#very vasovagal reaction

[wolfeyedwitch]

I think whump writing has changed my brain chemistry. I almost passed out today and my biggest thought was "take notes about how this feels, it will make for good details in writing!"

[geraskier]

.

[lighthouseshepard]

I know you just had top surgery - how was it? How was the healing process? I’m scared to death of surgery but I desperately need these off

HI NYX!!! ok im gonna try and be as brief and concise as possible because theres honestly quite a lot i could talk about but! heres some thoughts under the cut

so honestly as someone who has had a few surgeries in the past for other medical issues - this ranked VERY low on the pain scale. maybe a 4/10 tops at its worst (although i do understand everyone is different). the surgeon kept telling me "many people do not find this operation particularly painful" and i did not believe him one bit until afterwards. i had prescription pain medicne and antibiotics to take, but honestly i only needed the prescription medicine for about 3 days, and then after that i was fine with tylenol. after a week really i didnt need to take anything consistently, it was here or there if i happened to start moving around too much.

the worst part for me overall was the BANDAGES. after you wake up youre gonna be wrapped within an inch if your life with ike 2 inches of gauze and tape and an ace wrap holding it all together. if you have drains (which i did) you can't shower until they're out and the bandages come off, anywhere from 5 to 7 days usually. mine was 7 days and i was miserable. the drain emptying wasnt that bad tbh, someone helped me the first 2 times and then i was able to do it myself afterwards. if youre bad with blood or bodily fluids then youll def need someone to help you there. the drain removal process, to be completely honest, was. also bad. it lasted maybe five seconds per drain but i didnt breathe right like they told me to and had a vasovagal reaction and passed out. i dont say this to dissuade you! but it was not pleasant

the main thing probably is gonna be stiffness and soreness. you literally won't be able to do anything with your arms for at least a few days - its bordering on 2 weeks for me and im just now able to pull a shirt over my head without stiffness. you DEFINITELY will need someone to help you with basic tasks those first few days, getting food, getting dressed, etc. some ppl get bruising on their chest just from the skin being manipulated and etc but surprisingly i havent had any bruising yet?

also!! again some places differ, but mine was a same day surgery. after a few hours of waking up i was able to be bundled into the car back to the hotel. youre gonna be really groggy but i was able to walk just fine, albeit very slowly with help. the surgery itself was the blink of an eye to me. i remember them putting an o2 mask over my face and then i was OUT. seconds later i was being dragged up out of unconscious well by the nurse's voice.

ill say too, i 100% understand the nervousness and fear. the 2 weeks leading up to the surgery were like. awful andnsnjf. i was so anxious and terrified of the pain only to find it genuinely was not that bad at all. you know the this too shall pass lighter i have. i slept with that clutched in my hand the entire night before surgery. it was very much a "do it scared" situation and having those things of comfort and reassurance whatever they are to you can help immensely. and i did do it! and the relief i felt a week after when i finally got to see made literally all of it worth it. theres still healing to go (i took a month off work also) but im taking it very slowly and trying not to rush enjoyment of this body c: most of the healing process has been letting the body do its natural work and being patient with it, a thing i am usually not. i still have to dress the area for another 2 weeks maybe, but then i can start scar care!!!

[wyndigos-blog]

Okay, I could not fit this entire thing in the notes, so I'm going to make a separate post for it @servusapollinis

Basically, vasovagal syncope is a condition where, when somebody is exposed to certain triggers (usually blood, gore, vomit, or needles, although it can be many other things) they experience a massive spike in heart rate and a massive drop in blood flow, usually leading to emotional distress, lightheadedness, headaches, or fainting.

I have severe trypanophobia (fear of needles) and I got vasovagal syncope from my mom, so I flip the fuck out whenever I see/am near needles. But this is insane, It's totally irrational, I absolutely love horror, and gore, and all that stuff, it doesn't bother me at all, probably to a concerning extent! So it's totally weird for me to have this.

But I've been watching the SAW franchise, and I've had absolutely no reaction to all of the blood and gore, I've quite enjoyed watching it. But now I'm on the second movie, and there's a scene where a woman has to crawl through a pit of needles. And up until this point, I'm completely fine, enjoying the movie, laughing with my family, all the good stuff. And all of a sudden I'm super light-headed, I'm crying and I don't know why I'm crying, and then I start laughing because I'm crying, and I can't stop laughing, and then my dad had to get me some water and help me off the floor.

I've had some very extreme reactions to needles, I mean hell, I wasn't even in the double digits when I was literally fighting several doctors just because I had to get blood drawn, but I've never done something like that, and I have a good feeling that the next time I have to see a needle irl, I'm going to pass out for real this time.

So yeah! Actually a pretty funny experience, but probably not the best.

[babygirlbenpaul]

ben & travis headcanons (updated!) 🫶🏻

— ben ♡

𓈒 ⊹ his full name is benjamin adam paul.

𓈒 ⊹ his birthday is september 23rd, 1986, and he is seventeen during the events of the season one storyline. (semi-confirmed by trevor hoffmann)

𓈒 ⊹ he plays baritone saxiphone.

𓈒 ⊹ he has vasovagal syncope, which is a condition that causes a sudden drop in heart rate and blood pressure and leads to fainting, typically in reaction to a stressful trigger (— such as blood; this is why he passed out while lee was cutting his arm off).

𓈒 ⊹ he spaces out and gets distracted/lost in thought very easily. his grades aren’t very good because he tends to have trouble focusing on his assignments.

𓈒 ⊹ all of his favorite colors are different shades of blue. he prefers lighter shades, like baby blue and periwinkle.

𓈒 ⊹ he and his little sister, gabrielle (gabby), are very close despite him being seven years older than her. they playfully fight a lot (which mostly just consists of her roasting the shit out of him with no provocation), but aside from that they get along super well. they watch cartoons together after school and ben pushes her on her swingset a lot.

𓈒 ⊹ however, he’s not really any good with kids that aren’t his sister. he gets nervous around them and is perpetually scared that he’ll slip up and swear in front of them or accidentally hurt them somehow.

𓈒 ⊹ nirvana is his all-time favorite band; he’s been listening to them since he was a kid.

𓈒 ⊹ FTM trans.

𓈒 ⊹ he doesn’t ever really talk about it, but he’s really into fairytale lore. his dad, richard, read him fairy stories before bed as a kid, and it sort of spiraled from there and never went away. labyrinth (1986) is his favorite movie because it incorporates similar elements.

𓈒 ⊹ his mom, camila, is columbian. he knows a good bit of spanish that she’s taught him and gabby, but it’s gotten a lot rustier over the years.

𓈒 ⊹ the paul family is on the poorer side, and richard and camila have to work a lot. however, they’re both extremely loving and they’re very good parents. when they aren’t busy, they spend time with their kids, doing things such as playing card games with them or taking them for drives through the countryside. because of this, ben finds long car rides relaxing since they always remind him of his family.

𓈒 ⊹ he really likes gummy fruit snacks. he keeps packs of them in his pockets and his backpack in case he, travis, or gabby gets hungry.

𓈒 ⊹ bisexual, though it’s worth noting that he very rarely experiences attraction to anyone other than travis.

𓈒 ⊹ he gives gabby piggyback rides on the walk home from school if she’s tired.

𓈒 ⊹ diehard mitski stan. (modern au)

— travis ♡

𓈒 ⊹ his full name is travis alexander reed.

𓈒 ⊹ he plays trumpet.

𓈒 ⊹ he’s an only child.

𓈒 ⊹ his birthday is feburary 21st, 1986. he often teases ben about being the younger one.

𓈒 ⊹ he’s really close with his dad, suraj, but a lot less so with his mom, natalia, who’s been an absentee mother for the majority of his life, and hardly ever visits or contacts him.

𓈒 ⊹ he’s indian on his dad’s side and italian on his mom’s.

𓈒 ⊹ he has slight jealousy issues and gets huffy and bitchy whenever someone he likes pays what he deems as ‘too much attention’ to anyone who isn’t him.

𓈒 ⊹ in contrast to ben, he’s surprisingly great with kids.

𓈒 ⊹ he gets along well with clementine and even more so with duck, who in the limited time that they have together, he sees as a little brother. (travis lives au)

𓈒 ⊹ gay.

𓈒 ⊹ his first crush as a kid was shaggy rogers. (🤔...)

𓈒 ⊹ he’s a cat person. there are a bunch of stray cats that hang around his neighborhood who he’s befriended by feeding them. if he sees one often enough, he gives it a name.

𓈒 ⊹ after unknowingly eating some of mark’s leg meat on the saint johns’ farm, his relationship with food is damaged irreparably. for a few days afterwards he gives his food to clementine or duck in fear that if he eats anything he’ll get sick and their rations will have gone to waste. once he’s able to stomach anything again, it’s a very gradual readjustment. (travis lives au)

𓈒 ⊹ he’s not the most affectionate person, but he’s very clingy, especially with ben. he usually subconsciously holds into his arm when they walk somewhere or sits with his legs across ben’s lap.

𓈒 ⊹ he puts a lot of effort into his appearance, save for how he dresses. he just wears a black hoodie and jeans 90% of the time.

𓈒 ⊹ his favorite foods are coffee flavored ice cream and dark chocolate. he likes things that taste both bitter and sweet.

𓈒 ⊹ autistic.

𓈒 ⊹ he refuses to tell literally anyone this, but he pretty much exclusively listens to girly pop music.

𓈒 ⊹ avid filthy frank and loiter squad watcher. (modern au)

𓈒 ⊹ has a special interest in birds and knows a bunch of random, useless fun facts about them. he likes hummingbirds the most, but hawks and crows are also high on his list.

— ben & travis (mostly modern au / au where they both survive s1) ♡

𓈒 ⊹ they met in 7th grade when ben first joined the school band. it was essentially the ‘extrovert choosing introvert as their new best friend’ trope. though they both have a few other friends in band (travis moreso than ben), they hang out with each other more often than anyone else.

𓈒 ⊹ they once accidentally put on each other’s jackets while getting dressed one morning, much to the immense horror of everyone else in the group who noticed.

𓈒 ⊹ they have joint custody of a nintendo switch. travis mostly plays minecraft, and ben likes animal crossing.

𓈒 ⊹ on rare occasions they play mario kart together. ben mains luigi and travis plays as either daisy or toad. they shit talk each other about how they’re going to beat the other one and then both end up in like 8th and 10th place. they’re mortified every individual time and don’t play again for a while.

𓈒 ⊹ on even rarer occasions (and an unrelated note) they smoke weed or take edibles; usually the latter, and usually on winter/fall/spring break so they don’t end up accidentally going to school stoned.

𓈒 ⊹ travis is a terrible driver. ben is pretty much always the one to take them places, out of concern for the safety of everyone involved.

𓈒 ⊹ they eventually have a daughter together, who they name janey. her full name is janey parker paul. her middle name is after david.

𓈒 ⊹ travis falls asleep on ben a lot, usually with his head on his shoulder or chest.

𓈒 ⊹ they call each other “bro” romantically.

𓈒 ⊹ ben’s favorite features on travis are his hair and his freckles. travis likes ben’s eyes and how tall he is.

𓈒 ⊹ travis thinks it’s really funny to say stupid nonsensical pick-up lines to ben to confuse him. (“if i were dating you. let’s just say horses wouldn’t be called ‘horses’ anymore.” “hey what the fuck does this mean” type things)

𓈒 ⊹ they’re each fairly annoying separately, but they’re a lot more annoying when they’re together. we should all pray for david and his sanity.

𓈒 ⊹ both of them are super cold-sensitive. during the autumn and winter months they spend half the time cuddled up together or sharing a blanket to keep warm.

[ind1c0lite]

Update they STOLE my fucking BLOOD

Doctors are gonna steal my blood tomorrow :((

[wolfinthethorns]

Having made it to my 40s without needing any kind of minor surgery, then opting to get a poorly placed mole removed, I've got to say it's a very weird experience.

(nothing sinister re said mole, it was just a bit raised and prone to rubbing painfully on my clothes)

For starters, there I am chatting away like I'm at the hairdresser's with a guy who's carving a chunk of skin out of my arse-cheek. Still, no weirder than chatting away with a peircer or tattooist, I suppose, and you don't get local anaesthetic for that...

Meanwhile, my conscious mind is calm - this is a bit of a weird sensation being poked and prodded with no pain but nbd compared to getting my nips peirced - but my body? Freaking out entirely. Clearly there is some sort of trauma happening, blood is coming out, air is getting in, but because of the anaesthetic there's no feedback for how severe this injury is so Let's Just Massively Overreact. I'm sweating buckets, my fists are white-knuckle tight. I have to remember to breathe.

The doctor finishes the stitches, I feel fine. The nurse dresses the wound, I feel fine. I get up off the couch, I feel fine. He goes through the aftercare and I leave the office, I feel fine. I get to the other end of the waiting area, my vision fades to a monochrome tunnel, my ears ring, and my stomach drops... Ah, we're having a vasovagal reaction then. Thankfully there's no one else waiting so I go back to the office and ask to lie down for a bit.

Ten minutes later with my legs up and I'm a bit spacey but safe to go home. I spend the next two hours trying to pace of the adrenaline dump before the anaesthetic finally wears off, my body registers that the injury is in fact a very small and slightly stingy cut, I burst into tears (while thinking "wait? what?) and fall immovably asleep on the couch for three hours.

And, like, I've had that kind of physical response to emotional trauma before, but never physical. Especially nothing so minor and controlled. So weird...

Anyway not sure what my point is just that I wanted to write this down. Bodies, eh? Who'd have them?

[wishing-stones]

Idk if you've already done this, but how would the boys + Baggs react if their s/o just fainted. Maybe like they're so stressed they just collapse, though idk how that would play out with Nightmare and Baggs since they'd probably be able to sense it before it happened and could prevent it. Or if you do it about Ren, maybe they faint whilst on a mission because they get so overwhelmed and stressed. If this happens, maybe them fainting could lead to them almost getting killed for some extra angst.

Nightmare would be able to sense the rising stress, but the faint would take him by surprise. Fortunately, almost everyone is fast enough to catch you before you hit the ground.

The general reaction is panic, but at least Baggs knows that this is a vasovagal syncope brought on by intense amounts of stress. Your body literally shuts off by dropping blood pressure suddenly as a response to external stimuli. The same thing can happen from anger, fear, or grief. Remove you from the stressful situation (or otherwise handle it) and the cause goes away.

He reassures everyone that this is a fairly normal occurrence, and since you didn't hit your head (or anything else) on the way down, you'll wake up fine without any lasting damage.

...Supposing this didn't happen in battle.

That might be indicative of an underlying condition, since... you're fine with fighting and adrenaline should counteract a nervous system malfunction and keep you upright.

This one one is reason for panic, and congrats, you land yourself (another) stint in the med bay!

The reaction to fainting in general is mild concern, and even some light ribbing, but in the midst of a battle, everyone is going to be worrying over you in their own ways. Killer might seem aloof and distant, trying to laugh it off...

...But you can see the worry creasing the corners of his sockets.

Dust hovers quietly and occupies a chair more often than not. He gets shooed away if he's in the way of others (read: your attending doctor), though.

Axe also hovers, but he's bigger and gets chased off a little more easily if he's obstructing things. He's the one you have to reassure most often that you're fine, really.

Cross hovers, but... closer to the door, and makes himself scarce, or puts himself into a smaller, out-of-the-way corner if he needs to move. He's worried, but trusts you're in good hands.

Baggs is running tests, so sorry, you're going to be here for a while. There's a lot of things he'll have to rule out to make sure this isn't something more serious than a one-off thing where you ragequit consciousness.

Nightmare visits quietly when no one else is around because he prefers to not be somewhere so crowded and full of worry. He speaks softly and quietly, and it's clear he's very worried but trying not to show it outwardly too much. It's sweet, honestly.

[lolipopjewel]

a draculaura kinnie (me) explaining draculaura’s hemophobia (fear of blood/fainting) as somebody who also has the same phobia

So its kind of a joke in monster high that draculaura will faint if she sees blood or even meat due to her being a vegetarian, however there are some other canonical events that i believe play into her reaction to blood and i’ll also give you my two cents on what fainting from being exposed to blood is like for me!!

if you were unaware, draculaura is actually adopted! she was adopted by dracula after her human parents died due to the plague, and she also was born a human as well - dracula turned her into a vampire to save her from dying to the plague as well and adopted her and raised her as his own from then on. its not clear if draculaura had severe hemophobia as a young child or when she became vegetarian, but a popular theory is that due to her not being a natural born vampire, she is more sensitive to blood and the concept of feeding off of it. 

now, i am a person with severe sensitivity to all things blood, gore, and medical related and i have a fainting disorder. if im exposed to any of my triggers, high levels of pain, or extreme emotional distress my body will automatically produce a vasovagal response, and i will faint. i can’t remember anything that caused me to form this phobia and most of my fear is related to not wanting to pass out, being unconscious is terrifying! so i don’t believe draculaura would need any sort of traumatic explanation for her hemophobia or fainting, i think it could be something she was born with and/or developed when she was very young like i was. 

the way draculaura is shown to faint in the series is obviously very dramatic for the cartoonish effect and also for humor (which part of me hates as i was teased about fainting at the sight of blood all my life), but she seems to recover very quickly. just as quick as she is out, she can be fully awake and talking again as seen in episodes like “Fear Pressure” when she tells frankie to get her out of the situation only a few seconds to a minute after fainting. she even is able to walk out with minimal help from frankie, so she may not even have fully gone unconscious in some of these situations which is also known as “greying out.” 

look i know its just a cartoon, but for the sake of spreading awareness about vasovagal syncope and using my comfort media to cope, here’s my take on how draculaura would actually experience a fainting episode in a more realistic setting; 

- First, a trigger is presented (blood from an injury, a meal with meat and blood in it, etc) and she is exposed to it - Internally, her blood pressure would spike due to the extreme fear and rapidly drop causing her circulation to be all out of wack which causes the vasovagal response (fainting).  - This can feel like extreme anxiety, tingling and numbness in her limbs, lightheadedness, weakness in her muscles, and her vision would darken until unconscious.  - Then, in order to help with a swift recovery, she should be laying flat with her legs propped up to allow for proper bloodflow to the brain, this will help her regain consciousness after no more than 2 minutes on average  - She may feel confused, have lingering numbness or tingling throughout her body, lightheadedness and other pre syncope symptoms, these could last until she has fully regulated her system again - It is unlikely she would be able to stand and walk on her own immediately after waking up, it would most likely take several minutes until she could do so without help, it could cause a SECOND vasovagal response if she attempted to stand up too quickly (iron deficiency gang where you at??) - Eating or drinking substances with high sugar can help with recovery as the sugar boost to the brain helps to basically kickstart it and get things moving again - After fully recovering from being unconscious, she may have no further problems throughout the day, or she may feel drained and tired after using so much energy in her body. it truly depends on how bad the episode was, how long the effects lasted after waking up, and the general stress of the situation involving her trigger

This is all explained by how i experience fainting and what i know about how vasovagal syncope effects the body, im by no means a medical professional. this is just for fun y’all. hopefully if you decide to include draculaura’s fainting and hemophobia in a writing, comic, creative project, etc. that this helped you understand a bit more! thanks for reading if you made it this far, it really makes me happy that anyone would be interested in learning about this condition and how difficult it can make life. 

[trkstrnd]

do you agree with this, I think after the being held hostage and being drugged again, carlos developed vasovagal syncope, which occurs when you faint because your body overreacts to certain triggers, such as the sight of blood or extreme emotional distress, carlos is very embarrassed by this but tk is there for him?

hi hi hi i’m so glad u asked this im sorry it’s taken me a second to get back but i had to put this into context and break it down and really think about it.

you explained it pretty well, but for those who don’t know, according to google, a vasovagal syncope is “a sudden drop in heart rate and blood pressure leading to fainting, often in reaction to a stressful trigger.”

i really like the concept of this happening, especially in canon, but i wanted to get a little creative with it. the sight of blood likely wouldn’t be a trigger for him since he’s a cop, who breaks up fights and sees fender benders all the time. i think that would also throw a wrench in him becoming a detective, so i’m not sure about that, however i am very fond of the idea of him having obscure triggers, like the smell of cookies (which hurts him because he /loves/ baking and you can’t tell me otherwise), or even the sensation of pressure on his wrists or ankles. i like to think they discover this when tk playfully puns him on the couch and he just

zzzzzzzzz

out like a light.

and yeah of course i think tk would help him through it. i think carlos would be embarrassed and try and hide it at times, especially when he can feel something coming in when he’s in a high stress situation around his triggers, but i also think his family (both blood and not) would be understanding and help as much as they could. carlos would still struggle with that, though. he’s independent and hates needing help. he likes to deal with things on his own.

the thing is, when he does, he often makes more mistakes.

either way, yeah!! i think this would be a fun plot to explore in fic, perhaps, if i ever get back around to writing! i appreciate the ask!! mwah!!

send me a carlos ask!!

[someinstant]

Trying to decide if popsicles for dinner are a valid life choice. I feel like they might be, given that I was Very Brave and did scary medical things today all by myself and nearly passed out, and now my nose is all bloody. (Am fine.)

So the thing is, my quest this year has been to get my migraines under control. That is... an ongoing battle, and I have only had mixed success on that front as my doctor and I try to figure out what meds work best for me.

But as part of that quest, I had an MRI done, because things changing in one's brain = cause to look at the ol' grey matter. And in the results, there was a note about a very small cyst in my sinus cavity, which my doctor said was quite normal and probably had no bearing on my headaches. But it prompted me to mention that I was always congested on that side of my sinuses, to the point that if I start sleeping on my back, I will inevitably wind up sleeping on my left side so that my right sinus is elevated.

"Your headaches are almost exclusively on your right side," said my doctor.

"Yeah?" I said, because I am slow sometimes. "But they're definitely migraines, not sinus headaches."

"I know," she said. "But it's interesting. Does your congestion impact your sleep, do you think?" she asked, and I laughed, because-- unquestionably. Like, I cannot remember the last time I actually slept all the way through the night without having to turn or sit up in order to breathe more easily.

So then she gave me a name for an ENT guy, because congestion -> bad sleep -> all sorts of neurological issues, including migraine. And even if it doesn't do anything with my migraines, hey! Being able to breathe out of both nostrils seems like a plus.

The ENT doc was very nice, took one look up my nose and was like, "Yeah, so the fact that you're sleeping on your left side is HILARIOUS, because you've got a seriously deviated septum that makes your right sinus much wider, but it's so blocked by your turbinates right now that it's narrower than your left. So that's why you can't breathe."

And today I went back to have them do a turbinate reduction, which sounds fancy, but is basically like dental work for your sinuses. They numb the heck out of your turbinates-- nasal structures that direct airflow and humidify the air you breathe-- with injections of lidocaine, then shove a couple of cotton wads soaked in a numbing agent up your nose, and then they do Something with a Long Tool that shrinks your turbinates down to a more normal size. I think it cauterizes them, but I tried not to know a lot about the specifics.

Anyway, it's an in-office procedure that takes about forty-five minutes, unless you're me! If you're me, you get to the part after the lidocaine injections where they shove the knock-out tampons up your nose, and the doctor takes a look at you and says, "You know, sometimes people have vasovagal reactions during this procedure, and they can feel a little dizzy. Are you--?"

And then I told him he needed to lay the chair back for me, because otherwise I was going to pass out.

Sigh.

Break your arm badly, and stay stupidly conscious even when you'd much rather not. Have a slightly uncomfortable procedure involving needles, and immediately go white-lipped and sweaty as your blood pressure plummets. Logical, brain. Eminently logical.

Anyway. Once the nurse took my blood pressure about a million times and it started to go back up to Not Dead levels, we tried again and I shut my eyes and white-knuckled it through and tried not to think about what the weird noise-feels were in my head as he did... whatever it was... with the Long Scary Tool. And then it was done!

And now I am very gently, gently blowing my slightly bloody and sore nose, and marveling because-- I can already breathe better.

So I think I deserve popsicles for dinner.

[tamiveldura]

My first clue that something went wrong along the way was when I went to see a neurologist for something unidentifiable (it was vasovagal syncope caused by a food reaction, and yes, like all my other shit, I figured this one out myself) when I was 29 or 30 or so and in the middle of the evaluation, the doc said, quite casually between more relevant subjects, "You're in a lot more pain than you realize."

And since I wasn't at this particular doctor for pain, I just filed that away in the archives. I know I was in pain. At that point the 5 minute drive to the specialist and back wiped me out for days. That he thought I was in *more* pain just.... Wasn't relevant.

Fast forward another 6ish years and I all of a sudden have highly effective pain control. (It's henbit, relative of the dead nettle, very strong against inflammation)

Friends, I was in *so* much more pain than I realized. I have, over the course of 30 years of untreated pain, become Very Very good at ignoring my body's pain signals. I'm also autistic with a heavy dose of no proprioception. Is that a self-trained response? Because at this point I have no recognizable signals for thirst, hunger, going pee, or literally anything else. I have to count hours between these events to make sure I perform them regularly.

Am I too cold? Am I too hot? Is this position on the couch/chair/standing uncomfortable? I don't actually know. I have to analyze unconscious fidgiting and measure my heart rate and generally check a list of blinking lights on the car dashboard to determine if something is wrong that needs fixing. And I have to check that

My threshold for taking henbit has become floor level. If I'm shifting around and think "huh, that's weird" then I'm in pain.

It's the only way I know how to read it, now.

[anissapierce]

Kinda funny how much my sister is type a....as a kid she was applauded for being on top of things for wanting to help cook clean tidy up. N she's very much an organized neat person. If she hasn't taken a shower in 24 hours she doesn't wanna go out. She's studying medicine which is rlly cool bc i genuinely wanted to do that but my vasovagal reactions made that impossible. She's also brash n funny as hell n biting as hell which I'm trying to get used to and not take personally. But like... I'm realizing she gets that from our mom...who used to take her teasing seriously.

[dapurinthos]

who forgot to eat anything in the five hours between six a.m. breakfast garlic naan and getting a blood draw, resulting in the most charming attempt at vasovagal syncope on the part of their nervous system?

am having some delightful intermittent scalp paresthesia episodes, but that's the only upside amongst the nausea, the sudden freezing sensation, the vertigo, the weird constellation of cluster headache/migraine symptoms that showed up (if i end up with one or the other from this i am going to be very put out), the lightheadedness, etc.

i haven't had a reaction like this to a simple, single-vial blood draw in years.

[narutosfrogwallet]

Same about the vasovagal reaction to blood drawing! I have push back so many blood tests because I hate this physical reaction so so much (in addition to the operation in itself. I have a veins an arteries related phobia). It's gotten a bit better in later years (due to finding a patch that numb the area. So I can look away and not "know" the blood is being drawn), but man I feel you a lot. Sorry you're also living through that.

it's a bitch isn't it?? i actually thought the lab i go to didn't have any sort of recliner/lie-down table but turns out they DO so i'm definitely asking for that from now on. i've always had a pretty massive needle phobia but that has gotten a LOT better over the past year since i basically had to force exposure therapy myself for my t shots lmao. i feel you on the veins and arteries phobia too, it's just creepy lmao but i'm very glad there's people out there who are interested in it in a positive way so we can have scientific and medicinal knowledge about it!

[eyesandfeet]

I have endometriosis and was diagnosed at age 13 since my period started around age 11. It's also very likely I have PCOS, I have cysts on my ovaries that get large enough to stun me in pain about every other ovulation, like white-hot searing loss of vision pain.

There are the 3 month-long periods where you just don't stop bleeding or cramping, and then birth control which I took from age 13 to 24 when I swapped to an IUD out of fear of where women's reproductive rights were headed.

That also sucked, I had a vasovagal reaction, vomited passed out, and was dizzy for almost a month afterward. I had it removed last year and started a hormonal birth control again, only for it to really fuck me up, one month-long yeast infection later and I'm just not on anything and periods are so rough again. I know friends who have never had a bad period, and I'd never wish this upon them but they do seem very unaware that their experience of life isn't shared by the rest of the populace. And you can't ever truly explain the pain unless it's been felt.

my therapist was a bit shook by how much i detest my period, and i was shocked to find out out not everyone does....