I passed out again today.
It’s happened before, and I blogged about it before back in 2006 and in 2008. Since then…

There was the hospital occasion some time in the mid 2010s. I can’t remember if this was before or after getting married and having our first child. I had decided to go into hospital worrying about chest pains (kind of a follow-up to that 2008 occasion). More tests, and this time they kind of answered the puzzle with the conclusion that it was probably a “sprained sternum”. But before that, one of the tests was a blood test, somewhat botched by medical students failing to find a vein, and it was that which caused me to pass out. Again, I felt like I’d been in a dream for a while. Curiously, I remember it being a particularly distressing dream in which I was wrestling to gather my thoughts. I came to with some more senior doctors looking concerned and the freaked out medical students in the background. Apparently I had been convulsing, but when I immediately started laughing, saying “Did I pass out? ok. Happened before” it probably set minds at ease. But if you thought blood test needles was a lame reason for passing out…

Another half passing out happened during a conversation about teeth. I almost passed out in a restaurant with my parents, because my dad was talking about a gruesome cracked tooth injury he’d had. Suddenly I needed to go outside and sit down. I could feel myself going. With the fresh air and my head between knees, I managed to avoid passing out, but pretty weird that only talking about something could bring that on.

And today? I slammed my finger in the door. A surprise gust of wind pushed the front door particularly hard and fast onto my middle finger. Several hours later it’s looking quite purple. Ouch!

After swearing profusely and running it under the tap, I started to feel faint. Again a weirdly distressed dream about not being able to work out what I was dreaming about, and apparently I was convulsing again. Because of this, and because I looked pale and slack-jawed like I was dead, my wife called 999. As I came to I tried to reassure her that I was ok, but passed out again. I should have elevated my feet. That’s the trick. When I did that, lying on the sofa, I immediately started feeling better, and I knew the cold sweats would subside after 5 minutes, so I knew we could cancel the ambulance because….

it was just that same old passing out thing again.