New Words. Fresh Experience.

All of us have bowed to the porcelain god a time or two in our lives, but only about half of us have left faint while experiencing a rerun of last night’s chicken Kiev.

While having a violent fit caused by one of many stomach viruses, my body took it a step further. Not only did I feel myself go faint, but I actually passed out. I woke up at an undisclosed amount of time later on the bathroom floor saying, “What’s this? What’s this?” Like Jack Skeleton when he finds himself in Christmas Town.

I had Experienced Vasovagal Reflex.

There are two processes at work with vasovagal reflex: “vaso” refers to the blood vessels and “vagal” refers to the vegas nerve. The vegas nerve is the larges nerve in the body and runs from the brainstem to the chest and then into the stomach and helps regulated digestion, blood pressure, breathing, and heart rate. Some really important stuff.

When stress or straining triggers the vegas nerve (like my dry heaving), it can cause a sudden drop in blood pressure, causing one to feel lightheaded, or even pass out altogether. When one passes out, this is called vasovagal syncope, and is the most common cause of fainting.

Isn’t learning fun?

While fainting because of vasovagal syncope isn’t dangerous, the falls can be which parts of my body can attest to.

The first tumble from the kneeling position next to the toilet gave me a small whack on the noggin. Nothing bad of lasting. The second one left me somewhat scathed.

Oh, did I forget to mention that I passed out more than once?

The water to my apartment was scheduled to be shut off again while a leak in the basement was being tended to. A regular and reoccurring pass time at my residence. We’ve had the water shut off more times than I’ve eaten pizza this year, and I like pizza.

No water, I thought. I will find a receptacle in which to take care of business from the comfort of my bed. I hobbled to the kitchen, found a plastic pitcher, and hobbled back to bed. When the wracking pains hit me again, I swung my feet off the bed to sit on the edge and got that feeling again; my hands went cold and numb and my vision tunneled. The next thing I knew, I was on the floor, a terrible throbbing pain in my ear and the pitcher was shattered. Apparently, I had landed on it, cut my ear, and broke the pitcher.

Ah, I thought, this is going to be a thing. Best stay close to the ground.

Mercifully, the water was only off for an hour, and I could carry on my shame in the bathroom like a civilized person. I place a large pillow on the floor next to the toilet and covered it with a towel. I am so happy I did this because I work up no less that five more times on that pillow which gently cradled my head, protecting it from harm, save one time.

The final fainting experience happened several hours later when I thought I was in the clear. I had gotten my child to bed (I was alone all day with my ten-year-old who locked himself in his bedroom so he wouldn’t catch what I had), and all that moving around was too much.

I awoke on the floor, a lump on the back of my head and a bruise on my jaw. I can only speculate what happened because I came to on the pillow. The toilet is probably to blame. I must have hit my head as I fell.

Takeaways from this learning experience

Stay hydrated. The vegas nerve gets particularly triggered by dehydration. If you are ill, try to have some sort of sports drink on hand. It makes a world of difference.

Dreams caused by lack of oxygen to the brain are akin to psychotropic drugs. The weird hallucination-like dreams were out of this world. In one, I was standing in the rain on a street corner, wondering how I got there. This might not seem strange, but the detail was something else. I could smell the rain, feel the damp dirt of the sidewalk under my shoes, and feel the rain. When I came to, my left hand was swimming in the toilet like s misplaced fish.

This year has not been a healthy one for me. In January, I caught COVID and had horrible flu symptoms for a week with sinus congestion that finally subsided. After that, incredible sinus pressure forced me to get a prescription of prednisone. By this time, the residual COVID crap had traveled to my upper respiratory system, giving me a wracking cough. This led to a sinus infection and bronchitis, which required antibiotics. The entire process was several months long. Then, finally when I was feeling fit again, bam! Norovirus or rotavirus took me down again.

I feel like Oregon is hazing me. When we first arrived from California, we were all sick for months. Now that we’re leaving, Oregon wants to get one more jab in before we skip town. With spring, I hope that the worst of the viruses are in my rearview.

Stay healthy. And for the love of all that is holy, stay hydrated.

Photo credit: featured image: Luna by Alex Guerrero / flickr.