Head & Neck Radiation / BP

Hondo
Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
edited March 2014 in Head and Neck Cancer #1
Carotid sinus

Here is a problem that may or may not affect you at some point in your life; Damage to the Carotid sinus due to radiation of the Head and Neck. If you are having problems with too Hi or too Low of a blood pressure or maybe a mixed Hi & Low, you may want to just keep this web site in your files somewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carotid_sinus

As most of you know my first radiation to the head & neck was 180rads for 35 treatments and 11 months later I had to do it all over again this time 120rads twice a day for 35 treatments. The side affects of all this are just now starting to show-up. I will keep you all posted if there is a treatment to repair the damage to the Carrotid Sinus, at lease now I know what is causing my blood pressure to fall so low.

Have a great day everyone
«1

Comments

  • carolinagirl67
    carolinagirl67 Member Posts: 153
    #2
    Hondo
    Thank you for the information and my best to you with the long term side effects.
    Peace be with you!
    Donna
  • Greend
    Greend Member Posts: 678
    #3
    carolinagirl67 said:

    Hondo
    Thank you for the information and my best to you with the long term side effects.
    Peace be with you!
    Donna

    Hondo
    Do you get light headed and/or faint at times?
  • janymac
    janymac Member Posts: 35
    #4
    Greend said:

    Hondo
    Do you get light headed and/or faint at times?

    Thanks Hondo
    Nearly missed this thread. Thanks Hondo - have plenty to chat about to Dr next time. My BP went up to 235/124 at one point a couple of days ago and still very high at 200/106 the rest of time so something is afoot. Take care - you must feel very faint at times with BP as low as yours.
    I am getting acutely aware that I post too much. Must stop, but it has been good to be able to talk to people about who know exactly what it is all like - feel like a real hypchondriac some days and good to see that it is not all a figment of my imagination for last 8 years. Good luck to everyone.
  • debbiejeanne
    debbiejeanne Member Posts: 3,102 Member
    #5
    janymac said:

    Thanks Hondo
    Nearly missed this thread. Thanks Hondo - have plenty to chat about to Dr next time. My BP went up to 235/124 at one point a couple of days ago and still very high at 200/106 the rest of time so something is afoot. Take care - you must feel very faint at times with BP as low as yours.
    I am getting acutely aware that I post too much. Must stop, but it has been good to be able to talk to people about who know exactly what it is all like - feel like a real hypchondriac some days and good to see that it is not all a figment of my imagination for last 8 years. Good luck to everyone.

    no way
    janymac, no way can you post too much. That is what this site is for and we all appreciate the info or questions. If everyone felt like you, we'd get no info, so please, please keep posting. This is how we learn and most of us are like you, this is the only place we can go where people TURLY AND FULLY UNDERSTAND US!!!
    Take care and God Bless,
    Debbie
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #6
    Greend said:

    Hondo
    Do you get light headed and/or faint at times?

    Greend
    This has been going on for the passed 6 to 8 months and gating worse, I told my Ocl doc about it and he said he is not sure what it is . A few weeks ago while working in the back yard I started getting light headed so my wife said let’s take your blood pressure, and when she did it was something like 90/55 but by this time I started to feel good, so no telling how low it got. A friend of mine is a Heart doc so I went to see him about it; he ran all kinds of test and could find nothing wrong with me except for the artery in the neck being blocked 40% on the side where all my radiation was done. So he believes that Carotid Sinus is also damaged by all the rad I had, problems now is what to do about it.

    Take care
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #7
    carolinagirl67 said:

    Hondo
    Thank you for the information and my best to you with the long term side effects.
    Peace be with you!
    Donna

    Hi Donna
    Always glad to hear from you Thanks
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #8
    janymac said:

    Thanks Hondo
    Nearly missed this thread. Thanks Hondo - have plenty to chat about to Dr next time. My BP went up to 235/124 at one point a couple of days ago and still very high at 200/106 the rest of time so something is afoot. Take care - you must feel very faint at times with BP as low as yours.
    I am getting acutely aware that I post too much. Must stop, but it has been good to be able to talk to people about who know exactly what it is all like - feel like a real hypchondriac some days and good to see that it is not all a figment of my imagination for last 8 years. Good luck to everyone.

    Hi janymac
    I agree with Debbie, you can’t post too much; this is the only place we can get most of our information from. I was having a Kidney Stone removed yesterday and in getting ready for the surgery my blood pressure was running 179/ 112 and the nurse were all worried about it being too hi. I told them that it moves up and down and goes as low as 80/47 at times. One of the doctors came in while the nurse was talking about it, so I gave them my history of radiation and the doc said well that explain it, I ask him what do you mean, he said the Carotid Sinus is damaged, I said my Heart doc was telling me about an artery in my neck too, he left the room and came back 5 min later and gave me this web-site.

    Take care
  • sweetblood22
    sweetblood22 Member Posts: 3,228
    #9
    Hondo said:

    Hi Donna
    Always glad to hear from you Thanks

    thanks hondo
    thank you for the info, hondo. i am sorry to read of your recent battle with those nasty kidney stones. pain-ful! they think i passed one yrs ago. i wanted to post on the other thread, but i am having trouble getting threads to download that have a lot of posts. i have few windows of decent fast internet, and problems with the dsl most of the time. i suppose i should be greatful for any service since i am jackin my parents wireless. lol. you would think they would try and fix the problem, but no.

    the nurses story cracked me up. good luck with all that.......
  • Pam M
    Pam M Member Posts: 2,196
    #10
    debbiejeanne said:

    no way
    janymac, no way can you post too much. That is what this site is for and we all appreciate the info or questions. If everyone felt like you, we'd get no info, so please, please keep posting. This is how we learn and most of us are like you, this is the only place we can go where people TURLY AND FULLY UNDERSTAND US!!!
    Take care and God Bless,
    Debbie

    What Debbie Said
    Please, post away - and know that lots of people (who may never post) learn from your posts, and comments others make regarding your posts.
  • SASH
    SASH Member Posts: 421 Member
    #11
    BP
    Thanks for that info and I will be bringing it up with my GP when I see him next week as my BP has been running high for the past couple of years. Even my rad onc and surgeon have seen a rise in my bp. When I take it before leaving for work it is only slightly elevated, but skyrockets when at the doc's office.
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #12
    sweetblood22 said:

    thanks hondo
    thank you for the info, hondo. i am sorry to read of your recent battle with those nasty kidney stones. pain-ful! they think i passed one yrs ago. i wanted to post on the other thread, but i am having trouble getting threads to download that have a lot of posts. i have few windows of decent fast internet, and problems with the dsl most of the time. i suppose i should be greatful for any service since i am jackin my parents wireless. lol. you would think they would try and fix the problem, but no.

    the nurses story cracked me up. good luck with all that.......

    Hi sweet
    I don’t recall ever having pain like this, my daughter told me Dad it is no different then having a baby, I look at her as said now we know why God gave it to woman and not men. lol

    Don’t worry about jacking in on your parent’s wireless when my children come they take the wireless the computer and leave me holding the Mouse, we expect it

    All the best to you
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #13
    SASH said:

    BP
    Thanks for that info and I will be bringing it up with my GP when I see him next week as my BP has been running high for the past couple of years. Even my rad onc and surgeon have seen a rise in my bp. When I take it before leaving for work it is only slightly elevated, but skyrockets when at the doc's office.

    SASH

    I have been telling my rad Doc about my low bp for months and he never once said anything about the possibly of it being caused by the radiation. If you mind let me know what your rad doc says about it.

    All the best to you my Friend
  • denistd
    denistd Member Posts: 597
    #14
    Hondo said:

    SASH

    I have been telling my rad Doc about my low bp for months and he never once said anything about the possibly of it being caused by the radiation. If you mind let me know what your rad doc says about it.

    All the best to you my Friend

    carotid
    Hi Hondo. In May of 2008 I had a quadruple bypass, the main artery was 95% blocked (the nurses called the artery the "widowmaker", no heart damage. In December of 2008 I had 3 ministrokes, went to the ER after the 2nd and had one while in the ER, they discovered my carotid artery was 90% blocked so they operated on that and cleaned it out, no stroke damage,I then was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in March of 2009. When all of my treatments were over, maybe a month after, I started to get dizzy spells when I stood up, the docs at Hershey Med did not tell me that my blood pressure was plummeting when I stood up, would go from 100 over 68 to 90 over 55. The dizzy spells would last only a minute or two
    My GP had me come into his office twice a week, my red cell count was way low and I had lost 15lbs. The cardio made an appoint for me to have my carotids CT scanned. Carotids were fine. The dizziness slowly went away and is now just a memory. My GP says that the combination of Rads, chemo, red cells and weight loss were to blame. The cardio agrees and said that the radiation damaged my carotid a little but nothing to concern anyone. Denis
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #15
    denistd said:

    carotid
    Hi Hondo. In May of 2008 I had a quadruple bypass, the main artery was 95% blocked (the nurses called the artery the "widowmaker", no heart damage. In December of 2008 I had 3 ministrokes, went to the ER after the 2nd and had one while in the ER, they discovered my carotid artery was 90% blocked so they operated on that and cleaned it out, no stroke damage,I then was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in March of 2009. When all of my treatments were over, maybe a month after, I started to get dizzy spells when I stood up, the docs at Hershey Med did not tell me that my blood pressure was plummeting when I stood up, would go from 100 over 68 to 90 over 55. The dizzy spells would last only a minute or two
    My GP had me come into his office twice a week, my red cell count was way low and I had lost 15lbs. The cardio made an appoint for me to have my carotids CT scanned. Carotids were fine. The dizziness slowly went away and is now just a memory. My GP says that the combination of Rads, chemo, red cells and weight loss were to blame. The cardio agrees and said that the radiation damaged my carotid a little but nothing to concern anyone. Denis

    Hi denistd


    Thanks for the up-date, my bp is dropping to 80/47 and like you said I get the dizziness along with the feeling faint spells, some times it last for up to an hour some times on a few min. The doc did say he found 40% blockage on the right side where the cancer was and most of the rad was done.

    All the best to you my friend
  • denistd
    denistd Member Posts: 597
    #16
    Hondo said:

    Hi denistd


    Thanks for the up-date, my bp is dropping to 80/47 and like you said I get the dizziness along with the feeling faint spells, some times it last for up to an hour some times on a few min. The doc did say he found 40% blockage on the right side where the cancer was and most of the rad was done.

    All the best to you my friend

    carotid
    Hondo, it was my left side carotid that was blocked, the right side was 30% blocked and the doc said that is normal for somebody at my age and did nothing about it, the scan showed that that had not changed, apparently the left side carotid is the most critical. Denis
  • Scambuster
    Scambuster Member Posts: 973
    #17
    Hondo said:

    Hi denistd


    Thanks for the up-date, my bp is dropping to 80/47 and like you said I get the dizziness along with the feeling faint spells, some times it last for up to an hour some times on a few min. The doc did say he found 40% blockage on the right side where the cancer was and most of the rad was done.

    All the best to you my friend

    Low Blood pressure - need to get down
    Hi Hondo and crew.

    Apart from seeking medical help, I do know if you do have low blood pressure, it can quickly lead to fainting.

    As such, if you feel faint or dizzy GET DOWN and get down fast. ie sit, crouch or lie down so you don't fall. Also important - is to get up slowly after sitting and rising from bed in the morning or during the night.

    Often injuries from low BP related fainting falls is worse than having the condition itself.

    Just some good old fashioned advice and precautions to pass on to friends here as I was told all this by my good old school Doc from home.

    Regds to all
    Scambuster
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #18
    Scambuster said:

    Low Blood pressure - need to get down
    Hi Hondo and crew.

    Apart from seeking medical help, I do know if you do have low blood pressure, it can quickly lead to fainting.

    As such, if you feel faint or dizzy GET DOWN and get down fast. ie sit, crouch or lie down so you don't fall. Also important - is to get up slowly after sitting and rising from bed in the morning or during the night.

    Often injuries from low BP related fainting falls is worse than having the condition itself.

    Just some good old fashioned advice and precautions to pass on to friends here as I was told all this by my good old school Doc from home.

    Regds to all
    Scambuster

    Scambuster

    I never thought about it like that but thanks for the advice, what I don’t want to do is to have another problem on top of the ones I already have.

    Good advice my friend
  • SIRENAF42
    SIRENAF42 Member Posts: 202
    #19
    Interesting
    I never had issues with High or low blood pressure until have my radiation for sinus cancer. Since my treatment was over (16 months ago) it has been high than drops. Flunctuating. I worked on stress issues and dropped some weight, still nothing. Finally my doc put me on Lisonprol 10 mg a day to help regulate it. Now it stays at a good level, but sometimes it drops so low I just want to stay in bed cuase I get sooo dizzy and faint. I have an appt with a cardiologist on Thursday, I will have to ask him about this. Funny how someone can post something right when you need it. Very interesting. Dang cancer and its side effect just never goes away :(
  • janymac
    janymac Member Posts: 35
    #20
    SIRENAF42 said:

    Interesting
    I never had issues with High or low blood pressure until have my radiation for sinus cancer. Since my treatment was over (16 months ago) it has been high than drops. Flunctuating. I worked on stress issues and dropped some weight, still nothing. Finally my doc put me on Lisonprol 10 mg a day to help regulate it. Now it stays at a good level, but sometimes it drops so low I just want to stay in bed cuase I get sooo dizzy and faint. I have an appt with a cardiologist on Thursday, I will have to ask him about this. Funny how someone can post something right when you need it. Very interesting. Dang cancer and its side effect just never goes away :(

    Just to say started
    Just to say started amlodipine today as my BP is still sky high. Am worried it is going to lower my BP too much if it drops, but will have to wait and see. Worst BP has been 235/127. Hope this sorts it as my head is always a bit sore, feel a bit sick and eyes blurry
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #21
    SIRENAF42 said:

    Interesting
    I never had issues with High or low blood pressure until have my radiation for sinus cancer. Since my treatment was over (16 months ago) it has been high than drops. Flunctuating. I worked on stress issues and dropped some weight, still nothing. Finally my doc put me on Lisonprol 10 mg a day to help regulate it. Now it stays at a good level, but sometimes it drops so low I just want to stay in bed cuase I get sooo dizzy and faint. I have an appt with a cardiologist on Thursday, I will have to ask him about this. Funny how someone can post something right when you need it. Very interesting. Dang cancer and its side effect just never goes away :(

    Hi Sirenaf


    One of the things I love most about being part of CSN is the information we get.

    I have been telling my Ocl doctor about my pb problem for months and he never would give me an answer as to why, all I can think is maybe he does not know. The first time I said something about low pb to my heart doctor he hit right on it. His problem right now is trying to figure out what to do with someone whose pb goes between 170/ 117 to as low as 80/47

    I know about the dizzy all-day feeling and when it hits I just don’t feel like doing anything. You are right the side affects seam to never go away

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