Unfortunately I had a really weird incident where I had to go to the hospital. I was working out like normal and started to get a little light headed so I took a breather, no sweat. I've trained pretty hard, both before and at Marine Corps training, so I know my limits very well and I've gotten close to the edge of passing out before but I know how to avoid it.
This time, however, something weird happened. I started to see red/black like you do when you're going to pass out, but as I sat down and drank water and breathed slow and even, it didn't go away. I got in front of a fan to cool off and it got exponentially worse. For the next 20 or 25 minutes I was stumbling around the house unable to see (the red/black spots completely impairing my vision) but still on the edge of consciousness. There was a lot of general panic and disorientation but I don't remember a lot of what was going on. It's kind of a blur, but there were a lot of strange symptoms. I remember the base of my neck hurting really really bad. My fingers were stiff but also felt like they were vibrating the way your funny bone does when you bump it or when your whole leg falls asleep, only it lasted awhile. My vision kept going in and out every time I'd move or get up, and was totally out for a good 10 minutes. After drinking water, sitting still, stretching, whatever I could think of, and it not going away, I ate an orange and it started to get better. I was still with it enough to do this because I considered the possibility that what was going on had something to do with blood sugar. I asked the docs this and they said nothing unusual showed up in my blood... but then again I'd eaten two oranges by the time we got there. I have no history of diabetes but my dad and my mom's dad did.
Then I got up and I nearly lost consciousness, so I decided to alert my sister to watch me and call 911 if I passed out, since I at this point I was kind of worried about what was going on since it had been going on for so long. I realized as I tried to call her name, then, that I couldn't speak clearly and felt like I was under some kind of general anesthetic. I explained to her what was going on and she thought we should go to the hospital. When it continued for another 10 minutes or so and then my hands started to lock up and not move, I decided that was a good idea.
We went to urgent care first, and by this time I was relatively normal, although the way I felt can best be described as moderately intoxicated. We described for them what happened and they said I should go to the ER, so we did.
They ran every damn test I knew of, blood tests, EKG, chest x-ray, CAT scan, the works but didn't find anything unusual. The doc ran through a couple plausible scenarios, but I pretty much fed him the ideas... things like, it's possible I was just way out of shape and not ready for working out again (not likely, I've dealt with the whole "first day working out after several weeks" thing before and it's never caused this, and I know how to hold back when I know I should); also things like that I was just dehydrated (possible, but I hydrate very well during the week, if not as well over the weekends, but the workout I'd gone through wasn't even that intense, I wouldn't have lost much water through sweat); to the possibility that, the recent cold/flu type symptoms I'd been feeling (which have progressively gotten worse tonight to the point of misery right now) could have contributed to exaggerating the effects of what might have otherwise just been a normal "a little light headed/overheated/dehyrated" feeling.
I also put forth the suggestion that maybe the immediate event was some kind of tachycardia but I'm no doctor, I was just guessing because I know that when I've come out of a really hard run and my pulse was about 220-240 (that's only happened once or twice), a sports medicine friend of mine said I was lucky my heart didn't have a problem with that. It's possible that all the wrong conditions came together to create a circumstance where my heart kinda did a double-take and didn't like what I was doing, but I don't know. I didn't think to ask, but I would have thought that something would show up in your blood after a cardiac event like that the way it does after a heart attack.
In any case, my friend convinced me to stop taking xenadrine (just in case) and I've been advised to over-hydrate and not work out for a few days. Just wanted to apologize for 1. not getting the fanfic up tonight I had intended to and 2. I owe Panny an edit on her Malcolm story. Sorry guys, but I'm sure I'll be feeling better tomorrow.
On a positive note, they were remarkably efficient. I was in and out of there in 2 and a half hours or so, with all of those tests and talking to my doctor a few times!
