In which Jodi spends the day in the emergency room

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So I’ve totally made a spectacle of myself at my new job yesterday.

There I was sitting in orientation, when my heart started pounding and I started to pass out. Not like “ooh, I’m dizzy,” like “I am freaking losing consciousness right here, right now.” So I grabbed the arm of the woman sitting next to me and said, loudly, “I need help, I’m passiing out.”

Then I passed out.

I came to less than a minute later, but by then I was on the floor with a circle of very alarmed people looking down on me and the ambulance was on its way. I tried to stand up – no ambulance, thanks! I’m fine! – almost passed out again, and decided that I’d rather lay on the floor for a while.

So the EMTs came, hooked me up to the EKG machine, stuck my finger to test my blood sugar, loaded me on a stretcher, wheeled me out of the building and into the ambulance and off to the hospital. As some of you might have gathered from my occasionally tart posting style, I pride myself on professionalism and self-control, so I was feeling a very icky combination of embarrassed-to-the-point-of-mortification, and scared to death.

I was poked, prodded, X-rayed and EKG’ed at the hospital and all the tests came out fine. Not anemic; not diabetic; no obvious heart problem; no obvious lung or head problem. Irrationally, I was sort of disappointed in this; though I of course do not want a dread disease, I wish I had a better story to tell people after my dramatic exit from the workplace.

I’m also still pretty freaked out. I took today and worked from home, phone always at my fingertips, but I can’t help but worry it will happen again. I doubt the dogs will dial 911 for me if it does.

I have to wear a heart monitor for two weeks. I have to go back to work tomorrow and endure being the 9-day wonder who got rolled out on the stretcher. Bet I really impressed my new bosses. I’d go to my happy place tonight, but I can’t remember where it is at the moment.

2

I hope further testing reveals some cause that’s not too scary, but does give you a good excuse for everyone: “It turns out that the perfume of the woman sitting in the next row, the artificial ‘creamer’ in my coffee, and the laser printer toner in the orientation handout I’d just been given combined in an unusual chemical reaction to form a potent anesthetic, which fortunately has no long-term side effects.”

Or, hey! Maybe you have a hitherto unsuspected allergic reaction to meetings! And what with the ADA and all, they’d have no choice but to accomodate you.
(Hope it was nothing serious, and that you’re able to live down any resulting notoriety.)

3

You made a promise, then you delivered on that promise. Who wouldn’t respect that kind of reliability?

4

IMO you had a panic attack. You mention your pride in self-conyrol, and here you are in a completely new situation over which you have no control.

This is not a problem, not a failing, and not a criticism. But if I’m right it’s something you need to know about yourself. The main problem in panic attacks is not the attacks themselves, but the fear of having one.

You can do it, you have control over your situation and yourself and you do not need to fear. Go out and get’em, tiger!

5

Heh. Three months ago I started a new job and went into anaphylaxis during the first week. Antihistamines, rushed to the clinic, lots of drama.

The final word from the allergist was a very professional-sounding version of “Dude, I don’t know.”

I hope your experience is more-or-less the same. (A freak crisis that’s apparently a one-time deal, never to be explained.)

6

You know, in the movies, when someone passes out, it’s always because they’re pregnant. Congratulations?

7

Don’t be too dissapointed if they never find a reason for it. Both my mother and I are fainters. I, too, have had the lovely experience of waking up on the floor with an ambulance on the way and going to the hospital when I know damn well it’s a waste of time and money.

I’ve had every test under the sun. (I wore the heart monitor, too.) Nothing. Some doctors have ventured tentative theories but none has ever been able to point to a physical cause.

8

It may not be a panic attack, though def not ruling it out. My brother’s girlfriend had this happen to her too. Not so much a “panic attack”, but definately related to stress. She was told to try to do more relaxing activities and get plenty of rest.

(The first time this happened to her she was just standing on a subway train, she felt dizzy and the next thing she remembers someone was helping to hold her up. She did not recall anything that would specifically have triggered it.)

9

I’d say you actually did pretty well…you recognized your problem, got the attention of someone, and then made the very wise decision to stay on the floor for a bit. You made the best possible choices in your situation.

I hope you find your happy place again soon.

10

There’s nothing quite like the surreal experience of lying on the floor at work, surrounded by worried coworkers, alternating between hoping it’s nothing and hoping it’s something to justify all the to-do you just caused.

I got wheeled out of work into an ambulance and off to the ER once - gall bladder attack - great fun, that. Scared the puddin’ out of everyone, including me and my poor husband. But today, I don’t know if anyone here remembers. Come to think of it, I don’t know if anyone who was there is still here. I’m thinking all but 1 or 2 have left or retired.

Anyway, hope you get an answer. And I’m glad this didn’t happen while you were driving. :eek:

11

I had something a little similar happen – it was the first, and so far the last time I ever actually passed out for reasons I’ve never understood, though I suspect it might have been my diet at the time. Years back a friend persuaded me to join a gym with him and take up weightlifting. I’m was a scrawny fellow back then and he felt it was his duty to take me under his wing and pahmp [clap] me ahp. So pump me up he attempted to do. It involved not only lifting weights but eating lots and lots of protein and little to no sugar. Why this was I don’t know, but he told me it helped. So I followed his instruction betwixt reps of wrist and arm curls, dead lifts and bench presses. At the time I also had a job as a typesetter, and one day amidst all of this I had to jaunt over to the printers to pick up some stuff to be set. I dashed over on a bike they had lent me to make the trip. On arrival I spoke to someone who went off to get the stuff I was to pick up. As I stood at the counter, I started feeling a little faint. My head started to spin and I felt as though darkness was closing in around me. “I think I’m going to pass out,” I thought to myself.

And then I did.

I awoke moments later to several people who were around mem, asking if I was alright. My head hurt, but not from passing out. Apparently I’d topped backwards into the front door, which, in obeying the laws of physics, opened when my head slammed into it.

I didn’t go to the hospital or anything, and kept assuring them that I was perfectly fine, that I must have just pushed myself too hard riding over there.

It was bizarre, but so far nothing like that has ever happened again.

12

I hope you’re feeling better!

Try to remember what you would think if one of your colleagues became ill at work – I’m guessing that you would think “gosh, I hope it’s nothing serious and that she is feeling better soon.” I’m pretty sure that’s what your new bosses and coworkers are thinking about you.

13

A couple of weekends ago, I put my hand down on a wasp, and the little bastige nailed me in the web of my thumb.

I went inside to find some ammonia and couldn’t find it (having recently moved), so I ran some cold water over it while I pondered what to do next. I realized I was getting light-headed, and I headed off to the living room to sit down. I never made it…

I woke up on the floor beside the refirgerator with a knot on my head from hitting it on the way down. Ever since I had surgery last year and lost 120 lbs, I’ve had trouble with low blood pressure, and I’m susceptible to traumatic shock anyway. In short, I got shocky, and my BP crashed. To make the point extremely clear, it was not anaphylactic shock that took me down. No hives, swelling, etc. ever appeared.

A few minutes of laying where I fell straighened me out, and I was on my way to more chores. I now wear thick leather gloves when I’m somewhere a wasp might be.

14

You are in my prayers, but I am not sure exactly what to pray for.

How about that it is something not-serious, non-repeating, but non-embarassing?
Anyway, glad you are OK, so far.

Regards,
Shodan

15

wow. Sorry to hear your news. I hope it doesn’t turn out to be serious. Sending supporting thoughts your way.

16

I didn’t take it as a criticism, and I don’t have any “complex” that “panic attack = weakness or personal failing,” but I honestly don’t think this was it. I’ve never had a panic attack or anxiety attack in my life. The cross-country move I just did was stressful, but it was over eight weeks ago and I didn’t have any anxiety then. The job I just started is interesting and challenging (in a very good way), but miles less stressful than the job I left. The specific situation I was in was not in the least stressful – orientation: talking heads talk, the small audience sits and doodles. I guess it raises the philosophical question of whether you can be said to be “anxious” or “panicked” if you have no conscious awareness at all of anxiety or panic, but I think I would tend to answer that question “no.” I’m way more stressed after the event than I was before, because I live alone and I’m afraid it may happen again. That’s also in all honesty why I wish they could point to something specific as “wrong” with me; at least then they (and I) could do something about it.

I am feeling more myself today. Thanks for all the good thoughts, and for the “something similar happened to me” stories. They really do help me put my minor situation in perspective. :slight_smile:

17

So, did you get to meet Maura Tierney?

18

I scared the tar out of my co-workers a few years ago. I had what I thought was a UTI, and I stopped on my way to work to pee and…nothing. Ick, I said, I’ll have to make an appointment with the doctor when I get to work.

I’m driving, in pain, and I started to go numb. All over. My hands curled in like claws, my mouth puckered in like I had no teeth, even my eyelids were numb. All I could think was get to work get to work get to work and get help.

I stumble in and my co-workers said I was white as a sheet. I could barely talk and they called 911 for me. Everyone thought I was having a stroke.

The ambulance came and I’m hauled out through the building on a gurney. :o

It turns out I had a kidney stone, and after the blessed IV painkillers took effect, I was sent home to sleep away the afternoon and the night.

After that we made sure there was emergency contact info on our department phone list. They couldn’t get ahold of Ivylad for a couple of hours.

19

Well I’m glad to hear that you’re okay, but if it turns out not to be anything serious I highly adivse you to ask the doctor if she could write up something about an allergy to meetings.

20

I would say yes. It all depends on how good you are at repressing your emotions. When I’m stressed I somehow repress it to the point that I’m not even conscious of it. My subconscious knows though and eventually I start having dress dreams or some other manifestation. The most dramatic example was when I went off to college. I never felt stressed or anxious. Thought I had the whole experience under control. The night before orientation I was sitting in the hotel when I was suddenly physically sick: vomiting, lightheaded, and white as a sheet. So I would say it’s totally possible to have a panic attack without ever feeling panicked.