my bedroom, turned on the TV, and realized I was starting to feel queasy. The queasiness got worse, and I went into the bathroom to see if I needed to poop or something.
While sitting on the toilet (and to the best of my memory, I was not straining or anything), the room started to pixilate into black and I started to sway. I think I may have even been moving my hands oddly. I think I managed to groan or something, and the room started coming back and I quit swaying. THEN, I broke out into a cold sweat.
But as I was swaying, I remember being terrified that I was going to pass out, land on the floor, my call for help (if I was able to make one) would go unheard because of the TV… and my kids know better than to wake us on the weekend… so I’d have spent at least 12-14 hours on the floor, possibly dead, before anyone found me.
Obviously I didn’t die :D. Doctor Google suggested either vasovagal syncope, or a heart attack, which wasn’t terribly comforting!!
t’is a very good video, gets the point across very well!
OMG!!
CHOKING EPISODE
My Husband had a couple of drinks last night before dinner. While eating it, he began to cough, very weakly. I remember thinking, why doesn’t he cough properly. This cough lasted a minute or so, then his body started shaking slowly, his head went to one side, his hand fell into his dinner+his eyeball started to roll back . I froze.
Luckily, he got his breath back within a few seconds. He said he’d shovelled too much food into his mouth+ it must have went down the trachea. He was unconscious for those few seconds. He said I looked like a shadow screaming at him, then he could see me but couldn’t hear me. Then he returned to concsiousness. He gave me the fright of my life. This has left me very worried. Could he still have potatoe + gravy stuck in his lung or will the lung clear it I wonder.
Sounds like sleep apnia, get it checked out.
Which one sounded like sleep apnea to you? The OP determined that his was the result of a medication-induced coughing jag at the worst possible time in the breathing cycle.
He’s sleeping , he stops breathing.
15seconds, over anxious family.
He posts about it ?
What do you think ?
Either he’s got a serious problem that medical science knows nothing about .
Or he’s an attention seeking hypocondriac.
You really should read a little more closely for content. OP was not sleeping when this happened. That’s what he remembered. He was mid-sentence when he had a coughing fit that caused him to pass out. I’ve had sleep apnea (according to witnesses) and my father has sleep apnea (when I was a kid I noticed him stopping breathing for 20-30 second stretches in his sleep.) The OP’s description sounds nothing like sleep apnea to me. (Nor does the subject in the bump’s post, in case that’s what you were responding to.)
and date. this was a thread from May awakened by a dinner choker, yesterday.
Wow… I just happened to see this came back to life. It has been several months and I’m still alive.
Yes, I do have sleep apnea and that had nothing to do with this (I have a CPAP… have for many years). I had seen the doctor the day before complaining about the persistent cough… (actually, routine appt, just something I brought up) which he let me know was a common side effect to the drug I was taking (guess medical science seemed to know about it after all)… and took me off of it but said it would take some time to get out of my system.
I wasn’t sleeping at the time… I was trying to get a sentence finished during a coughing fit. See how the story starts out with “I was snoozing nicely”… but then it moved to “Let me back up a bit” (and tell you what really happened). In my mind I “woke up” to being given the Hymlich. Truth is I had passed out from lack of oxygen but my family thought I was choking (see the “cue back” part to what was going on in my mind). Haven’t had an issue since, and the drug is out of my system, so no more coughing.
Fifteen seconds seems like a long time (and I really didn’t have a watch on it) when someone is in mid sentence, but coughing madly and then slumps down unconscious.
Thanks for the wonderful diagnosis though… attention seeking hypocondriac is obviously the case, because it is just silly to think passing out from coughing is unusual… happens every day to you I’m sure.
Hey - thanks for bumping this thread, you just helped me figure out my hubbo’s recent coughing. He started lisinopril in May after his heart attack and this cough just started out of nowhere a couple of weeks ago. He has a Dr’s appointment on the 8th and I will bring it up then.
Dopers are so awesome! Thanks y’all!
Bingo - in fact the doctor should have TOLD him about that - a fairly significant percent of people have that reaction to ACE inhibitors.
I personally went through several months of hell because of it. My coughing was always at night, not during the day, and severely disturbed my sleep. Which was something I could not afford, as I have several other sleep issues at play.
Because of the nighttime-only, my primary care doc really thought it was stomach related. GERD can trigger coughing and in fact mine behaved EXACTLY like GERD-induced coughing on every level… except for the fact that it started a week or so after the lisinopril.
I started keeping massively detailed records, trying to find patterns; I’d even stopped the lisinopril a couple of times. Sometimes it helped, sometimes it did not (now I know it can take a a couple of weeks to work its way out). Some annoying testing (gastric emptying - mmmmm, radioactive scrambled eggs) turned of nothing, so I got a referral to a gastro. Before I saw him, I finally put my foot down and refused the lisinopril any more, and was put on an ARB (related, but different class)… and the coughing stopped.
So I’m still kind of bitter about the whole experience, I was right, the doc was wrong, neener neener neener.
Of course, it also accidentally saved my life. See, the gastro recommended doing an endoscopy anyway because I do have a history of GERD (just not bad enough to trigger that kind of coughing). I said “while I’m under… I’m 50 now, and…”.
Turns out my new hobby is growing precancerous colon polyps, which otherwise might have gone a couple of years more and had a chance to get realllll cozy with my innards.