I once passed out just after a rowing race. It was the Home Countries match (England v Wales v Scotland v Ireland) so people were actually watching us for a change. I had just finished the second race in quick succession and it was pretty hot. So we had just finished the race (my team won, because i traitorously joined the England team.) and were rowing back to our landing stages.
I noticed that i couldnt see anything, and realised that i was going to pass out. I mumbled something to my crew that apparently sounded like “potatoes” so they ignored me and didn’t stop. I dropped my oar, which stuck in the water and catapulted me out of the boat.
I regained conciousness as soon as i hit the water but before i had resurfaced there were rescue boats, ambulances, people jumping into the water trying to save me etc. My crew were having fits of hysteria with screaming and crying and thinking i was drowning.
Obviously there was nothing serious wrong, just low blood glucose and sunstroke, but they still insisted on taking me to the hospital. That one definitely took a while to live down.
See, I’d have to disagree with you on that point. I never feel like I’m stressed, and then after a few days I start to wonder why I’m exhausted all the time and snippy with people I usually am kind to. Then I have one of my claustrophobic episodes where I feel like I can’t breathe, and then I’m all “Oh! I must be stressed out!” There’s certainly no medical cause, and since I learned my dad’s cancer has returned, it’s been happening with increasing frequency.
Maybe it’s not true for everyone, but I for one feel like it’s possible. Don’t they say moving and starting a new job are one of the most stressful things you can do to yourself?
Sorry to double post, but I also wanted to say I hope you don’t have any lasting ill-effects from this, either of the medical kind or of trying to live it down.
Jodi, as your friend I now think it’s vitally important that whenever you’re ambulatory and someone is not within reach to catch you should you fall that you at all times have at least three throw pillows off the couch duck taped to your head. If you love us you’ll do this for us. Hon, we ask only because we care.
About 5 weeks into my new job at a law firm, I found myself experiencing severe chest pain. My doctors took me off work for an entire two weeks while they ran tests because they couldn’t find anything right away. Turned out to be a hiatal hernia that was causing severe acid reflux, but that actually made it MORE embarrasing for me at the new job than if I’d had some truly life-threatening issue.
“Oh, you had heartburn that kept you out for two weeks? Great.”
However, I’ve been here 4.5 years now, so I guess I didn’t make too poor of an impression.
When I was in university a young woman I knew had something similar happen. The passing out look a little longer than you and she puked first. She approached our table in the cafeteria and said rather calmly “I need some help.”. We all figured it was some kind of homework or project issue and were all prepared to pitch in. That’s when she collapsed in a chair at the table next to us, did a Linda Blair impression, then passed out. We called an ambulance and by the time she was loaded in she was feeling much better. Off to the hospital anyway and she had to sit there getting tests and such for a few hours. I hung out for an hour or so and picked her up after they decided she was ok to leave. She never did figure our what caused it. I don’t know what they point of the story is other than sometimes your body decides to fuck with you I suppose.
The last time I passed out (resulting in an ambulance trip) witnesses say I was swatting at the woman who was trying to help me, snapping, “Bean! Get away from me! Leave me alone, Bean!” as I was coming around. (Bean is my dog. I’m sure the woman wasn’t very flattered by the mistaken identity.)
Most of the time, I’m able to warn those around me that I’m about to faint and get into a safe position, but on a couple of occasions, it’s hit me like a lead fist. I bear a scar on my lip from the time I passed out in the bathroom and hit my face on the cabinet. Another time, I passed out and ran my teeth through my lip when my face hit the floor. (I wasn’t even able to put my arms out and catch myself.)
As an experienced person in these matters, I hereby offer “Lissa’s Fainting Tips”:
Time permitting, lie down and put your feet up. Prop them up on a nearby wall, if need be. It helps push the blood back into your chest and head, where you need it.
Sit down before you fall down. I know-- it sounds like it goes without saying but your instinct is to “fight” it. Don’t. The faint will usually win. When you feel the sensation coming over you, let your legs go limp and slowly crumple to the ground. Slide down against a wall if one is nearby.
Take deep, slow breaths. Sometimes, for some reason, people hold their breath when the sensation comes over them. I suppose it’s a reaction that stems from the surprise. Breathe in as deeply as you can and lowly exhale it.
You may not know it yet, but the day you can peel the monitor stickies off of your body is a beautiful day indeed. That night, the sleep is even better, no wires and box to get in the way of comfort.
Once I was interviewing an applicant for an epidemiologist position and I asked him, “if you get this position, are you able to travel?” We have a staff vehicle we provide. He looked a little funny, turned red, hit the floor and had a gran mal seizure. I looked at my co-interviewer and said, “I guess that answers that question.” After the seizure, he was disoriented and then fell asleep. It was 5:30 pm by this time and I had to leave. We had no information on him, so I called a contact from his resume, who told me they knew nothing of a diagnosis of epilepsy. I had to call for an ambulance and the poor guy wakes up just as he’s being put on a stretcher, wearing his best suit for a job interview. He called later, apologising profusely, but hey, it’s not like it’s something you can do anything about.
I only ever had one, and it was in the middle of a conversation with my doctor. Oddly enough, I had just finished telling him that everything was ok, that this was just a routine visit. I remember adding “things are pretty good for me now”. Rapid heartbeat, lightheadedness, a feeling of heat rising to my face, and then oblivion. I don’t know what part of that made me panic, but I was told that’s what it was. That first attack happened in my early 40s.
Maybe the thought of giving up existential angst for relative happiness was just too much for me to bear.
Hope it turns out to be nothing, Jodi. Since you live alone, make sure that someone at work knows to go look for you (or contacts someone who can) if you don’t show up within X period of time. In my department at work, we give people an hour and then start calling them, and then their emergency contacts. (We have several co-workers who live alone.)
My mother is in her 80s and has periodically fainted for no apparent reason since she was in her 20s. It’s happened twice in the past five years and the only commonality was stress/anger. She was talking to people that she vehemently dislikes and they were ticking her off and poof, she keeled over. She’s had all kinds of tests, but other than having very slightly elevated blood pressure from time to time, they’ve found: bupkus.
I’ve had anxiety attacks without being aware that I was anxious, too. Hands and feet go numb, breathing in brings a weird cool sensation, vision narrows, face hot, wham.
Sorry to hear about the faint. Hope everything is hunky dory.
Kidney stones had me passing out all over the place, too. I’m not sure why, but there’s this one spot in my lower abdomen, that if a wave of pain passes through it, has me slumping to the floor within seconds. Happens with period cramps, too, and I don’t even have to be in all that much pain for it to affect me. Just has to hit that fainty spot, and down I go.
Hope you’re feeling better soon, Jodi, and that it’s nothing to worry about.
Y’know, this was my exact reaction the one time I did pass out. I stood there at the counter and gripped the edge as it started coming on. I kept telling myself that maybe if I just breathe heavier, deeper, get more oxygen into my system, and keep my eyes wide open and firmly fixed on something then I won’t black out and it will pass. Being my first fainting episode I suppose I can be forgiven for being very wrong indeed. I mean, it did pass – once I was horizontal with a good knot on my head.
It still amazes me that I didn’t feel a thing. I fell backwards hard and smacked my head right into the glass door, yet it was a complete non-event for me. The knot might as well have spontaneously appeared.
