He'd been acting funny for a few days and walking kind of drunk (turns out he hurt his back and he's fine now). Anyway, I was in the vet's office during the exam and kind of crouching down while the vet checked him out. They were testing his spine and neck and things like that. If any of you have ever had an unexplained "something wrong" with one of your fur babies, I'm sure you can understand the frustration. You know something is wrong, you have no idea what's causing it or how to fix it, and possibly the most frustrating is they can't tell you what's wrong or what hurts.
Anyway, back to the story, I was crouching down with the vet and then she asked me to pick him up and put him on the table so she could do some more tests. I stood up and the vet stepped out of the room to get something. I started feeling dizzy and sort of blacking out. I thought "I should sit down.... but I can't because he's up on the table and he will jump down and hurt himself..... as soon as the doctor comes back I'll tell her I need to sit down" Next thing I knew I was flat on my back with the vet trying to wake me up. It took me a good minute to figure out who the heck she was and where I was and how the heck I got on the floor. I started to come to and they were all pretty panicked. They asked if I wanted to call someone and shoved my phone in my hand. I could barely catch my breath so I just texted my husband who was in class. I think my words literally were "I fell down. Passed out." He was naturally quite confused but that was the best I could do. He rushed out of class to come to the vet to finish the appointment. Cooper still needed a blood test and x-rays and I didn't want all of this nonsense to be for nothing!
One of the vet techs was already on 911 and the ambulance was on the way. At first I said "No I don't want an ambulance" because really, how embarrassing? What am I, an 80 year old woman who fainted? Come on, just give me a minute and I'll be fine. But the room just would NOT stop spinning and it turns out I hit my head on the floor in the fall. So I agreed to let the ambulance come. What's the point of having health insurance if you don't use it right? I'll skip the gory details, but they loaded me onto the gurney and quickly inserted an IV into my arm. I am not a fan of needles or blood. I tend to get light headed when I see blood, you can imagine the irony.
So off to the emergency room I went. It seemed like a non stop influx of paramedics, nurses, doctors, and registration people. I have to say, they were all very efficient. Every one had their specific duty and each carried it out so the next person could get to their part. It was like a well rehearsed play. The doctor was the director, making occasional appearances to check on how things were going. The nurse (mine was named Elton, like Elton John he said) was like the production assistant who really did all the work, even though the director got all the credit. The paramedics were the set directors, moving things around and doing the heavy lifting. Then followed a series of supporting rolls... one nurse who took my blood, one who helped me into my costume hospital gown, one who took me to the bathroom and back. The CT scan was the big dramatic second act. They had to check for brain bleeding, which thankfully was negative. So I guess that made me the lead actress. It's weird for me to be the center of attention, but I guess when life tells you to take it easy and slow down a little, you have to listen right? The final diagnosis was a concussion and I was not supposed to read, drive, or engage in contact sports for several days. There goes my football career. And there went my blog for about a week. See my ET finger?
It was a pretty frightening experience overall. I have never broken a bone or even had a bloody nose, so needless to say a concussion was a whole new world for me. My husband was super worried, although he didn't show it until later, poor guy. My dog was even worried, he refused to leave my side even after all the doors were open and the could have escaped (he hates the vet). And all because essentially, I stood up too fast. It was the combination of crouching down for a few minutes and then standing up which caused a "quick drop in blood pressure" and caused me to black out. Guess it's a good thing I had gotten my hair done that morning so at least I had good hair while I was at the hospital. There has to be a silver lining right? This was taken mere hours before the "incident".
I guess if nothing else it made me appreciate my good health and I learned to be more careful!
