Almost Fainting

[cashew1]

I am a nursing student a little while ago I was watching a lumbar puncture procedure and I started to sweat, my ears were ringing, and I almost passed out. Fortunately, there was a chair in the room, and I quickly regained my composure, but I was so embarrassed. I have witnessed other worse procedures on patients, so I don't know why this happened this time. Did this happen to any of you? Will I get used to this?

[Isitpossible, LPN, LVN]

yes it happended to me as well during a circumision! i was extremely hot, started feeling dizzy and out of sorts! i excused myself from the room to get my bearings!

saw a c-section last week and was totally fine!!! BUT my partner excused herself becasue she started feeling out of sorts...

[cashew1, BSN]

Wow, thank you for the scientific explanation. I think that you gave really good advice about being hydrated. I know I was very busy prior to my near syncope episode and I think I was dehydrated. I will try to make sure I am hydrated and try to desensitize myself.

[cashew1, BSN]

Thanks everyone for your advice and for sharing your stories. Now I don't feel so alone!

[mustlovepoodles, RN]

Oh, hunny, I was a fainter myself. I passed out in surgery once, contaminating the instruments, the surgeon and the field. They asked my instructor not to send me back. I passed out when I gave my first shot and woke up in the next bed, with my patient looking at me. I passed out during a colonoscopy when the MD had the bright idea to show me how to clip a polyp. I passed out when a laboring patient threw up a dozen donuts and a coke on my foot ( she took a little side trip on the way to the hospital.) Eventually I stopped fainting. Having kids of my own helped me get over the blood & body fluids stuff. I haven't fainted since...hmm...

You did the right thing. Sometimes fainting happens. Just try to find a safe place to sit so you don't crack your head open.

[cashew1, BSN]

Thanks for sharing. Your stories sound funny now, but I bet at the time you did not think so. It is good to hear you eventually stopped fainting.

[casi, ASN, RN]

I've fainted once, I was holding a patient's hand and distracting her during a painful dressing change. Things started to get fuzzy and next thing I knew I was sitting on the floor. Everyone assumed it was the proceedure, but a trip to the ER, a couple of failed orthostatic BPs, and a liter of NS later I had proof that a new medication dropped my BP a little bit lower than my body could handle.

It's just really embaressing to become the patient.

[elizabeth8503RN, MSN, EMT-B, NP]

The two times that I can remember nearly fainting was when I forgot to eat for like an entire day (I know...I know...thats not good...but at the time I had just been put on a medication that decreases appetite and I had yet to adapt to it...I eat regularly now) and went to work...and between all my running around I was watching the a doc repair a guy's ear...and everything started to go black.

Needless to say....I ended up getting something to eat and was fine...

The other time I nearly fainted was two weeks after I had my wisdom teeth surgically removed. It was a bad day all around. My teeth were hurting bad, and then I got a call from the school saying that they couldnt find my parents...and that my baby sister (age 6 at the time) had just fallen and cracked her chin open and would probably need stitches....could I come and pick her up and take her to the emergency room.

I get to the school...They had gotten ahold of my mom...who had taken my dad to the hospital because he was in the middle of a hypertensive crisis. Soooo....That dad I saw my baby sister get stitches put in her chin and my dad being loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher... I nearly fainted because of all that was going on...and the fact that my teeth were hurting soo bad. (Not a good day)

But now....(7 yrs later) dad is fine...baby sis is fine, hardly no scar at all... and have learned to eat regular meals and have very few near scyncable episodes....