Twice. Once in high school ROTC, when I hadn’t eaten breakfast, stood in formation, and locked my knees. They go to great pains to warn you against it, and I knew better, but…last thing I remember from then is the wall going blurry, and hearing an instructor say, “Somebody catch Gundy, she’s wobbling.” The second swooning episode was two Christmases ago - I was trying to slice open a plastic tie on a Godzilla figure with a very long, very sharp pocket knife and sliced open my thumb. Funny thing, I saw the cut and was pretty calm - got up, closed the knife, and walked to the kitchen to run it under water. Wrapped a paper towel around it when I saw a Band-Aid wouldn’t contain it, and called my dad to help. He grabbed some larger bandages and began wrapping it up when I caught a glance. I said, “I think I’m going to faint” - he thought I was kidding, and next thing he knew- bam! I hit the deck. I woke up to my mom freaking out and my dad laughing, “If I knew you were serious, I would have caught you!”
Twice here. First time, I was in college. Pre-Med student, interning in a teaching hospital. A little girl came in with a horribly infected ingrown toenail. The attending doc squeezed it a little, and an enormous glob of greenish yellow pus splattered into my face. Good God, the smell was awful. Then I started thinking about it being someone else’s bodily fluid, the risk of HIV, etc. Hit the floor like a ton of bricks. I’m now a programmer.
Second time, I was cutting flower stems with a knife, and somehow managed to cut most of the way through the tip of my index finger as well. Went through the nail, part of the bone, everything but a small bit of skin. I called my mom (a nurse) to see if she thought I should get stitches. When she asked just how bad it was, I got my first good look. My finger tip was just dangling, kind of like those flip-top lids that are on toothpaste tubes. I fainted, but not before I vomited, which did provide some cushion when I hit the floor…
Back in junior high, I was riding my bike over to a friend’s house on a residential street. From near the right-hand curb, I wheeled over into the street to make a left-hand turn (like a dumbass) without checking for overtaking traffic.
Last time I ever made that mistake, as there was, in fact, a car coming up behind me. My front wheel hit the bumper and I went down, sliding along the pavement a bit. Except for a slight road burn on my right shoulder, I was fine. I apologized profusely to the very worried driver of the car, and we went our separate ways.
I decided to turn around and head home, 'cause my shoulder was a little raw - other than that, I felt fine. I made up a story to my mother about how I’d hit a curb and gone down ('cause I didn’t want to explain that I was hit by a car), which she might have believed. She saw my shoulder and marched me into the bathroom to put some ointment on it.
While she was doing that, I suddenly started to feel faint. It was very sudden, and came in the midst of my protestations that I was fine. As my vision went dark, Mom half-dragged me to my bed and got my head between my knees, at which time I came back around. Mom was exceedingly concerned, but I had no other problems.
I guess that may or may not count, since I didn’t actually pass out completely. I was certainly on my way, though, and would have been on the floor had my mother not been standing there.
Then there was the time that a friend of mine gave me a playful sleeper hold from behind, and I found myself waking up on the ground. Without meaning to, he’d put me out like a light.
I just remembered another time. You know how when you go into shock so that you don’t feel as much pain? I once fainted that way. I was climbing a tree, and reached about, oh, fifteen feet. Once there, I grabbed a branch that, unbeknownst to yours truly, had been almost completely eaten by termites. When I heard the crack, I passed out and woke up seconds later with my back on the ground (and not in pain!).
I have fainted several times. The first time, I was at elementary school in chorus. Earlier in the month I had my jaw wired shut from a broken jaw. (I had braces on my teeth, it wasn’t so bad.) But, I couldn’t eat much. I’m sure it was from low blood sugar. This also happened in junior high. (It pissed me off when they checked my purse for drugs.) In my early twenties I used to sell plasma. When they take plasma from you, they first take a whole pint of blood, then put it in a centrifuge to separate the pasma from the red blood cells. Then they give you back your red blood cells. Then they repeat the process to get a whole pint of plasma. On my second “input” bag of red cells, the IV got stopped up. They did a blood test to determine if my protein count was high enough so that I could skip the second bag, which they said it was. They pulled the IV out, and I got sweaty, cold and clammy, darkening vision and dim hearing. Everything went away. When I came back, they had elevated my feet, and put a cold pack behind my neck. I was OK eventually, and we went on our way. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home, and I was feeling OK at first, but soon felt faint. I told my boyfriend I was fainting, and he caught me and laid me down. Then (he told me) I choked on my tongue. He had to reach in and push it down. I took a great whoosh of air into my lungs, and came to. We got out of there in a hurry. I tried to give plasma after that, but I would pass out every single time. Now, I pay attention to the first signs of dizziness, usually due to low blood sugar from not eating soon enough.
I fainted twice, and what’s interesting is that both times, someone in the vicinity (knowing my tendency for DRAMA) asked if I was faking, and the EMT or first aid person assured them that someone who falls FORWARD flat on their face, isn’t usually faking.
First time I was in eighth grade at the U.S. Mint in Washington D.C. and had horrible cramps and passed out on the wet, muddy floor of the ladies room. How embarassing, since I had to be wheeled out in a wheel chair RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY BIGGEST CRUSH!
Second time was in highschool, and I fainted forward, hitting my head forwards onto a desk and backwards onto a hardwood floor. THat fainting episode had a lovely side effect of three hours of complete blindness, which a young nurse ASSURED me was “absolutely permanent”. God bless teaching hospitals.
Although i’ve never passed out, i do often get dizzy spells, and i think that if they get worse, i will get fainting spells as well. The doctor says that it’s cause i have a low blood presure. It seems that often when laying on a couch, watching TV, when i get up, i get dizzy, and sometimes my vision goes black for a second or two
Am I the only person here who faints during sex? It’s . . . um, interesting. I do have to explain beforehand so the guy doesn’t get upset. It tends to happen when I have a really intense climax. Only think I have to worry about is being on top and smacking the guy’s nose with my forehead.
I’ve fainted under non-sex circumstances only once. I was really stressed out because of job, bills, and a boyfriend who decided he didn’t need to keep a job anymore. I was probably coming down with something. When I found another overdue bill from the phone company, I leaned on the boyfriend and passed out. I didn’t lose all conciousness, because I could still hear him calling my name, but I do remember being glad that I had fainted because I was finally relaxed and unstressed.
