29 and my life passing before my eyes......Part I
Welcome to my very first blog - today I got a massive scare and I feel like sharing it with the world.
Today I was walking to work, up a mildy rising path, when I suddenly blacked out and collapsed. Lucky for me on two counts - one: I was about 3 metres in front of my work building, and two: I work in the medical school at the University!
A couple of medical students saw me drop like a sack of bricks and dashed off to get one of the lecturers.
For any of you who have ever blacked out and woken back up, it is a very surreal feeling. Its hard to describe, but you can sort of feel yourself outside of your body, telling yourself to get up. The world seems a blur, with voices and sounds echoing around you. I don't recommend knocking yourself out to experience this though!
I'm told I was out cold for 20 seconds or so, but it seems to me like a lifetime. I vaguely remember waking up, and there being people around me asking if I was ok. Someone took my pulse (good ol' med training) and rolled me on to my side to keep me conscious.
Within several minutes I was completely lucid, no chest pains or light-headedness. No dizziness or headaches.
Turned out the lecturer the students had fetched was the teacher in ambulance services (no kidding - I work on the same floor as him and didn't know this was his job - but the cherries he grows on his farm are awesome!). He asked if I wanted an ambulance to take me to the hospital to check me out. I agreed (hey I only lost consciousness, not my intelligence!).
Damage count: a grazed knee, grazed back of both hands, really sore left ribs, grazed chin and nose. And tore my shirt and $500 suit!!!!!!!
The ambulance arrived and believe it or not, the ambo had been taught by the lecturer who had helped me!! The ambos began testing me out. How do you feel, have you taken drugs or anything recently? They plugged me up to the heart monitor, and found an inverted wave - you have to start to worry when the ambulance guy goes to ask the lecturer for a second opinion! Blood sugar level - 4.4 (under 4 is a problem). Blood pressure - 110 (good).
My first ride ever in an ambulance was not so traumatic as I had imagined. Probably due to Paul the ambo. We had a long chat about my medical research into the injured brain. He declared that while my research was awesome - really the best thing to do would be to target young kids to wear bike helmets etc and prevent them from having brain injuries in the first place - he did point out that this would make my life's work rather redundant however, which we both chuckled at. And then he asked me - the question that everyone always asks.......... is drinking alcohol really bad for your brain??
To set the record straight - if you are drinking enough alcohol to pass out once or twice a week - your brain will be mush by the time that you are 29! But hey, a couple of drinks a day is not going to hurt you, in fact it is good for you! Paul the ambo and I pledged to have a few drinks that night - I figure anyone that passes out for 20 seconds deserves a few beers!
Alcohol fact two: Asians do not have the enzyme to break down alcohol - that's why we get drunk so easy! But you can build up a tolerance to alcohol over a number of years - I'm evidence of that, I can drink 4 beers to a normal Asian's two!!
I arrived at the hospital and was wheeled inside. We stopped at a door waiting to be admitted. The triage nurse met us and the ambos (I had three of them - how was that for service!) started chatting to her. They weren't talking about me though - they were talking about some germ..... not the sort of thing you want to hear upon entering a hospital!! Turns out one of the nurses was dressed in a horrid green germ outfit, with dangly things hanging off - don't ask me why on earth someone would dress in a germ outfit in a hospital - maybe it's to scare the patients out of the place - we have had a major shortage of beds in our hospitals lately after all.....
End of Part I
Part II - continues the story in the hospital (and the second hospital that they took me to)
Today I was walking to work, up a mildy rising path, when I suddenly blacked out and collapsed. Lucky for me on two counts - one: I was about 3 metres in front of my work building, and two: I work in the medical school at the University!
A couple of medical students saw me drop like a sack of bricks and dashed off to get one of the lecturers.
For any of you who have ever blacked out and woken back up, it is a very surreal feeling. Its hard to describe, but you can sort of feel yourself outside of your body, telling yourself to get up. The world seems a blur, with voices and sounds echoing around you. I don't recommend knocking yourself out to experience this though!
I'm told I was out cold for 20 seconds or so, but it seems to me like a lifetime. I vaguely remember waking up, and there being people around me asking if I was ok. Someone took my pulse (good ol' med training) and rolled me on to my side to keep me conscious.
Within several minutes I was completely lucid, no chest pains or light-headedness. No dizziness or headaches.
Turned out the lecturer the students had fetched was the teacher in ambulance services (no kidding - I work on the same floor as him and didn't know this was his job - but the cherries he grows on his farm are awesome!). He asked if I wanted an ambulance to take me to the hospital to check me out. I agreed (hey I only lost consciousness, not my intelligence!).
Damage count: a grazed knee, grazed back of both hands, really sore left ribs, grazed chin and nose. And tore my shirt and $500 suit!!!!!!!
The ambulance arrived and believe it or not, the ambo had been taught by the lecturer who had helped me!! The ambos began testing me out. How do you feel, have you taken drugs or anything recently? They plugged me up to the heart monitor, and found an inverted wave - you have to start to worry when the ambulance guy goes to ask the lecturer for a second opinion! Blood sugar level - 4.4 (under 4 is a problem). Blood pressure - 110 (good).
My first ride ever in an ambulance was not so traumatic as I had imagined. Probably due to Paul the ambo. We had a long chat about my medical research into the injured brain. He declared that while my research was awesome - really the best thing to do would be to target young kids to wear bike helmets etc and prevent them from having brain injuries in the first place - he did point out that this would make my life's work rather redundant however, which we both chuckled at. And then he asked me - the question that everyone always asks.......... is drinking alcohol really bad for your brain??
To set the record straight - if you are drinking enough alcohol to pass out once or twice a week - your brain will be mush by the time that you are 29! But hey, a couple of drinks a day is not going to hurt you, in fact it is good for you! Paul the ambo and I pledged to have a few drinks that night - I figure anyone that passes out for 20 seconds deserves a few beers!
Alcohol fact two: Asians do not have the enzyme to break down alcohol - that's why we get drunk so easy! But you can build up a tolerance to alcohol over a number of years - I'm evidence of that, I can drink 4 beers to a normal Asian's two!!
I arrived at the hospital and was wheeled inside. We stopped at a door waiting to be admitted. The triage nurse met us and the ambos (I had three of them - how was that for service!) started chatting to her. They weren't talking about me though - they were talking about some germ..... not the sort of thing you want to hear upon entering a hospital!! Turns out one of the nurses was dressed in a horrid green germ outfit, with dangly things hanging off - don't ask me why on earth someone would dress in a germ outfit in a hospital - maybe it's to scare the patients out of the place - we have had a major shortage of beds in our hospitals lately after all.....
End of Part I
Part II - continues the story in the hospital (and the second hospital that they took me to)
posted by Rog at 10/16/2006 11:30:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home