Orthostatic hypotension

RetiredTeacher

My DH has been suffering from orthostatic hypotension as well as a haywire GI system. I have read autonomic dysfunction can happen with alzheimers patients. He is up and down all night long 15-20x. Noone is sleeping and the meds they have tried: risperidone, flimax and trazadone have all made the low BP much worse. He is now off of all meds except a statin. Does anyone have any advice for dealing with these symptoms?

Iris L.

Do his feet and legs swell at night? Fluid retention during the day may be causing him to awaken so often during the night. Compression hose and elevation of legs as much as possible may help with fluid retention. Does he need the statin? Ask the doctor.

Iris

RetiredTeacher

No leg swelling but he does have an enlarged prostate that presses on his bladder making him feel pressure frequently. He does need the statin because he has atherosclerosis, has had 3 strokes abd 2 Vasculsr surgeries. I was just wondering if others are dealing with autonomic dysfunction issues.

Chammer

Have they ruled out MSA (multiple system atrophy)?

Pat6177

I wasn’t sure what autonomic dysfunction was so I did a search and looked at this site for info. My.clevelandclinic.org for Dysautonomia. Sorry, I don’t know how to make that a live link.

I don’t know if my husband has this or not but it’s possible. In 2019, a year before he was diagnosed, he had an episode of syncope and was hospitalized for a day and a half. They did a whole bunch of tests and determined that the syncope was due to Flomax which he was on for an enlarged prostate. So they took him off Flomax and he had prostate surgery 6 mos later. Since then he has had I think 4 fainting spells. I didn’t drag him to the ER for any of these. Since he was diagnosed, he increasingly complains of being woozy and wobbly, he has balance and gait issues and a runny nose. Just in the past few months he has had 2 episodes of nausea and vomiting. In the 45 yrs I’ve know him, he had never vomited. These are all symptoms of autonomic dysfunction. I have no idea if the autonomic dysfunction is due to the dementia but I have assumed that the symptoms DH has are due to his dementia.

Thanks for raising the issue!