Fainting at the Wheel

The most terrifying thing happened to me last night.  I was driving home from World Market and all of a sudden my peripheral vision started to turn gray and then within seconds the gray kept closing in on my eye sight until I had finally lost all vision.  Simultaneously, my heart started racing, as if I had just sprinted a hundred yards.  I was totally conscious and aware, but just couldn't see and thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest.  I started to slow down and reach around for my emergency lights, but couldn't find them so I turned on my blinker and remembered seeing (before I lost my vision) extra space at a bus stop to the right of me.  So I slowly started to pull over to what I hoped was the bus stop.  As soon as I pulled over, my vision slowly came back and my heart beat returned to normal.  Obviously, I was terrified.  I kept thinking "thank God the kids weren't in the car and thank God I wasn't driving 70 mph on the freeway" when this happened.  I called Joe in tears and told him I thought I'd be fine driving home.

I spoke to the on-call doctor at my OBGYN's office and she said it sounded like a vasovagal episode - basically a fainting episode brought on by a sudden dip in my blood pressure.  I remember feeling very thirsty in the store so maybe I was dehydrated which can cause fainting.  Who knows?  But it was terrifying.  I'm just thankful that the episode lasted only a few seconds.  I was driving without vision for only about 5 seconds.  I was lucky this didn't turn into a full fainting episode where I went unconscious at the wheel.  I would have been in an accident for sure.  And then what if I was on the freeway.  I know it's not helpful to think of the what-ifs but I can't help it.  There are very few times in my life when I remember being completely out-of-control of my own body.  And most of those times were due to drinking too many booze!

So that's it. That's the story.  Guess I need to make sure I'm staying hydrated.  The doctor also said that pregnant women are much more susceptible to sudden dips in blood pressure so just another thing to be aware of for all those pregnant gals out there.

Have a happy and SAFE Sunday readers!