whump

[pauraque_bk]

So today I felt basically fine, and then as I was ringing up a customer I started to feel dizzy. This went extremely quickly from "I feel dizzy" to "I better sit down after this customer" to "I am rapidly losing consciousness".

I made it to Boss's office and said I needed to sit down or something to that effect, and sat at her desk with my head between my knees for about 15 minutes while she ran out and picked up the line of people that I had abandoned.

I was probably seconds away from blacking out, I couldn't see a thing, my ears were ringing, and I could not sit up. It's a good thing I didn't actually go out cold, because then I imagine Boss would have called 911 and the day would have gotten a lot more interesting. And my bank account too.

When I was able to get up again Boss made me go eat some ginger snaps, which seemed to make me all better... Except that I had already eaten as much as I normally do, so I wasn't having low blood sugar or something. (Coincidentally Boss suffers from panic attacks during which she faints, so she took it very much in stride, perhaps imagining that everyone faints a lot. I don't!)

I guess almost fainting isn't as impressive as really fainting, but it certainly frightened the shit out of me.

Comments

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

The sensation of almost passing out is really awful. I've done it several times. My sympathy.

[pauraque]

What causes that? I've never had it happen before.

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Sudden blood loss or grievous wounds, not eating, heatstroke are the ones I've had happen to me. Apparently it's the same sensation behind drowning/lack of oxygen. Basically it indicates your brain is not getting enough of something to continue keeping you conscience.

When that happens, you should try and have salty food and proteins not sugars, unless you know you're hypoglycemic, since more of the 'non-bleedy, non-oxygen' causes have to do with loss of salt/water/iron interfering with the body's ability to circulate blood.

[pauraque]

The ginger snaps happened because I also felt nauseated for a little while... Not that ginger snaps really have enough actual ginger in them to counteract nausea, but I was pretty shaken up by then so I just did what she said.

I hadn't eaten since the night before but I normally never eat breakfast. Maybe I should start, just in case. o_O

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Sounds like dehydration was the primary cause to me, though.

[florahart]

Eep! Yes, but actually fainting can mean hitting your head and stuff, so less impressive is FINE.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Oh my! I have very little experience with fainting and near fainting but that little experience that is not fun at all. Though I have met some people who apparently faint all the time. I have low blood pressure so I do sometimes get lightheaded from weird things but...I wonder why that happened?!

[pauraque]

I have high blood pressure actually! It seems dehydration was the culprit.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I'm a frequent fainter (and vomiter) so you did the right thing listening to the signs and going and sitting down - you really don't need to faceplant from standing height! It's not uncommon to get particulates in your middle ear after having a cold and this can give you severe vertigo followed by fainting. It's especially noticeable if you're dehydrated - was that a possibility?

[pauraque]

You may have something there. On doctor's orders I drink minimally because high fluid intake worsens my bladder condition. Obviously I don't try to become dehydrated but since my fluid intake is already low, it's very possible.

[wootsauce.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're ok! That's scary. It's only happened to me a couple of times, when I was really sick.

[idlerat.livejournal.com]

I'm sure everyone's saying this, but watch for dehydration, especially if you've been sick/had a fever. Saly snacks, fluids, salty fluids! chicken soup!

xox