Blackout
Remember when I was allergic to work? It seems it wasn’t work. A few days ago it happened again. I think it’s some kind of heat rash thing. It is most disturbing.
And then last night it happened for a third time. So I went to have a cold shower, based on my new “it’s a heat rash” theory. Didn’t seem to help. Did I mention last time that it’s the most itchy thing imaginable? Anyway, it was amazingly hot and oppressive inside the house, so I took an antihistamine and sat in the back garden. Just wearing a towel around my waist, no less; I am glad my garden has high fences. I didn’t feel any better at all; I felt really, really, really hot, and my heart was racing, and the blood was roaring in my ears. “I am not well, am I?“, I thought. So I got up and stepped back inside.
And then I collapsed.
That wasn’t a very pleasant experience.
I knew I was doing it; I felt myself fall, but from a weird third-party perspective. It didn’t occur to me to, say, stop myself in any way.
So I got up again and staggered up the stairs to Sam. I stepped into our bedroom and said, “Sam? Help.”
And then I blacked out.
Well, I assume that that’s what happened. I remember speaking those words, and then—immediately afterwards—I heard Sam say “Stuart? Stuart? Are you alright?” and she was bent over me and I was lying on the floor, on the landing at the top of the stairs.
That’s never happened to me before. Can’t say I like it much, especially as I was bloody close to having fallen down the stairs.
That might have hurt a bit.
Anyway, I gashed my elbow rather seriously—apparently it hit the corner of the archetrave on the way down, ripping the phone off its wall mounting as well—and, like, I’d blacked out. I was somewhat amazed by this.
Oddly, I felt quite a bit better afterwards.
So I lay in bed and rang the doctor. While waiting for him to get back to me, I tried sitting up and had the lovely experience of feeling dizzy and having my vision go black at the edges. That was a nice experience. So I lay back down again, secure in the knowledge that this was clearly the better part of valour.
Apparently I have a strong reaction to antihistamines, according to the doctor on the phone. I certainly was knocked for six last time, and this time was worse, so I am off to see my doctor today to say: what’s going on? Can I now not walk around my own house without fearing loss of consciousness? I have work to do!
We shall see what he says.
I have suffered the exact same symtoms you describe and will confirm for the unbelievers that it is not nice.
I fell over running for a bus, then colapsed as the bus came and remember discussing politics with a paramedic, then talking to one of my freinds and then my mom and dad arrived. It was a bit of a shock as I didn’t even notice I was in hospital until then ;-)
That was due to anaemia and a couple of times over the next couple of months I had similar experiences where I thought ‘this isn’t right’ and, for some reason, had to get up and tell someone about it leading to embarassing collapses on the floor.
Listen to the doctors and do whatever they say, even if that is stop taking antihistamines. I would kill for a good antihistame today but I wouldn’t want to die for one.
-421 seconds later
I’m also somewhat familiar with the symptoms, having blacked-out and fallen over pretty much every day for the last 5 years of my life. The black around the edges of the vision thing gets worse as it goes on.
But got it “under control” this year (by which I mean, it’s only happening twice a day rather than 8 or 9 times).
-121 seconds later
I’ve had the odd blackout or three a few years back with added nose bleeds. never found the cause and they stopped. nothing so severe as your symptoms though.
43 minutes later
Bloody hell, Gary. That’s deeply unpleasant. I note that no-one knows why either. You have my sympathies.
I must confess, I wasn’t expecting half the people I know to say “yeah, that happened to me too”. What is it? Staring at computer screens or something?
Update from the doctor: well, shit, we don’t know. I mean, it was phrased differently, but that was the point. He suggested referral to an immunologist to try and work out whether I’m allergic to pollen or heat or my own damned saliva or something. I’m thinking about it.
93 minutes later
Oh, I know what it is. After 2-3 years of testing (everything from tilt tables to ECGs, 24 hour heart monitors and so on), I was finally told that the problem is to do with low blood pressure when moving from a seated position to standing. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but there you go.
So, I was given the option of:
# Doing nothing and “living forever”,
# Taking medication to normalise it,
# or increasing the amount of salt and water in my diet.
Hope you get it sorted. But you do get surprisingly used to it. I often don’t notice I’ve fallen over now, it’s that routine.
2 hours later
Gary: ah, right, blimey. I was looking on your website, which says that no-one knows why it is :)
I feel fine now, so that’s good news. I don’t think I want to get used to the idea of blacking out nine times a day…
10 hours later
Bloody hell!
5 days later