What happened to me?

[PCB]

May I pick the brains of some of you experienced medics out there on something that happened to me the other day?

After donating blood and the procedure was complete, I passed out in the lounge. Now, I have no fear of needles or anything like that. My last intake was 3 hrs prior, a banana and and 16oz of water. No history of diabetes, no present illnesses. The staff offered me a soda and a cookie, and after 30 minutes or so I was able to get the heck out of that bus and into my own vehicle (mistake #1).

At this point I felt like crap, but I just wanted to get home. I pulled out on the highway and realized that I was about to drop out again. Numbness and tingling in my hands and feet, confusion, ect. I made it to the nearest turnoff and got the vehicle into park before dropping out again. When I woke up, I figured maybe I had better call the ambulance shed, but I couldn't remember where I was ("Come and get me, I don't know where I am" doesn't work very well). To make a long story short, after trying again to drive (mistake #2) and waking up in a bean field, I made it to the shed. I asked for O2, even though I was hyperventing (don't ask me why, I guess I was thinking hypovolemic shock, it didn't help) and called a friend to take me home. When I got home, I grabbed a tube of instant glucose, and 10 min after taking it was feeling somewhat better.

Now, can anyone tell me why my BGL would tank like that? I'm healthy as a horse.

Thanks, PC

[Eydawn]

Did I read that right? You had 3 blackouts of unknown etiology after donating blood? It's time to go see the doctor for you, mister! There may be something else other than low blood sugar/ wooflies from donating going on here. Could be one of those adverse reactions... the rare incident type things... can you afford not to find out for sure?

Wendy

CO EMT-B

[DwayneEMTP]

I'm with Wendy. It probably wouldn't hurt to tell this story to your Doc...

Also, remember that there were many variables in play before and at the time that you started to feel better. Because it happened not long after taking the sugar does not make the two related. The two events may have simply been coincidental. (For instance; any chance you (laid/layed? Hell...) became comfortably supine at home while waiting for the sugar to have an effect?)

I will be interested to hear from others that may have seen this before about the possible etiology.

Dwayne

[Superfly]

I'd check out a doc right away, one syncopal episode is not uncommon, but 3 is...family hx of diabetes?

[itku2er]

P even though I am not a medic I think you had a Syncopal vasovagal reaction they are rare in occurance when you donate blood. It resembles the signs and symptoms you described especially the "I thought I was going into Hypovalemic shock". But its best to check with your MD and relate to him this. You might need a complete blood work up cause even though its a rare occurance there is an underlying cause to it. GO TO YOUR DOCTOR!!!

(that is a TERR order :!: :!: )

later

Terr

[tniuqs]

Now with Local News:

This just in: after donating blood a local EMS/FF personnel slams into Innocent Family Killing ALL.

Do you get where this is going ..... SLAP!

The syncopal episodes that you experianced can not be diagnosed on line, hey, you were down a pint or 2, period and with the very brief related experiance it is most likely the cause ... that said:

What IS wrong with you is that you CONTINUED to drive, not once but 3 occasions !

1- leaving facility

2- enroute on a highway.

3- out of a bean field ?

4- and your EMS friends then took you HOME ? WTF ?

It should become quite self evident, that you did not make good judgments, would you allow a patient describing this situation to just go home ? ... I certianly hope not !

So please take ALL the above advice and seek a higher level of medical intervention.

Unless your GOAL IS to kill someone or yourself.

cheers

[DwayneEMTP]

You know, you're not very clear on the s/s before or immediately after "dropping out", but I am hearing this...

Hyperventilation (Which I'm guessing is paired with tachycardia), tingling in hands and feet, confusion...and you have the very real possibility that this adds up to an anxiety attack.

Maybe it is that straight forward.

...hey, you were down a pint or 2, period and with the very brief related experiance it is most likely the cause...

How do you figure? He's at the clinic half an hour after he passes out, we then have the drive home. (Which makes your post silly as, one, he's already stated he made poor decisions, and second, doesn't sound as if his decision making ability was intact anyway.), How long does it take someone to compensate for the loss of a pint of blood in your world? He should have done so long ago.

There is a pathology here, whether mental or physical. Pretty interesting question. What are the odds you can give us your s/s as if you were writing your own PCR?

Dwayne

[mrmeaner]

I would assume you got the point about driving after syncopal episodes so I don't really ned to rehash that point.

Has anyone else in your family had this happen to them? Did you get the same feeling each time you passed out? How long did you pass out? Have you had heart problems? Family hx? Knowing what your heart was doing during these episodes may have been very helpful.

[Eydawn]

No! We don't need the S/S like he'd give on a PCR. *His DOCTOR* does. There could be a multitude of factors at play here! Could be psychological, could be phyisological, could be an underlying illness that was previously undetected, could be neurological...

Without a lab at my disposal and an M.D. behind my name, I don't want to say anything more specific than that. There's plenty of 'it coulda beens' but that's not what PCB needs at the moment. PCB, I'd love to hear what happened during the episodes... but not until you've seen the doc and you have "and this is what the doc said" to post at the very end of that post.

It was dangerous, whatever it was. It affected judgment, breathing, motor function, and level of consciousness. It was such a near miss that I'm surprised that it wasn't a headline. Good on you, PCB, for recognizing how stupid continuing to drive was... but you're going to be doing yourself and the rest of the world a disservice if you continue the stupidity by trying to get a diagnosis online instead of seeing your primary care doc. Since you don't know what it was, you don't know if it's coming back... which makes me worry for you.

Wendy

CO EMT-B

[MedicNorth]

This is nothing new to me - I haven't been able to donate blood since I was about 20, which is just after they invented it!

I have consistently low BP - usually around 90/60, and have dealt with it for my entire life. It works fine, but there are some things that don't work - like any reduction in the volume does cause shock symptoms. Did they check your BP before and after?

I agree with the general consensus here that you should go and get things checked out. I was told there was nothing I could do about it, except be aware. Keep us posted - this is intriguing!