The dizzy spell

I nearly fainted yesterday. It was sort of funny, when you come right down to it.

I gave blood, for the first time, yesterday. After assuring a nurse that I weighed enough (I should be flattered that I could be mistaken for being fewer than 110 lbs.) and answering question after question about my sexual history (non-existent) and travel history (nearly non-existent), I was allowed back to sit in a cross between Sweeny Todd's chair and a summer lounge chair. I asked that the blood be taken from my left arm, as I'm right handed, but the nurse was unable to find a suitable vein. She went over to my right arm... and couldn't find a vein either. After four nurses had poked at me and my arm had nearly gone numb from the cut-off blood flow, someone finally found a vein that, while not ideal, would do. I felt relieved, unlike most people being faced with huge hollow needles. I thought that I was going to be the only person at the blood drive rejected because they couldn't get my blood out.

I felt fine, after I'd given up my pint of blood. I wasn't allowed to leave until I drank some juice and ate a cookie, but eventually I got to class, feeling only slightly off; possibly it was a bad idea to jog up the stairs, but I was running late.

About two hours after I'd given blood, it was lunch time. I walked about two blocks through the violent rain until I had reached my destination, a bagel shop. I was feeling woozy, but I managed to get inside, pick out a drink (yay for Leninaide!), and get in line. The room was spinning, which is rather difficult to ignore.

I was standing with a young woman in line in front of me and an old man in line behind. I felt over-heated and as if my head was filled with mercury, sloshing around and pressing against my skull to get out. Halfway through ordering a sourdough bagel, I began swaying on my feet. I couldn't see what the people around me looked like, but I image that they were a bit freaked out. I'd already had to crouch down and trying to steady myself, which surely seemed a bit odd.

"I think I'm going to faint," I said as distinctly as I could, clutching the front of the counter. The woman behind the register was trying to give me my change, and I really couldn't give a damn. If I'd been able to articulate that well, I'd have told her to just keep the change, which only amounted to about $0.50. I wanted to alert the people around me, however, so that they wouldn't be alarmed when I suddenly collapsed.

Somehow, I managed to get the change in my bookbag and lurch towards a table. I sat down and laid my head on the tabletop. I was still feeling light-headed and horrible when my bagel was done being toasted and introduced to some cream cheese, but I managed to get to the counter and back again without falling over.

After a few minutes, I was stable enough to eat (I thought that food would probably help). It took me three quarters of an hour, but I managed to eat the whole bagel and steel myself to stand up again and walk back to class. It was, of course, still raining.

I did not faint, and feel much better today, but it was still a bit embarrassing. One can only be glad that here in America we are wary of all strangers. It would have been a far more mortifying experience if someone had tried to be kind and help the poor swaying teenage girl who seemed so unwell. To my good fortune, no one even asked if I felt okay. The girl behind the counter did uncap my Leninaide for me, which was sweet; I should have thanked her, but I was a bit out of it.

It was only later that I remembered that there are specific things that one should do when about to faint, like sit down and put one's head between one's legs.