Tell your fellow Dopers what it's like to ...

Have you experienced any phenomena – regularly, intermittently, or even only once–that many or most of your fellow Dopers, in your estimation, have not? If so, this is the thread to tell us about it. It can be anything you feel like sharing – winning the lottery, undergoing chemotherapy, watching a donkey show in Mexico – as long as it’s reasonably uncommon.

I’ll start with an only-slightly uncommon experience I experience maybe once a month: hypoglycemia, the extremely low blood sugar levels sometimes afficting diabetics taking insulin or certain oral medications (though other conditions can cause it as well). The symptoms I experience vary, actually. The very first time it happened to me, I noticed that my right thigh had become almost completely numb, but in the years since that warning sign has disappeared; likewise the twitching in my left arm. What I can count on always feeling is the illusion of extreme warmth; an extreme loss of coordination, particularly in typing, and a concommitant difficulty in speeaking coherently; an altered mental state. If my blood sugar gets extremely low – around 40 mg/dl, say – I can count on feeling like exhausted for at least an hour even after the levels return to safe territory; for me, such a episode of hypoglycemia is like having to suddenly sprint 5 miles without preparation.

Anybody else?

I found a baby in the street. It was a weird feeling because I had to pick him up and try to figure out where he belonged. If someone saw me, they could easily think I took the baby, so I was a bit anxious about it.

I found another kid in the 'hood who knew the baby and pointed me in the right direction and the mom was very grateful, but it was a pretty strange feeling just picking a baby up on the street.

I have been a human test subject twice.

The first study was to see if ibuprofen affected bone density in women. Since the study was for the U.S. Army, I had to work out at a special gym at least three days a week, have my diet monitored, and take red or green pills. I learned a lot about proper exercise and was in the best shape I’ve ever been (that didn’t last long :frowning: ).

Now I’m in study monitoring blood glucose in pregnant women. The first phase of the study is over: I had to wear a glucose monitor for four days, write down what I ate for two of them, and then eat food they gave me for two. The next phase will be similar, just later in my pregnancy.

I have volunteered for other studies, but have been turned down for various reasons: they have met the quota for people in of my sex/age, medications I take may interfer, I don’t have sex often enough and I haven’t had the minimum number of partners (that was an odd experience.)

I’ve been hit by lightning. Twice, actually.

Physically, it’s like being hit over the head by a two-by-four. Each time, there was more of a sensation of sharp physical impact, rather than any sort of electrical zap. Afterwards was a blur, both times- I suspect that I was in a bit of shock from the experience.

The most interesting thing was seeing the secondary arcs. The first time, I saw sparks shoot out the sides of my shoe (I was standing on one foot at the time… I think). The second time, I saw the water light up around me, with arcs seeming to stretch 3-4 feet along the surface of the water.

Wow. Fuckin’ wow.

Too bad the thread’s not a contest, 'cause otherwise you’d be way out in front.

Leading nominee for Double Entendre of the Year Award.

I was thinking best username/post combo!

Me, I spin fire. I’m learning fans and staff, but I mostly do poi - chains. I hold chains with kevlar wicks on the end and soak the wicks in charcoal lighter fluid/kerosene/both and then light them on fire and spin them around my body.

The one thing about firespinning (especially chains, but also staffs and batons) that is shocking the first time, and sometimes the 234th time, is the sound. It’s LOUD! Great roaring whooshing as the fire moves around your body. It’s also strangely heavy. I don’t know why, but a chain on fire is much heavier and harder to swing around than a chain not on fire. A small amount of it must be the weight of the fuel, but I’ve picked up chains soaked in dew or left out in the rain, and they’re not as heavy as chains on fire. I don’t think fire “weighs” anything, but it must set up convection currents or something that impedes circular movement.

And yes, it’s very hot. And yes, I tie my hair back and cover it with a bandana so I don’t scorch off the shorter hairs. And yes, I’ve burned myself. Surprisingly, as long as you keep the fire moving, it usually doesn’t burn you that badly. Rule number one of firespinning - don’t stop 'till you’re out!

It’s not getting hit by lightning or spinning flaming death-chains (that’s awesome), but I have broken a large number of pieces of wood with my hands and feet. The greatest I’ve ever broken with a kick was four one-inch boards, and I once did three with a hand break.

If both you and the holder(s) are using proper technique (eg, you hit with the right part of your foot/hand and the holder doesn’t flinch), it doesn’t hurt. You shouldn’t even really feel the impact if it’s a good break, because your technique should be fast and focused enough that the boards give instantly. However, I’ve never done a completely painless hand break. Hands are more sensitive, so there’s a bit of a stinging sensation, but no real “pain”.

Breaking is pretty useless as a martial arts “skill”, but it never fails to impress.

I have/experience something called synesthesia, which I did not know was unusual for a long time. I still don’t think it’s that odd, but as others (including Dopers) have informed me, its apparently not all that common. I’ve only in recent years learned that there was even a word for it, and I had to go and look it up again just now to remember what the hell it was called, not to mention how it was spelled. Apparently there are different types of it, and whatever one I have is a combination of “seeing sounds”, as in, sounds have a colour.

I believe there are even several other Dopers who see things the way I do, or at least have some form of synesthesia combination that I might not have, so I don’t think it’s really that uncommon, perhaps.

I don’t know. It’s the only thing about me that I can think of that might be a little different to some people. What is it like? I don’t know how to describe it. I thought everybody saw things the way I did until it was pointed out to me that it’s not. So… maybe it’s like being colourblind, only in reverse?

You know that falling dream, where they say you’ll die if you hit the ground before you wake up? I’ve hit the ground three or four times now. As far as I know, I’m still alive. The first time I hit the ground, I bounced. The second time I just got pressed into the ground. I don’t recall any other times, because it’s old hat for me now.

As an aside (and probably why I’ve actually hit the ground in that dream), I am a lucid dreamer, and it is the best. Being able to direct your dreams and being conscious of dreaming is a marvelous experience.

I have a form of synesthesia too, Ana. I have the type where numbers and letters have colours.

Add me to that list. Numbers always have colors in my head.

I was tortured in an MRI machine. Worse, I actually volunteered for it.

Many years ago, I did some work for a neurobiologist who was studying how the body processes pain. Mostly I designed machines for various types of lab tests. When people asked me what I did for a living, I told them that I designed torture devices for cats. I used to get a few strange looks.

I would usually test out these machines and devices on myself before subjecting any other person or animal to the machine. The machines were all designed to cause some sort of pain without causing any actual damage to the person (or animal).

One day we got the bright idea to do brain scans on an MRI machine while receiving pain stimuli. The theory was that the new MRI machines were just barely able to detect changes in blood flow in the brain and that any area of the brain that received an increase in blood flow was probably doing some work.

The big challenge was to come up with torture devices (er, I mean research equipment) that would give a controlled stimulus and would also work next to an MRI machine, which meant that the normal electronic controls we used wouldn’t work. For example, in order to test the heat pain threshold, I came up with the idea of using brass tubes filled with water and sealed at both ends which were left in a hot water bath for an extended period of time. The tubes had enough mass that they would hold their temperature over the length of the test and had good enough thermal conductivity that they would transfer the temperature to skin easily enough. Heat the tubes up to 45 deg C, and you’ve got your hot pain stimulator.

Now to see if this idea would even work or would provide any useful data, some idiot had to climb into the MRI machine and get tortured. Since I helped design a lot of the tests, I volunteered to go in first. Now, keep in mind that we’re trying to measure changes in blood flow in a particular area of the brain, which means the brain needs to be in exactly the same place in every scan. How do you keep someone’s head in exactly the same place for an hour straight? Simple. Strap something that looks like a hockey mask to their face and strap that and the rest of their head to the table.

So, not only was I tortured, but I was held down and tortured.

We did baseline scans in between each test then did about a dozen tests. If you are at all claustrophobic (which I’m not) then I don’t recommend ever volunteering for something like this. MRI machines are LOUD. This particular machine had a tendency to go wocka wocka wocka wocka and bzzzzt bzzzzt a lot.

After about an hour of testing, I got unstrapped from the table and went back to see the scans. The researcher I worked for pointed to one of the images and said “We have good news. We found a brain.” Uh, thanks.

I got to keep some images of my brain as a souvenir, which I thought was nice.

Me too, for letters as well. I think mine is a bit mild though because until someone brings it up I don’t usually notice it. Strangely, it first became really apparent when I was learning Russian. I could always remember the first letter of a word because I knew what color the word was. I had no idea there was a word for it at the time. Incidently, foriegn letters also have different colors.

It’s been awhile, but I’ve never hit the ground in those sort of dreams (I woke up, with my hand on the floor and half falling out of bed). I have died in dreams though.

One was quite realistic and didn’t seem like a dream while I was in it. I was a bodyguard of some sort in a motorcade when we started getting shot at. I ended up on the side of the road with blood in my lungs when I got shot. I could feel the blood bubbling in my mouth as I tried to breathe and everything went black for a final moment. Shortly after I woke up gasping for air.

Trying to think of what I’ve done/had happen to me that no one else has. Not much comes to mind, except for jumping from the mock (mach?) tower at the army base in Edmonton (it was used to train for parachuting, I was in cadets for a time) which I’m sure many, many people have done or seeing some of the back rooms at the Royal Alberta Museum and getting to hold this woolly mammoth tooth.

This is nowhere near as exciting as being hit by lightning (!!!), seeing sounds or signing up for torture but…

I had a bad (and unexpected) allergic reaction to barium dye once. I drank the special liquid, laid down for my test, had the test and when I was pulled out of the machine the doctor asked how I felt. I said “my teeth hurt” which I thought was weird. Then I sat up, and I sneezed.

All the people in the room freaked out and I don’t remember what happened next but I ended up on a gurney in a hallway covered in a lot of blankets, feeling very cold. They did not have to intubate me, thank goodness. I remember telling them to call my dad. People I did not know kept coming up to me to talk to me (to make sure I was still breathing). It was very surreal - exactly like the camera angle you see on television where they are trying to convey the point of view of a person lying on a gurney. I probably had an IV of some sort too.

All I kept thinking about was how was I going to get my car home, since someone had to come get me.

Then I was better and my dad took me home. We came back the next day for my car.

Not too exciting, but memorable.

Being shot at by medium caliber anti-aircraft artillery and a surface-to-air missile is every bit as scary as you might imagine it to be, especially when you’re trolling in an old, slow plane and you have no control whatsoever.

::Stands up to salute Airman Doors::

me, too.
I’ve had both hips replaced and I’m about to have my knees replaced.
I’ve been living with severe OA and RA for going on 13 years. I had my hips done in late 2001 and it was painful. I was also “living” at the hospital, in their rehab ward, for 5 weeks after the second surgery. But within just a few months after all of that, I was playing mini-golf with friends. Now, it’s my knees’ turn. I am dreading the experience but I know that, by autumn, I’ll have my life back.