faint but I think it's breathing
Well that was the most interesting blood draw visit I've ever had. Summary: I'm fine. No bloody details included here.
I arrived at the nearby clinic for some routine lab work early this morning after dropping off the car for inspection just in time to hear an older woman in the waiting room declare that she couldn't find her script. I signed in and sat down to wait, while she went out to her car to look. She came back in, slightly panicked, and asked a nurse who was passing through what she could do, and the nurse suggested that her doctor could fax it.
Except the patient didn't know her doctor's phone number and the nurse was too busy to look it up. I offered to look it up on my phone, and fortunately the doctor had a unique enough name that I found it on the first search, even after spelling it incorrectly. She spoke to someone and asked for a fax, hung up, and thanked me profusely.
In the meanwhile, my appt time came up, and I went through the normal blood draw activities, and it all went smoothly. I was feeling fine when I got up and started to walk out.
Three steps past the exam room door I started feeling lightheaded. Two more steps was the door to the waiting room and a wave of dizziness washed over me. Three more steps was a beeline to the nearest chair, where I sank down and experienced all the premonitory symptoms of syncope - weakness, nausea, feeling warm, and that fuzz in my vision. I've gotten to that point before when giving blood before, but that's as far as it's ever gotten. I figured that's probably what would happen again. So I sat.
The other people in the waiting room were looking at me. The woman I helped earlier asked me if I was ok. "You don't look ok," she said. I said that I was feeling faint but would probably be fine. The symptoms are still getting worse, though, not better, and it's getting a little harder to breathe. There's a wall behind me that I can rest my head on, and I figured that if I do lose consciousness, I'm in a comfortable position and probably won't hurt anything. Moving really didn't feel like a good idea.
A man near me asked if he should call for the nurse. My vision was probably half gone at that point (apparently that's called a grayout) and I was sweating profusely. It would probably be better for everybody if the nurses knew about me before I fainted rather than after, so I said "Yes, please call." He knocked loudly on the desk window and got someone's attention. One look at me and the nurse rushed over with a wet towel and a cup of water, at which point the symptoms finally started slowly reversing. They debated moving me to a place where I could lie down, but I agreed that moving still didn't feel like a good idea. In hindsight I should have lain down on the floor when this first started, but I didn't think of it then. The nurse brought crackers which I managed to nibble on, although my stomach still protested a little. Gradually I recovered, and when I decided I was as better as I would get, I stood for a few minutes, walked around the waiting room, thanked the guy who called the nurse for me, then went outside and bussed into work.
The whole episode took maybe 15 minutes total. I'm glad there were nice people around. In the future I probably shouldn't try to have blood taken when I have just run 10 miles the day before and not eaten since dinner. Oh well, lessons learned. And more excuses to take it extra easy today. (ETA: Oh and now I've definitely earned this donut.)
I arrived at the nearby clinic for some routine lab work early this morning after dropping off the car for inspection just in time to hear an older woman in the waiting room declare that she couldn't find her script. I signed in and sat down to wait, while she went out to her car to look. She came back in, slightly panicked, and asked a nurse who was passing through what she could do, and the nurse suggested that her doctor could fax it.
Except the patient didn't know her doctor's phone number and the nurse was too busy to look it up. I offered to look it up on my phone, and fortunately the doctor had a unique enough name that I found it on the first search, even after spelling it incorrectly. She spoke to someone and asked for a fax, hung up, and thanked me profusely.
In the meanwhile, my appt time came up, and I went through the normal blood draw activities, and it all went smoothly. I was feeling fine when I got up and started to walk out.
Three steps past the exam room door I started feeling lightheaded. Two more steps was the door to the waiting room and a wave of dizziness washed over me. Three more steps was a beeline to the nearest chair, where I sank down and experienced all the premonitory symptoms of syncope - weakness, nausea, feeling warm, and that fuzz in my vision. I've gotten to that point before when giving blood before, but that's as far as it's ever gotten. I figured that's probably what would happen again. So I sat.
The other people in the waiting room were looking at me. The woman I helped earlier asked me if I was ok. "You don't look ok," she said. I said that I was feeling faint but would probably be fine. The symptoms are still getting worse, though, not better, and it's getting a little harder to breathe. There's a wall behind me that I can rest my head on, and I figured that if I do lose consciousness, I'm in a comfortable position and probably won't hurt anything. Moving really didn't feel like a good idea.
A man near me asked if he should call for the nurse. My vision was probably half gone at that point (apparently that's called a grayout) and I was sweating profusely. It would probably be better for everybody if the nurses knew about me before I fainted rather than after, so I said "Yes, please call." He knocked loudly on the desk window and got someone's attention. One look at me and the nurse rushed over with a wet towel and a cup of water, at which point the symptoms finally started slowly reversing. They debated moving me to a place where I could lie down, but I agreed that moving still didn't feel like a good idea. In hindsight I should have lain down on the floor when this first started, but I didn't think of it then. The nurse brought crackers which I managed to nibble on, although my stomach still protested a little. Gradually I recovered, and when I decided I was as better as I would get, I stood for a few minutes, walked around the waiting room, thanked the guy who called the nurse for me, then went outside and bussed into work.
The whole episode took maybe 15 minutes total. I'm glad there were nice people around. In the future I probably shouldn't try to have blood taken when I have just run 10 miles the day before and not eaten since dinner. Oh well, lessons learned. And more excuses to take it extra easy today. (ETA: Oh and now I've definitely earned this donut.)