Elisabeth recently had a post about things she's never done. One of them is that she's never fainted. This is unfathomable to me since I faint pretty regularly. Noteworthy times I've fainted.
1) I cut the inside of my middle finger on my left hand with a broken glass when I was a child. I immediately fainted (landed on a carpeted floor), came to with my father carrying me to the bathroom, fainted again in the dining room, and was taken to the ER where it was determined I was dehydrated. No stitches were needed.
2) I was young - first grade, I think. I was happily playing on the jungle gym when all of a sudden I didn't know who I was or where I was. The world went black and I when I woke up, my sister was in the nurse's room with me and I had a giant knot on my forehead. They couldn't find my parents, so they called my emergency contact, my aunt, and I refused to leave with her. It was a big old mess. I had a concussion and could not do anything but sit in a dark room for days. I've never had that feeling of not knowing who I was since.
3) I passed out in gym class once in ninth grade? Maybe tenth. I was hungry and I was dehydrated and had just run around the gym about a million times. I felt ill, went over to the bleachers and tried to get my head between my legs, but ended up just collapsing, supine, on the bleachers.
4) I passed out in college when I did a fundraiser called Dance Marathon where I stayed awake and on my feet for 24 hours and by the time I got back to my dorm, I passed out while walking by the front desk. Details are fuzzy, but I woke up as they were calling 911.
5) When I was newly engaged, I stood up from the couch and immediately passed out, hitting my head on the coffee table.
6) I got home from a bike ride and as soon as I parked my bike and got off it, my legs felt like rubber and I got serious tunnel vision and I sat down, right there in the garage, and fainted.
7) I was dogsitting Mingus and Buddy and when we got back from a walk, Mingus was nipping at Buddy and I was trying to get Buddy into a different room and I opened the screen door to the backyard, thinking one of them could go outside and I could feed one of them inside and one outside and I got tunnel vision and heard the whooshing sound and tumbled down the stairs. I scraped my leg and landed hard on my right arm.
8) My husband fell on his bike and broke his collarbone. I passed out in the ER.
9) I had a bad case of vertigo. The world was spinning and spinning. I was home alone, but knew I needed to drink water, so I attempted to walk to the kitchen. I ended up sitting on the ground and trying to scoot/crawl, but I was just so dizzy and the world was a kaleidoscope of colors. I almost made it to the kitchen when I just passed out on the floor. When I woke, Hannah was laying down beside me whining.
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The common theme with most of these is to make sure you eat and drink, friends. And don't get vertigo.
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Have you ever fainted?
TMI to follow:
ReplyDeleteI realize now that I fainted twice more than I thought. Your takes of woe reminded me. Both came from esophageal spasms. After one, I went to the ER, they were worried it was heart related , so I went to my home doctor. My doctor rolled his eyes and reassured me.I missed a week of grad school over this! The next time, years later, I was in the kitchen trying to get a drink as I wasn't feeling well. I went down; when I came to , I couldn't get up my head was spinning. I had hit it on the table. ( a big gash hidden in my hair.) Two of my teens ( luckily life guards) had to drag me to the bathroom so I could be sick. Stomach flu and concussion! I had a headache for a week.
My helpful hint- don't drink cold liquid so fast that it causes spasms.- mbmom11
What? Now I have to worry about drinking cold liquid? There are already SO MANY THINGS to worry about.
DeleteUGH!! I have been SO LUCKY about relatively few injuries related to all this passing out. I do worry about my head bleeding everywhere. I cannot imagine having the stomach flu AND a concussion - how do you even keep your head still?!
Wow- you really are a fainter! I'm glad you're okay after all these incidents. I've fainted several times in my life, and they were all medical/getting a shot/blood related. I've learned to be really careful in situations like that (take deep breaths, don't look at the needles, etc.) and am ready to put my head between my legs at any moment.
ReplyDeleteBe careful! Concussions are dangerous.
Oh, I left out the times I've fainted due to donating blood, etc. This is just the highlights. *sigh* I am much better at recognizing when I am hungry/thirsty and take immediate steps to rectify it, so I haven't actually fainted in a couple of years now. I feel like I should get a medal.
DeleteI have had two concussions in my life and do worry a lot about TBI. I guess we'll see what happens as I get older.
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who gets woozy around blood/blood related things. I cannot look at a syringe or a vial of my own blood. It is challenging to be a parent who has to stay calm and nonchalant anytime there's blood involved when I immediately get dizzy and lightheaded lol.
DeleteYikes! I've never fainted by every day is a new day lol. I've had a few times where I've gotten dizzy and had to step back from what I was doing.
ReplyDeleteSome of us just give in to the lure of oblivious more than others, I guess!
DeleteYikes. Well, as you know I've never fainted. I cannot believe this has happened to you multiple times, let alone MANY!
ReplyDeleteOn a somewhat similar note, in my final year at university I travelled with a group of classmates to present our research findings. We all shared a hotel room and in the morning one of the girls - who I had known for years - proceeded to go into the bathroom and throw up. I thought she was sick with a stomach bug.
Nope, she was just nervous and apparently she throws up every time she gets nervous. WHAT?!!! That sounds so horrible. She was completely nonchalant about it.
She played basketball in middle or high school and said she threw up before every single game with the nerves. I just...cannot!!!
Oh, wow! I can't even remember the last time I threw up. Maybe when I was ten? Lol. The idea of doing it every time I was nervous is TERRIBLE. Isn't it crazy what is normal to one of us and not to others?
DeleteYou've excelled at fainting. 😳 I've never fainted but I've gotten light-headed due to hunger or extreme emotional stress. That's too close for me.
ReplyDeleteI get light-headed daily, so it's hard for me to just constantly stop what I'm doing because I'm a little woozy. I don't faint most days, so it generally works. Ha!
DeleteFainting is no fun, and I've got a scar under my chin to prove it. I've done it lots of times, too. I was in Pre-Vet Med in college before I went into education; I loved it. At one point, the professor (a real jerk who was a chauvinist and proud of it) had us do a blood-typing lab. I fainted during the lab; all the blood around me got to me. Needless to say, I reconsidered my program pretty quickly.
ReplyDeleteI've fainted when I've been under extreme stress; when I've been in the sun too long; when I've been dehydrated (which can happen really quickly due to my migraine preventative meds); when a particularly bad migraine first comes on.
Because I've done it often, I know the feeling/signs and will just sit down immediately.
The problem is that I have the feelings/signs a lot (most days), so I can't just always stop what I'm doing. But I can usually get food/water or whatever is the problem. It's also why I do not go more than four hours without a snack. I must constantly get fed!!
DeleteI knocked myself out once and fainted once. The faint was withing the last decade. I was at the toilet in the middle of the night and was suddenly picking myself up from between the toilet and bathtub. I thought that was luck, but was informed that you are conscious when you begin to faint but don't remember afterward. I don't know how that squares with you hitting your head, but that is what I was told by someone with credentials. I do feel close to passing out some nights but I hang on and try to focus on some object.
ReplyDeleteI spend far too much of my life with my head between my legs. It's really scary to think about falling in the bathroom - there's so much hard porcelain around!
DeleteWow. #8 is my favorite. Though it seems a little cruel for me to have a favorite Engie faint....
ReplyDeleteI've never fainted, though the closest I came was during a performance of Carmen - I was standing at the stage manager's console calling the show, and suddenly got really dizzy and almost fell off my step and into the light board operator's lap. I had to ask the prop guy to bring me a stool. About a month later, I realized I was four months pregnant.
#8 is such a fun story. The couple in the ER together stays together, I guess.
DeleteOH! YES! I imagine pregnancy can do all sorts of things to your body and where blood goes and stuff. Sheesh. Our bodies are really fragile, aren't they?
Ouch, you have fainted a lot, you poor thing! It's such a helpless feeling. Here are the times I fainted:
ReplyDelete1. I fainted in high school when I suddenly came down with the flu. I was sitting at my desk, and my neck and back ached so bad, and next thing I knew, I was waking up on the floor with all my classmates trying to help me. I was so embarrassed!
2. I fainted in the hospital after having my tonsils removed when I was in college. I got up to walk around, on their orders, and woke up on the floor with everyone very upset!
3. I fainted when getting a flu shot. The nurse was trying to unwrap something and HANDED ME THE SRYNGE to hold for a minute. I looked at the needle and fainted. Surprisingly, there was no fuss over it. The nurse got me up, gave me some water, gave me the flu shot, and sent me on my way!
4. I fainted when I was expelling everything after a case of food poisoning. Ugh.
Happily, I haven't fainted in several years.
If anyone handed me a syringe, I would honestly stab them with it. Who would think that would be a good idea?! Here's to no more fainting!
DeleteI have also never fainted. I have felt faint. But I do have an arrhythmia that sometimes makes me feel like I am missing time - I will be walking and suddenly my chest will just thump so hard it makes me stop, but then I have a feeling like I was there...but now I'm here. Like I might have kept walking but don't remember and I feel like I'm a few steps farther than I remember. And I get an instant headache and feel nauseated for a few hours.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a fun thing! *sigh* Why are our bodies so fragile?!
DeleteI almost fainted WHILE DRIVING home from getting my 20 week ultrasound and glucose test with Minnie. It was the panny so I did the glucose test first thing and then had my u/s because I was trying to limit going inside places, and I didn't bring a snack and experienced THE WORST blood sugar low about an hour after the sugar drink (which is when I was driving). I pulled over and put my head between my legs, but I was COVERED in sweat and ate a huge breakfast when I finally got home.
ReplyDeleteI have had to pull over a couple of times because I thought I was going to pass out. This is why I always have food with me! It's so scary to be driving when you get that feeling.
DeleteOh man. You have this down to a science. I have fainted, and then other times I have felt faint and had to lay down but didn't necessarily lose consciousness.
ReplyDelete1. The first time I fainted was when I tried to get contact lenses in 8th grade. The doc put the contacts in my eyes, and it grossed me out. The room spun and I went down (I was already sitting, so I just fell across the table). I didn't get contacts until I the summer before senior year of high school, which almost killed me. In order to get contacts, I had to practice touching my eye. When I went to the doctor and tried again, I was dripping in sweat - think woman in Bridemaids pretending she wasn't going to have food poisoning sweating.
2. After 8th grade graduation, I was bummed because there was a pool party and I had my period. My bestie's mom said, "Do you know about these?" And whipped out a tampon. I slid down the wall in her hallway. Grossed out. (how did I give birth 6 times?)
3. had to be laid down whenever I had to have blood drawn, because now I knew better.
4. When I got a RhoGAM shot for being RH- when I was expecting Tank. They really struggled to wake me up/get me up and running to drive home with Lad and Ed. Oops.
5. Out of order but when the OB explained the RH factor when I was pregnant with Lad. Just the discussion of blood caused me to faint - I fell back on the table and heard the doc call out to the nurses, "I've got a vaso vagel in here, get her some OJ." That was the first time I heard the name of what my issue is. Vaso vagel vein constricts in people who get grossed out easily, causing the fainting.
6. I gave blood at a blood drive at a neighbor's house in honor of their daughter. I alerted the nurses (on the bus - because it was a remote blood drive and combining giving blood with a bus, even a stationary one - well, ick. Who thought that was a good idea?) that I was going down and they sort of slapped me around, lightly and made me stay awake. I was already reclined, but that time was the worst because I felt I was going to go to the bathroom because of the episode and I couldn't walk or move. No more blood drives for me.
7. I did not pass out - but when the doc started to explain to me how the epidural was going to work, when I was being induced to give birth to Lad, I had to tell the doctor to stop talking - the less I know the better. That same day, when they put an IV in my arm to give me the meds to put me in labor, I told Coach to tell the nurses that I needed them to take it out. It was making me feel queasy. Yeah, so that didn't happen.
Wow! How did you ever give birth? LOL. You do seem to get grossed out pretty easily.
DeleteGoodness, Engie! These all sound really scary!
ReplyDeleteI have fainted thrice to my recollection. The first time, I was in middle school and had a stomach flu and passed out because I was sick. The second time, I was a sophomore in college and I was shadowing a relative who is a plastic surgeon. He okayed me to observe a surgery, and as soon as the surgery began, I swooned. I am pretty sure I felt it coming on and was able to at least leave the surgery suite before I keeled over, but still. Super embarrassing. The other time I was on my period and it was the middle of a hot, humid summer and my body just couldn't deal with it and decided to take a little break from consciousness.
No one called 911 for any of these faintings! But I guess I didn't hurt myself.
Yes, it's lucky that you never hit your head or landed wrong and broke a bone or something. Sheesh. You're a lucky lady!
DeleteI only fainted once, but it was pretty scary. One minute I was on my feet next to a bookcase, the next I found myself crumpled on the ground amidst a pile of books. And it was totally an eating/drinking thing,
ReplyDeleteYes! We have to remember to eat and drink regularly!
DeleteI've only fainted once that I can recall. I was probably in elementary or middle school. It was the height of the summer in Texas (REALLY hot and humid). I was at my aunt's house - who did not have air conditioning and slammed my finger in the door. Between the immense pain and heat, I went down.
ReplyDeleteOh, boy! I would have passed out just from the pain. With the heat on top of it, sheesh. A terrible series of events!
DeleteI've browned out a little, but never fainted upright and fallen hard, which sounds terrifying. My daughter and her friend Davis are pretty regular fainters, especially where bloodwork or injections are involved, but sometimes just as a fun recreational activity. I can go hours without eating, but my meds make my mouth dry, so I feel the other ill effects of dehydration way before it would actually lead to passing out.
ReplyDeleteFainting as a fun recreational activity! LOL. Well, it does tend to cause a lot of fuss...
DeleteI'm in between you and Elisabeth: I have fainted a few times...at least, three that I can think of. Once when standing in a church, once when standing in a line, and once when walking--my poor brother, I must have scared him to death. But I haven't in a really long time!
ReplyDeleteIf you lock your knees (standing), it's easy to cut off your blood flow. So don't do that!
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