Have you ever fainted???

So last night, Norm and I fell asleep on the couch watching T.V         we woke up late, and decided to go upstairs....    but before I did, I went into the kitchen, and wanted to get the coffee pot ready for the morning.   I started feeling strange, but filled the pot up with water...     next thing I knew, I whacked my head off the counter, and was laying on the floor, water everywhere from the pot, and Norm yelling down "what was that noise?!".  Me, being the stupid stubborn person I am, got up, embarrassed with myself, said "I dropped the coffee pot" and started cleaning up the water from the kitchen floor......   

Aside from a HUGE headache from hitting my head so hard off the counter, I feel fine now......  But I've never experienced this before, and to be honest...  it totally freaked me out.  Just curious if anyone else ever experienced this before :)

Hello

I haven't fainted but lately if I get up to fast from laying or sitting I get very light headed a few times I thought I was going to pass out.

Not since surgery, but yes, once I did pass out.  And yes, it totally freaked me out too.  Mine was due to an inner ear infection and something called "labrythitis"  Unfortunately - and talk about embarrassing - it happened when I was with an ambulance patient.  I had been feeling lightheaded all day....but went to work.  We took this ambulance patient to a doctors office where the patient needed to stay on our stretcher so Brian and I (I was working with him at the time) were required to stay in the room with the patient for the exam.  The room started to spin - but me also being stubborn didn't say anything to the nurse, doctor, and Brian.  The next thing I knew, Brian had his hand planted firmly on my chest, pushing me up into the wall and there were about 3 other people in the room who were not there the last time I was conscious.  I was also SOAKED in sweat and shaking like a leaf.  And then I started to cry. 

From your description...it could have been something called "orthostatic hypotension" which is also what the other poster is describing.  It is a drop in blood pressure when suddenly changing positions, ie lying to standing.  "Suddenly" doesn't have to mean within seconds in this instance.  It can be up to a full blown minute or two.

I'd watch out for dizziness when getting up from bed and stuff like that.  When lying down, sit up on the edge of the bed and wait a minute.  And then stand and don't walk for a little bit.

It could also just be from being asleep and waking up and trying to get stuff done - to much activity all at once - going from sleeping to working so "quickly"

My blood pressure is generally 100/50 - 110/60 these days (which is AWESOME) but I do get concerned I could go much lower when not feeling well or something like that, causing me to pass out.

Uh....did you tell Norm what happened once you went upstairs....cause I'm thinking him finding out in this post may not be the best way....but that's just my two cents.

Pam

No I told him as soon as i went upstairs lol...   He knew about it :)

I think I was just so embarrassed about the fact that there was water everywhere, and too disoriented at the time it happened to tell him. 

Mary -

I haven't actually fainted, but I have come pretty close. When the room starts spinning, I try to eat something quick. Usually something with a little bit of suger, or whatever is handy. When it first started to happen, I tried to re-evaluate how many calories I was burning vs. how many I was taking in and noticed that I needed to spread out my calories a little more, especially having a little more around the time that I workout. Don't know if that helped at all....

Hope your head feels better.

Katie

Mary - hope the head is feeling better this morning! You have reactive hypoglycemia too don't you? Maybe you just needed to eat? Or the much more scientific things that Pam brought up - either way hope it doesn't happen again!

I know i have gotten very close with the Reac. Hypo. but when I eat or drink OJ it comes right back up and I feel better.

Best of Luck!!

Liz

I went through a period of time where standing up would make me come very close to blacking out....Everything would go black and I would lose my balance, but never fully passed out.  Went through testing...wasnt my blood pressure, etc....i upped my water and my salt (as a suggestion from my family dr....dont ask me why though).  It eventually stopped, but it was a long haul before it did....it will still happen occasionally, but not like it used to.

HG

I fainted for the first time in my life in late October.  I was just doing some mild exercise...my breathing became shallow...my head began to swim...next thing, Steve was kneeling above me, asking if I could get up!  Weird and scary.  The dizziness continued, along with headaches, so I went to the hospital a few days later.  They kept me for various tests, but nothing showed what was wrong.  They did say my blood pressure was low and gave me liquids, though.  I still get that way sometimes.  Last night, for instance, I had a low fever, then I got nauseated, broke into a sweat, and the panting started.  I had to lie down so I wouldn't fall down.  Weird.

If you hit your head hard, maybe you should have it looked at...

Lisa

Mary i go thru the same thing and did test and cant find nothing,my sister wants me to get a blood pressure cup to chk it when i get like that i run on the low side normally but if i get up to fast i have to grab the wall to steady myself,but i usually grab OJ or peanut butter idk the peanut butter helps but it does

I passed out when I was going through Chemotherapy.  I had been feeling really icky so I wasn't eating/drinking much at all, just sleeping.  It was really hot out and I had no A/C so I was sweating a lot too, oh yeah I was also sweating due to hot flashes and night sweats from the chemo-induced menopause.  I passed out Sunday night, crawled back to bed when I came to on the bathroom floor and proceeded to drive into the clinic the next morning for my daily shot before going to work. 

I was soundly chastised by the nurses, my blood pressure was incredibly low from dehydration such that they required me to stay in the clinic all that day and all the next day for IV fluids and they didn't allow me to drive myself.  So, it could be dehydration.