While Taking Gentamicin, Are You Feeling Faint or Feeling Dizzy?
When bed-bound gentamicin patients complain of feeling “dizzy”, physicians and nurses often attribute the feeling to a condition known as orthostatic hypotension, which is feeling faint when getting up from a lying position. It is due to blood pooling in the legs, and can often occur when a person has been bed-bound for a number of days and attempts to get up. Feeling faint, or being close to losing consciousness, can be different from feeling dizzy, where the room spins, or where it is hard to keep balance when walking. Sometimes, sick people, on or off of gentamicin, do get faint, or get nauseous, and it has nothing to do with the gentamicin. Back to top Link to top of the page If you are on gentamicin, it is critically important to be specific when describing your symptoms to your healthcare providers. Often, early vertigo can lead to nausea, similar to becoming seasick after getting on a rocking boat. This type of nausea must be distinguished from the nausea that occurs when we get
