Vasovagal Syncope

Vasovagal Syncope 

Yesterday at about 10:30am-11:00am, while I was at work, I felt very nauseous. I ran to the bathroom thinking I was going to throw up, but instead, realized that my vision started to fade. I couldn't see anything, I could only sense light. I started to panic and hyperventilate. Next thing I knew, I woke up on the floor of the bathroom. GROSS! I know. When I came to, the first thing I realized was that I was on the floor. Then I really hoped that I was on a clean floor, like at home or in my apartment. And when I realized I was on the bathroom floor, I was very disgusted, but then very worried because I just realized what had happened...I fainted.

I felt around my head and I realized there was a really tender spot that really hurt when I touched it. I bet I hit on my head really hard on the way down. Then I realized that everything was really blurry. I felt my face and realized my glasses were gone. I had to feel around the bathroom floor (again, GROSS!) and finally found my glasses across the floor of the bathroom. Which lead me to my next thought, "how hard did I fall to knock my glasses off my face and across the floor?"

When I finally got my glasses back on, I examined myself to find scrapes on my hands. I must have scraped them when I fell. I took a moment to gather myself in the bathroom, and then went back to work. I know...crazy right? I just fainted and I decided to go back to work instead of...I don't know...going to the doctor?

The ironic thing is, I was in a hospital. I work in the hospital on Monday's giving bedside exams. Surrounded by doctor's but yet, still not receiving any medical care because they weren't MY doctor and didn't accept my insurance. Funny how the word works.

At about 3:00pm, I realized that there were bruises on my hands and my lip was bruised too. I must have fallen on my face and bruised up my hands. I decided to call Kaiser and get some advice from a nurse. She recommended that I go to urgent care but NOT drive myself, in case I black out again. So I asked my friend to take me, but the catch was, I had to drive myself to my friend.

As I drove to her, I almost got in an accident, REALLY near miss AND when I got there, I just turned off my car and didn't even put it in park or put my emergency break on. Since I was on a hill, I started to roll backwards. Good thing there was no one behind me!

So after 3 hours at Urgent Care, $20 for co-pay, an EKG, $10 for lab testing, and $5 for parking, the diagnosis was "vasovagal syncope". Of course it was something that simple...

This morning, I found dirty splotches on my white coat...probably from the bathroom floor...great.

Modern Family

While my friend drove me to the hospital yesterday, we passed by a church that Modern Family was filming at. I saw Phil and Gloria taking a break and eating, my friend spotted Mitchell. It was really cool! Wish I had a camera to take some pictures. If only I wasn't so worried about passing out yesterday I really would have been a lot more excited about it. I can't wait to watch the episode where this church is featured in it! It's just down the street from my apartment too! I pass by this church all the time!