So, WTF fainted on me the other day. In fact, I think she may have had a brief seizure. She was standing and started feeling sick, so I supported her. She gradually lost consciousness, and her arms started twitching. Then she went completely limp, like the proverbial rag doll. Her eyes were open, but there was no light in them. I lowered her to the ground, and she regained consciousness soon after. At first she didn't know where she was, though she said she had been having a strange dream. She regained full lucidity fairly quickly, but she still doesn't remember what happened.

I made her go to the doctor. He spent five minutes on her and basically said "feel free to come back if it happens again." He did measure her blood pressure, which was 106/60 (which is actually normal for her). Sigh�

Talking to my neuropsychologist aunt about what happened, the actual condition I think it most resembles is something called neurally mediated syncope: "Typical NMS occurs while standing and is often preceded by a sensation of warmth, nausea, lightheadedness and visual 'grayout.' If the syncope is prolonged, it can trigger a seizure. Placing the person in a reclining position will restore blood flow and consciousness and end the seizure."

I also tend to think that it was brought about by an unusual combination of factors and may very well not happen again. Still, I'd prefer it if she got a more thorough examination, like a tilt test or something.

Anyway, I think I now know what she would look like if she was dead. Which is not an image I really need popping into my head all the time, as it has been since this happened.

In the final tally, human consciousness is really quite a fragile thing, isn't it? It takes so little to reduce us to the sum of our parts.

existence is the process of slowly wearing away,

greyarea

Diaryland