WARNING: Studying too hard can make you pass out...believe me
I've heard of people pulling "all nighters" before, and although I've stayed up pretty late studying before myself, I never experienced one myself until last night.
I was lucky this quarter due to the fact that my Syntax final was a take-home, and my other two classes were not going to be that challenging. So my all-nighter began shortly after the "Heros" finale last night. I made an entire pot of my favorite Italian Roast coffee, I even bought a fresh bottle of vanilla caramel creamer for the occasion. I started in on my Syntax final, taking breaks every now and then. That thing took me damn near 7 hours just to get 3/4 of the way through it. There were only 12 questions, but most of them had various parts within that had to be extrapolated and such. I did like the final question though, in which I had to explain in "concise detail" how Yoda's syntax differed from standard English. A tough question, that one was.
My Geography 120 final was at 7:30 in the morning, at this point I had about an hour and a half until then. I had consumed pretty much the entire pot of coffee by then, so I was wide awake. I reviewed my lecture notes for a few minutes, then packed up my stuff and headed out the door. If the pot of coffee hadn't woken me up, the cold sure did. My gods, I thought my balls were going to retract up into my pelvis. I got to the building, sat down in the lecture hall and pulled out my notes again. My stomach was churning a little, but I get that way when I drink a lot of coffee and I knew it would pass in a little bit. The rest of the class began to file in, and the TA's got there with a few minutes to spare. They began handing out the scantron sheets and that's when everything went to hell.
I felt a sudden sense of sickness. My stomach churned harder than ever, and I began to feel quite nauseas. Knowing that I wasn't going to blow chunks in the middle of the class, I got out of there dammed quick. I found the nearest trash can and tried to bring up the bile and get the mess over with. No dice. Now I felt like I might shit my pants too. It was as if my digestive system couldn't make up it's mind as to which way it would get rid of the poison that I'd ingested. The classroom was in the basement, so I climbed the stairs in an effort to reach the first floor bathroom. I hobbled across the lobby in the classic hunched over posture of the soon-to-be-sick, and as I was deciding how I was going to shit and vomit at the same time, something unprecedented happened.
About three or four feet from the bathroom door my hands began to tingle. The tingle quickly spread to my arms, torso and straight through my legs. My vision blurred to the point of incoherence, and before I knew it everything went black.
The next thing I know, I'm spread eagle right next to the bathroom door, and a girl is hovering over me saying, "Oh my god! Are you all right?"
The best I could manage was a heavily mumbled, "Ugh...I dunno..."
Another girl showed up, "Do you want me to call an ambulance?"
At this point I knew I had passed out cold, but for how long I did not know. I sat up, and it felt as though my head had split with the force of a thousand suns. "No...no, I think I'm okay. Oh...fuck me this hurts..."
First girl: "Are you in this final right now? Psychology?"
Me: "No. Geography 120. Downstairs."
Second girl: "I'm in that one. Do you want me to tell the professor?"
Me: "Yes, please if you would. Fuck, my head hurts..."
The girls left, and after a minute or so I felt like I could stand again. I had no idea what the fuck had happened to me, other than the fact that I had passed out for maybe a minute, and I had a damn final to take. I headed back downstairs, one of the TA's already had a scantron and a test sheet ready for me. It was a hell of a time, lemme tell ya. I later discovered that I made a C+ on the test. No shit, the whole fucking time I was thinking about what the fuck was wrong with me, sorry if I can't remember the fucking cyclogensis stages of a low pressure system. Assholes. I passed the class alright though.
I turned in my take-home final, and while I was in the Linguistics department I saw one of my classmates who was turning in her take-home final as well. I told her about what had happened, and apparently she thought I was pretty hardcore for still taking my final. Damn straight, I thought.
The next place I went was the Student Health Center. I eventually got an appointment with a very nice guy named Dr. Hanson, who explored my patient history and determined that what I experienced was called Vasovagal Syncope. Basically, all the coffee I drank dehydrated the fuck out of me, that plus the caffeine and the stress from exams and such caused my blood pressure to drop dangerously low. When I got up and rushed to the bathroom all that blood flowed down from my brain very quickly, and my brain basically said "HOLD ON A MINUTE THERE, SIR!" It laid my ass out so I could get enough blood flow. Dr. Hanson got me an ECG anyway just to check out my heart, but he said everything looked pretty good and that this was just a fluke.
So I'm not dying, and that's good. I have one more final tomorrow. I'm not sure I care how it goes, but I'm gonna study anyway. No coffee for me, thanks.
I was lucky this quarter due to the fact that my Syntax final was a take-home, and my other two classes were not going to be that challenging. So my all-nighter began shortly after the "Heros" finale last night. I made an entire pot of my favorite Italian Roast coffee, I even bought a fresh bottle of vanilla caramel creamer for the occasion. I started in on my Syntax final, taking breaks every now and then. That thing took me damn near 7 hours just to get 3/4 of the way through it. There were only 12 questions, but most of them had various parts within that had to be extrapolated and such. I did like the final question though, in which I had to explain in "concise detail" how Yoda's syntax differed from standard English. A tough question, that one was.
My Geography 120 final was at 7:30 in the morning, at this point I had about an hour and a half until then. I had consumed pretty much the entire pot of coffee by then, so I was wide awake. I reviewed my lecture notes for a few minutes, then packed up my stuff and headed out the door. If the pot of coffee hadn't woken me up, the cold sure did. My gods, I thought my balls were going to retract up into my pelvis. I got to the building, sat down in the lecture hall and pulled out my notes again. My stomach was churning a little, but I get that way when I drink a lot of coffee and I knew it would pass in a little bit. The rest of the class began to file in, and the TA's got there with a few minutes to spare. They began handing out the scantron sheets and that's when everything went to hell.
I felt a sudden sense of sickness. My stomach churned harder than ever, and I began to feel quite nauseas. Knowing that I wasn't going to blow chunks in the middle of the class, I got out of there dammed quick. I found the nearest trash can and tried to bring up the bile and get the mess over with. No dice. Now I felt like I might shit my pants too. It was as if my digestive system couldn't make up it's mind as to which way it would get rid of the poison that I'd ingested. The classroom was in the basement, so I climbed the stairs in an effort to reach the first floor bathroom. I hobbled across the lobby in the classic hunched over posture of the soon-to-be-sick, and as I was deciding how I was going to shit and vomit at the same time, something unprecedented happened.
About three or four feet from the bathroom door my hands began to tingle. The tingle quickly spread to my arms, torso and straight through my legs. My vision blurred to the point of incoherence, and before I knew it everything went black.
The next thing I know, I'm spread eagle right next to the bathroom door, and a girl is hovering over me saying, "Oh my god! Are you all right?"
The best I could manage was a heavily mumbled, "Ugh...I dunno..."
Another girl showed up, "Do you want me to call an ambulance?"
At this point I knew I had passed out cold, but for how long I did not know. I sat up, and it felt as though my head had split with the force of a thousand suns. "No...no, I think I'm okay. Oh...fuck me this hurts..."
First girl: "Are you in this final right now? Psychology?"
Me: "No. Geography 120. Downstairs."
Second girl: "I'm in that one. Do you want me to tell the professor?"
Me: "Yes, please if you would. Fuck, my head hurts..."
The girls left, and after a minute or so I felt like I could stand again. I had no idea what the fuck had happened to me, other than the fact that I had passed out for maybe a minute, and I had a damn final to take. I headed back downstairs, one of the TA's already had a scantron and a test sheet ready for me. It was a hell of a time, lemme tell ya. I later discovered that I made a C+ on the test. No shit, the whole fucking time I was thinking about what the fuck was wrong with me, sorry if I can't remember the fucking cyclogensis stages of a low pressure system. Assholes. I passed the class alright though.
I turned in my take-home final, and while I was in the Linguistics department I saw one of my classmates who was turning in her take-home final as well. I told her about what had happened, and apparently she thought I was pretty hardcore for still taking my final. Damn straight, I thought.
The next place I went was the Student Health Center. I eventually got an appointment with a very nice guy named Dr. Hanson, who explored my patient history and determined that what I experienced was called Vasovagal Syncope. Basically, all the coffee I drank dehydrated the fuck out of me, that plus the caffeine and the stress from exams and such caused my blood pressure to drop dangerously low. When I got up and rushed to the bathroom all that blood flowed down from my brain very quickly, and my brain basically said "HOLD ON A MINUTE THERE, SIR!" It laid my ass out so I could get enough blood flow. Dr. Hanson got me an ECG anyway just to check out my heart, but he said everything looked pretty good and that this was just a fluke.
So I'm not dying, and that's good. I have one more final tomorrow. I'm not sure I care how it goes, but I'm gonna study anyway. No coffee for me, thanks.