Ever Faint?

[GuiTuber]

Happened to my Sunday night. I'm getting over a chest cold. I was laying down watching TV before going to sleep and I felt the urge to cough so I sat on the edge of the bed to cough so I could clear my chest. I coughed really hard a couple of times and the next thing I knew I was on the floor staring at the closet door.

I looked it up and it's called cough syncope. The act of coughing can reduce your blood pressure enough to severely reduce the oxygen to your brain. Basically, a really bad head rush.

I don't think I was out all that long. When I came to and realized where I was, I laid there for a second listening for footsteps coming up the stairs or from down the hall. I heard them pretty quickly as my wife and daughter came in to the room and found me on the floor.

 

[D Bopp]

About a month and a half ago, I had an EKG done, and got back an incomplete result from a partial right branch block. The doctor didn't talk much about it, but referred me to a cardiologist. My blood pressure was also elevated to 140/90, so she prescribed me some meds.

The EKG freaked me out, so I didn't eat anything the rest of the night. The BP med dehydrated me as well. So the next morning, I got up and took my daughter to the bus stop. At the same time the bus came, I got very light headed (mostly from anxiety and dehydration). I started walking back to my house and just passed out right on the asphalt. The bus driver picked me up, and at the same time, a sanitation guy happened to be driving by. He waited and held my arm until the ambulance came.

Went to the ER that day. Had to get stitches in my chin. They did a few tests on my heart including a stress test and echocardiogram. Everything was fine. I'm better now, but this past month has been a blur due to anxiety.

 

[hbarcat]

I was splitting wood and the maul slipped. I stupidly reached for it with my free hand while still swinging the sledge hammer and smashed my fingers. I took off my glove to examine the damage and about 10 seconds later the pain hit me like a train. It hurt so much I passed out. I regained consciousness wondering where I was and why I was on my back staring at the sky.

 

[blastoff99]

I was splitting wood and the maul slipped. I stupidly reached for it with my free hand while still swinging the sledge hammer and smashed my fingers. I took off my glove to examine the damage and about 10 seconds later the pain hit me like a train. It hurt so much I passed out. I regained consciousness wondering where I was and why I was on my back staring at the sky.

I do not understand why sometimes stuff hurts immediately and sometimes it takes a loooong time for the message to get through.

 

[hbarcat]

I do not understand why sometimes stuff hurts immediately and sometimes it takes a loooong time for the message to get through.

As an EMT, I learned a lot about levels of pain that result from different injuries and illnesses.

Deep lacerations from very sharp blades result in a lot of immediate blood loss but relatively little pain. Usually the clean cut damages fewer nerves so it hurts less and the blood flow stops quickly.

Crushing injuries are the worst because they affect every nerve ending in the region. Crushing finger injuries are excruciating because they are densely packed with nerves.

You can break an arm or leg bone and barely feel any pain at all. I once broke my fibula in 2 places and didn't realize it was broken because it didn't really hurt.

But break your collar bone and you'll be wishing for powerful narcotics.

 

[Biggbass]

my fainting story...

After several hours of riding dirt bikes on a hot summer day at a rural 12 mile course which had a motocross track for the last section, we decided to take one more lap before going home, knowing we were already spent. I got through the first 11.75 miles fine but when I came to the final section, the motocross section, I failed to preload the suspension on my RM250 as I approached the take off of a dirt spiked jump and the rear shock unloaded into my butt and catapulted me about 12 feet up into the air. I came down upside down and landed on my left shoulder. The bike landed about 2 feet to my right. I heard the bones break when I landed but didn't know the extent of the injury, which was a shattered left collar bone, broken left arm
mid humerus, and the humerus head split vertically.

My ears were ringing louder than I'd ever experienced and I knew I was going into shock but I immediately thought, "get out of the way before another rider hits the jump and lands on me". So I stood up....so far so good....I reached down with my good right arm and grabbed my bike by the crossbar on the handlebars and picked it up and pushed it off the track. Still, so far so good. At this point I thought I could actually make it back to my truck, where my son and friend were probably already packing up to head home so I got on the bike and tried to grab the clutch with my broken arm so I could slip into neutral and kick the starter.

That was when it happened...a sudden transition from daylight to darkness, almost like a dark cloth had been placed over my head...the last thing I recall was everything gently going black as I was tilting to the left in my fall to the ground.

Next thing I remember was a couple of riders splashing my face with water, removing my helmet, and helping me get back to the truck. One of them rode my bike to where we had parked and I rode passenger on the back of the other guys' KX250. Needless to say, the ride to the truck and the 2 hour follow up ride to the emergency room was pretty uncomfortable.

All in all, it was a good day of dirt riding! (followed by surgery and 6 weeks of physical therapy)

 

[TomB]

I was splitting wood and the maul slipped. I stupidly reached for it with my free hand while still swinging the sledge hammer and smashed my fingers. I took off my glove to examine the damage and about 10 seconds later the pain hit me like a train. It hurt so much I passed out. I regained consciousness wondering where I was and why I was on my back staring at the sky.

Good god! ...and you're still playing bass? ...hope so.

 

[DWBass]

I do not understand why sometimes stuff hurts immediately and sometimes it takes a loooong time for the message to get through.

Adrenaline! I got into a fight once and ended up with a shoulder separation. When the adrenaline wore off, I was in so much pain, I was very close to passing out and there was no position I could move my arm to ease the pain. Imagine waiting in an ER for 4 hours waiting for an Orthopedic Dr. to show up on a Sunday evening! In excruciating pain! I will never forget it. And I have a very high pain threshold.

 

[fhm555]

Those were fainting episodes... being knocked out. I have some experience with as well. But I consider that a bit different.

I was a young Marine and one of my buddies was a serious martial artist. He was teaching me some tricks, including a few weapons. He hooked me up with a set of training nunchucks and I knocked myself out in the living room while practicing. I was up practicing and next thing I know I'm on the floor and I've got a goose egg on my head.

 

[BigDanT]

I was a young Marine and one of my buddies was a serious martial artist. He was teaching me some tricks, including a few weapons. He hooked me up with a set of training nunchucks and I knocked myself out in the living room while practicing. I was up practicing and next thing I know I'm on the floor and I've got a goose egg on my head.

Last time I was knocked out I was carrying boxes down some basement stairs and not paying attention to the wood beam above. Smacked my head full speed into the beam. Woke up laying on the stairs staring at the ceiling. I had a huge bruise on my forehead and two black eyes. Looked like I got my a$$ whooped. Only fight I lost was to a 4x6 hunk of wood.

 

[Stempelloos]

As a youngster I had epileptic fits, that's not really fainting, but you pass out.
And often woke up with a hammering headache, feeling totally wrecked.

Something else that can also make you pass out, is eating too much weed-cake.
No headaches included though.

A good 18 years ago I a guy hit me on the temple and twice on the nose violently, while I was locking my bike.
He broke my nose and a piece of my front tooth. I thought I was unconscious for minutes after that.
But a witness that came over to me after the street-fighter had taken a run, said I was just standing holding my bike, blood gushing from my nose.
So I guess your sense of time and reality changes after being hit that hard.



Getting terribly nauseous and fainting, after 2 hours of sleep, doesn't sound normal to me.
I guess there must be something else going on, low blood pressure, diabetes, something along those lines.
Maybe you should get your blood pressure and the sugar level in your blood checked by a doctor.

 

[spiritbass]

When I was a teen and stepped on an inch-long shard of glass. It didn't hurt that bad, but I passed out for some reason. I didn't know that the glass remained in my foot for a few days until my dad was working on the wound and figured out that it was still in there. A local doctor removed in without benefit of anesthetic. I thanked him through clenched teeth. Later that day, I was walking in our yard with bandage and sock on the injured foot and punctured the other foot on a piece of wire. I gave up walking for a while...

 

[DDXdesign]

I coughed really hard a couple of times and the next thing I knew I was on the floor staring at the closet door.
I looked it up and it's called cough syncope. The act of coughing can reduce your blood pressure enough to severely reduce the oxygen to your brain. Basically, a really bad head rush.

This. While it's not exactly the same as fainting, it's pretty close. Has happened to me a couple times, most notably the first time, about 11 years ago when I was at my then-girlfriend's place (future wife, future ex-wife) - normal coughing bout because every winter I get bronchitis like clockwork, but suddenly I got this weird tunnel-vision freeze-frame, fade to black, woke up on the floor. I looked it up and called a doc to find out what it was. Has only happened a couple times, but I do get the occasional greyout/fuzzout when I cough heavily - not out, but feeling a little hypoxic and focusing on trying to get the breathing back in sync.

Now, I do have a few stories from when I was a tattoo artist in the late 90s, heh. I got my own first tat faint-free (little sweaty and not feeling awesome, but conscious!), but some of my customers were not so lucky. One guy, a friend of mine - pretty big guy at that - went down after the first half-inch of outline. After he recovered the rest was OK.