Wharton runner conquers 5Ks, blood pressure condition

The symptoms always seemed to nip at her heels. Erin Bailey could hold them off for most of a 5-kilometer race, but not all of it.

As sure as Boston hosts marathons, the symptoms would overtake the Wharton High standout at some point down the stretch.

"I know when it's coming," she said.

The stomach cramps would be followed by drooping eyes. Then her hands would contort into a claw shape. In the worst episodes, her legs would become rubbery and her world would darken.

For the longest time, such was Bailey's distance-running modus operandi: pass the finish line, pass out.

"It was like tipping a cow," veteran Wharton cross country/track coach Wes Newton said.

Today, Bailey's low blood-pressure condition — neurocardiogenic syncope — is under control. So far, the early stage of her senior cross country season has been uneventful; she even placed third Saturday in a race at North Port High. But before receiving the proper diagnosis and medication, Bailey would enter a race knowing the nauseating scenario awaiting her in the final meters.

She kept running anyway.

"Now, it doesn't really happen because I have a pill," said Bailey, who ran the third leg on the Wildcats' state championship 4x800-meter relay team as a sophomore and placed 25th (in a personal-best time of 19:38) at last season's Class 3A state cross country meet.

"But before, I just didn't really think about it, and I knew that no matter how hard I would run, it was going to happen and I'd just have to push through it. And I was just hoping it wouldn't happen during the run, but I've got to do it for my team. They need me, so …"

Getting the proper diagnosis

Bailey's condition, widely known as NCS, essentially is the failure of blood to rapidly pump back to the vital organs when it pools in lower parts of the body.

Pooling can be caused by standing for long periods, strenuous exercise or warm weather, among other causes. When this happens to normal individuals, the body releases a surge of adrenaline that causes the heart to beat faster, allowing blood to pump more expeditiously.

But according to the Comprehensive Cardiovascular Care Group's Web site, an individual with NSC experiences a miscommunication between heart and brain. When the heart needs to beat faster, the brain sends out a message that the heart beat should slow down.

The result: nausea, dizziness, muscle aches and, in Bailey's case, blackouts.

"We call them episodes," said her mom, Patti.

The first signs of a problem arose two autumns ago. The Wildcats cross country team was doing some speed training when Bailey began feeling light-headed. Instinctively, she pushed herself to keep going because, well, that's what runners do. Her parents initially chalked it up to dehydration and possibly electrolyte imbalance.

"She's a tough girl," Patti Bailey said, "and she just kept running through it."

They began seeking more specific answers shortly thereafter, when Erin, the oldest of their three kids, passed out during a run in Tampa's Flatwoods Park and an ambulance was summoned. Patti Bailey recalls that instance — her daughter a "little bit" conscious in the ambulance, paramedics asking Patti if she was pushing her daughter too hard — as the scariest moment.

Neurologists ruled out seizures. Then in early 2008, the Baileys met Eric Coris, a doctor of sports medicine at the University of South Florida. He suggested a cardiologist, who ran Erin through a stress test that she aced. Coris then put Erin on a "tilt table" at a 70-degree angle to simulate blood pooling. She passed out. Voila.

"Some people have it every day of their life; that would be frightening," Patti Bailey said. "Hers just comes with intense competition or exercise. She plays soccer as well; she's never had any issues there, and we think we've got it under control with medication."

Team first, fainting second

Today, Erin takes two salt tablets three times a day, a salt-retention medication twice a day and a blood-pressure medication once daily. But a trial-and-error preceded this phase of stability. While figuring out exactly what type of medicine she needed, and when to take it, Erin kept competing.

She estimates she has fainted, or altogether passed out, 10 times in her career.

"At the beginning I kind of (worried), but I said if I'm going to run, I'm going to run to my potential," Erin said. "I've got to do it for my team; I've got to put my problems aside. I can't have any fear because if I do it will keep me from whatever goals I have."

In addition to the medicine, she has learned some other preventive measures. When initial cramping comes on, she tells herself to relax. Sometimes at the end of a race, she'll lie flat on her back while someone raises her legs to get the blood flowing up her body.

"We know how to deal with it," said Newton, who at 60 is one of the most respected distance-running coaches in the area. "She hasn't had a bout with it since last track season. We know that it's always there. She wants to put it aside and forget it, and she will."

It's the fortitude people won't soon forget.

"She's a tough cookie to be putting up with this," Patti Bailey said.

"Erin's a really courageous person," said Wharton junior Abby Ritter, a cross country teammate. "What keeps her going I don't really know. She just doesn't let her team down, that's the big thing."

Joey Knight can be reached at jknight@sptimes.com.

*