Last night, as I’m watching TV, I get up off my recliner and head to the kitchen. Suddenly, I feel myself getting dizzy. I tried to brace myself on the counter to no avail. I just fell down and busted my shoulder in the process.
Physically, I think I’m OK. My shoulder still hurts pretty bad, but I found some prescription strength ibuprofen in the medicine cabinet.
The thing that’s bothering me is I can’t stop thinking about it. I mean, it just came from nowhere. No drinking or no smoking was involved. Two seconds before the incident, I felt perfectly fine.
Is it going to happen again? Is this a get’n old thing (I’m 48)?
IDK why I’m sharing this. I guess if other people chime in with similar experiences I might feel better. Lol
Could also be nothing. I once walked into my kitchen feeling fine, and the next thing I knew I was waking up on the floor. I had lost consciousness for a few seconds. I was of course totally freaked out and saw the doctor the next day. I expected he would order some brain scans or something, but he just said “eh, it probably will never happen again.” And 10 years later it hasn’t.
Go see a cardiologist. It might be something, or it might be nothing.
For me, it’s nothing- a few years back, I started to have dizzy spells whenever I stood up from crouching (or occasionally just getting off the couch). I went to the doctor, who sent me to a cardiologist. They had me do a tilt table test- basically, they strapped me to a board on my back, and after a few minutes pivoted me up into a standing position. I passed out so quickly they had to do the test again just so they could monitor it.
It turns out I’ve got orthostatic hypotension- basically, my blood pressure drops way too low whenever I change position too quickly. The doctor said, “Don’t do the things that cause this.”
Happened to me after my blood pressure meds were tweaked. I’d fallen asleep on the couch and didn’t have my hearing aid in. My gf walked through the living room and yelled at me to go to bed. I didn’t hear her, so she shook me as she walked by.
For some reason I jumped up. Then, I fell down, landing hard on a marble coffee table. Scared her, bruised my ego and body.
I had an already scheduled doctor appointment a few days later. The nurse asked if I’d had any recent falls. I laughed and asked how she knew. She didn’t, it’s just a routine question they ask people over a certain age. So, I answered, “no”.
I’ve met the floor in a personal and intimate way many times. Usually blood sugar related. Once though, I had a serious sinus infection. My ears were involved. Fainted dead away at the doctors office. Scared the bejeebers out of everyone there. So it could basically anything. Glad you’re going to the doc. Good luck.
But any collapse that occurs upon getting up from the seated or supine position, and where the person “feels myself getting dizzy”, is almost certainly due to transient low blood pressure*
Anyone on a diuretic, blood pressure medication, and many other types of meds, or anyone who’s recently had vomiting or diarrhea, especially if their oral intake was low at the time, can probably save themselves that call. See the doc if it happens again.
None of the above applies to a person on a blood thinner (not aspirin or Plavix, though)
(*unless by dizzy they mean true vertigo which is not particularly likely to occur upon standing, although it could well occur with head movement. Plus “feel myself getting dizzy” is not typically how sufferers of true vertigo describe it. They’re more like,“Wow, everything starting spinning. Wow”).
Ask any reasonably concerned doctor, and you will be told, “Come on in and get checked. We’d much rather have you come in and end up embarrassed over nothing than dead at home.”
A couple years ago, Hubster was playing a bit too energetically with COTU#1 * and he wound up with chest pains.
He started looking pale and sweaty, and my horrified daughter asked me, “What do I do?”
When I answered, I was somewhat surprised to hear myself say, “Call 911!”
The ER was packed, yet everyone we saw was kind and caring. Hubster was apologizing over and over.
And every single person said the same thing: Always come in and get checked!
His cardiac enzymes were normal. He was told to follow up with our family doctor.
Always! Go!
~VOW
COTU is our shorthand for the grandkids. It stands for “Center of the Universe”
