At a wedding
Today was a busy day. In the morning, we took Shadow for a walk up by the air field while Simon fixed his plane. Then we went to a Corn Cook out at a person’s house on the lake that Jamie lives on. It was much larger than we thought and there were probably 100 people there. It was quite exciting. Next we dropped Jamie off at a wedding on a farm. We went home and made dinner.
After dinner I joined my sister at the wedding. We were standing at the front of the tent in front of the speakers. It was very loud and there were a lot of people. We were having a conversation with our friend and her parents. After a while I started to feel tired. I was trying to focus on the conversation but I was yawning and having a hard time staying awake. I could wiggle my toes so I figured I was fine. Everybody decided to move further from the speakers. When I tried to follow them, my legs didn’t work and I ended up falling to the ground.
I don’t know how I fell, but I don’t think I hit my head. I laid in the gravel for a bit. I remember after I fell my eyes opened wide and wouldn’t close. I don’t remember seeing much. It was less than a minute before I could blink my eyes. Shortly after I could feel the weight lifting. It was super embarrassing because there were a lot of people around and I didn’t really know many of them. I felt a bit dizzy for a about 10 minutes after which was not typical. Normally, I feel back to my normal self shortly after.
About 30 minutes later I was dancing, but I sat down a few times when I felt a bit unstable.
UPDATE: I received the following texts on Sep 17.
So…you were in Simon’s dreams last night! He woke up saying « your sisters pupils were dilated just like yours when you faint » He thinks your episodes are a form of fainting just like what I do! He is wondering if your Apple Watch monitors your heart rate and BP during your episodes. He thinks your HR might be super slow or your BP might be really low like mine causing the episode. Do your doctors know about our vasovagal episodes? I have it and it was determined to come from gramma Pighin!
For me, any stress (ie seeing something scary or after a big swim then going in the shower, or for awhile just walking down the street…or into a stuffy building I would just get a flush of warmth and collapse and wake up to a crowd. I saw lots of specialists including a neurologist in Vancouver and it got better when I added lots of salt to my diet on the suggestion of my neurologist. Now if I get that flush of warm I have to get to the ground or do something quick to increase my heart rate.