Truth to tell, I think that I have great health and will be that way for many years to come.
However, today I fainted in my driveway while working on clearing out my garage with my daughter’s family and a friend. All was going well and the plan was to donate a bunch of stuff to ReUse Hawaii. I hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep the night before. I awoke with a slight sore throat but figured it would go away like usual. Breakfast was oatmeal and my free birthday Starbucks Iced Chai Latte. As I was standing by an awning post, I felt queasy and before I knew it, I was on the ground with a cut lip and heard someone calling my name and asking if I was alright.
That was really interesting – to have blacked out. The next thing I knew, my son-in-law is calling 911 for an ambulance. “No!” I told him – but he didn’t listen. And then lo and behold, a firetruck with sirens wailing came and a very nice fireman took my blood pressure and asked me a bunch of questions, and then after that an ambulance came with sirens wailing and released the firemen from watching an old lady sit up, vomit, and insist that she is fine.
At this point I was embarrassed so the paramedics and I went into the house for them to do diagnostics in my messy house. They were also really nice and said they liked my decor. I had a glucose blood test done as well as some other tests for heart health. My temperature was good as well as my blood pressure and I was given the option of going to the hospital – which I declined. The general concensus was that I was tired and dehydrated and I was to drink water, coconut water, and liquids slowly throughout the day, and if I fainted again, to call 9-11 once more.
I was really super tired so I sipped a bit of water and lay down to sleep. It was a luxurious sleep and I woke a few hours later covered in sweat. I must have had a low grade fever that broke while I rested. I was a bit woozy and a little bit dizzy but that soon passed. My daughter gave me a Tylenol pill for my sore muscles and now I am typing this out and getting ready for bed after I ate a delicious bowl of ochazuke with ume.
I did use an old Covid test to see if this was Covid (negative) but I really think this is the flu, or maybe food poisoning. Sore body and tired.
Throughout this ordeal, I keep thinking of my blogging friend, Kay. She has had a few bouts with vertigo and hasn’t been posting as much. It sure sucks to not have optimal health. We take our good health for granted but the older we get, the more we have to work at it.
Except for my 103 year old friend, Esther Nowell who is still going strong. Her walking is slower and she can’t hear too well, but she must be doing a lot of things right. Amazing. And she doesn’t drink stuff like Iced Chai Latte, even if it’s free.
Update, one week later:
Well, here it is – the next Saturday. I have had a week of carefully taking care of myself, drinking a lot of fluids, trying to eat healthy (i.e. less processed foods) and taking it easy. Getting up or down, especially on my bed, has me enduring bouts of dizziness – the worst was yesterday in the very early morning when I tried to get to my phone which turned out to be a wrong number. I felt weak that entire morning but by mid afternoon, I felt good and strong again. That seemed to be a pattern for me – unsteady in the morning but stronger as the day progresses.
And today, after a good night’s sleep, I feel 100% better. I did errands, worked on moving and organizing house things, and did a little cooking without any problems. Phew!
I will take this as a wake up call to be good to myself. Life is good if we avoid what is bad for us (iced Chai Latte) and do what is good for us. Amen!
I’m so glad and relieved that you’re feeling better. You don’t appreciate how lucky we are with our health until something goes awry.
Eh Aunty,
Glad you looked like your “normal” beautiful self last night. Would have never thought you went through such a scare. Yep, we do take our health for granted. Gotta slow down when tired.
I got liquid IV for you.
Holy Smokes! I was just sneaking onto my blog and saw your heading. Good grief! That is really, really scary. I have been told that what your son-in-law did was the absolute correct call. You just never know. I’m glad you’re feeling better, but honestly, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to get a full check-up physical with your doctor.
I’m not back to my blog yet. Everything has been crazy at our house for this last month with Art coming back from Tanzania and Dubai with COVID and me having to care for him with my vertigo. Now he’s doing better, but mom has some kind of intestinal problem that the doctors can’t figure out. It’s crazy over here.
Please take care of yourself. This was really, really spooky. Have you considered Liquid IV? It’s cheapest at Costco. Problem with the sports drink is that it has too much sugar so I diluted it when I was drinking it for my vertigo, and now I’m giving it to mom for the electrolytes.
And yes, sigh… as we get older… staying healthy takes work.
I still can’t believe how I passed out. Never happened before – except once when I was younger and on the Big Island at a beach, I felt woozy and light headed because it was so hot and I hadn’t been drinking anything. I was with my husband-to-be and he put me in the shade and gave me water to drink.
I’ll let my doctor know the next time I see him. He is so grouchy – but he is thorough and tells me how I give him a hard time. Hah! I’ll check out Costco’s Liquid IV. Always good to have that around.
So tough for you with your vertigo, mom, and Art. You will get through all of this and look back and wonder how you did it.
I should tell you that I discovered Liquid IV has a lot of sugar so I dilute it in twice as much water when I need it and just drink it throughout the day.
So scary! Glad everything is getting better. Did you recently change BP medication or miss a dose? But, that still doesn’t explain everything. Must have been the chai latte.
Take care!!!
It was a good scare. Getting sick once in a while makes us more human and able to understand other people’s situations. Must have been the combination of chai latte, lack of sleep, and the HEAT. It has been way too hot lately.
Glad you weren’t alone when this happened. I’ve been feeling reluctant about going to the swap meet lately because I’ve been getting light-headed a lot when getting up from stooping. Not sure if it’s the heat or my age.
It was good that my family was right there. Although, if I didn’t have to work so hard I might not have felt sick – lol – so now they are doing the work and telling me to take it easy. I have a feeling it was something I ate because I kept having fevers that would break and pooping made me feel so much better (I know, TMI, TMI.)
Do you have low blood pressure? I have high blood pressure. But in any case, the heat nowadays is very bad for us. It really wasn’t as hot in our younger days. We never hit 90° and Palolo Valley used to be cold in the morning in Septembers while walking to school when we were young kids.
Glad to hear you are doing better. It’s scary to faint like that; it hasn’t happened to me in ages. You told the saga very well! 🙂
It was scary – I was out for about 10 seconds with my eyes open even though I could only see black. It was a wake up call to do better things for my body.