My friend Leah has a fabulous blog of fabulous stories, ones that I am pretty sure most of you will absolutely adore. I couldn't give a stronger recommendation. This post is a hands-down favorite involving grape picking, semi-nudity and Mennonites.
For your entertainment I present Confessions of a Homecoming Queen.
Showing posts with label Embarassed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Embarassed. Show all posts
Monday, July 27, 2009
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Pass?
Here is an email I sent out to some of my friends earlier today about last night...
Last night I went out to the Gillian Welch concert with my friend Katherine. We got there early and walked down the street to this great Indian restaurant and simply had a grand time. We were very, very full when we left. Got to the concert and staked out our little standing room in the middle of the room, about 6 "rows" from the front. The Orange Peel is a standing room only venue with bars along the side walls, like the 9:30 Club in DC only smaller. We grabbed small beers (one each) and slowly finished them over the hour before the show started. Gillian and David Rawlings came on stage, and it's another wonderful show by the duo. Standing that long is painful for me, but I'll endure it for the sake of a great live show, but last night my right shoulder and back were just KILLING me. I couldn't get comfortable. Then, about 5 songs in, it happened. It felt like these hot fingers were rising from my torso into my head, wrapping it's spindly fingers around my brain and taking all the blood from it. I got very, very hot and my vision blacked out. I grabbed Katherine's arm and said, "I'm having a reaction" but over the sound of the crowd she thought I said something about the music and just nodded and smiled. About ten seconds later, I collapsed, out cold.
I woke up to Katherine shaking me and calling my name and she helped me out of the middle of the crowd. I don't remember this. As we got to the edge of the crowd a young woman came up and said, "I'm a nurse. Are you diabetic?" I told her no, I'm hypoglycemic and she said to a staffer, "Get her juice!" They got me to a bar stool over on the edge of the crowd where I got myself a glass of water before passing out again. I couldn't stay conscious. At least this time I just passed out with my head on the bar. No more falling needed, thank you.
The nurse got me juice and within three gulps I was wide awake again. I was still really, really hot and sweaty all over and shaking and weak, but at least I was conscious again. Katherine was in awe how three gulps of juice could turn me around, but that's how we hyper-hypos are.
Needless to say, Katherine and I only stayed through the first set. I was still having trouble standing and didn't want to risk sticking around. We got back to Katherine and Andy's and decided it'd be good for me to simply stay there for the night and not attempt the 20 minute drive home.
So that was my holy $#@% night. It was humiliating to say the least, and I kept telling people, "I've only had one drink! I'm not drunk at all!" because people kept looking at me that way. I was sad to miss the show that I was so looking forward to, but I was also scared. I mean, it's not normal for one's body to do that.
I talked to my mom on my drive home today and she helped shine some light on it. Turns out I also have extremely low blood pressure (never knew this) and so that, coupled with the lack of protein in my dinner and high amount of carbs probably caused me to pass out. With the low blood pressure I need high amounts of oxygen, so being crammed into a room of people I can't breathe properly and my hypoglycemia needs high amounts of protein and simple sugars and what I had eaten had been lots of carbs and some complex sugars. All that with the fatigue of long work days and I was down for the count.
I took the day off of work to rest and try to get my body back in order. The last two times this has happened I ended up with concussions, so at least this time the only thing I hurt was my knees (from falling on them) and my pride.
Poor Katherine, she was such a good sport about it all. I felt so bad for her. I'm sure I scared her.
The moral of the story is if we're at an event and I suddenly grab your arm, it means something. Hold on to me and get me a chair and some juice and do it quickly. Hopefully this is the last time this happens, but I didn't know I felt bad until 20 seconds before I collapsed. Yup, I should wear a helmet everywhere I go.
One perc is that the juice that was given to me was actually stolen from Gillian Welch's personal stash. That was a sort of high point. I didn't get to see the rest of her show, but I did get her juice, dammit.
Hypoglycemia has to do with the regulation of insulin in the body; it's essentially the opposite of diabetes in that diabetics can't produce or absorb enough insulin and people like me produce or absorb too much. I have watched my diet in the past, but recently I've become more lax about it; I thought I was doing fine. Whoops.
Last night I went out to the Gillian Welch concert with my friend Katherine. We got there early and walked down the street to this great Indian restaurant and simply had a grand time. We were very, very full when we left. Got to the concert and staked out our little standing room in the middle of the room, about 6 "rows" from the front. The Orange Peel is a standing room only venue with bars along the side walls, like the 9:30 Club in DC only smaller. We grabbed small beers (one each) and slowly finished them over the hour before the show started. Gillian and David Rawlings came on stage, and it's another wonderful show by the duo. Standing that long is painful for me, but I'll endure it for the sake of a great live show, but last night my right shoulder and back were just KILLING me. I couldn't get comfortable. Then, about 5 songs in, it happened. It felt like these hot fingers were rising from my torso into my head, wrapping it's spindly fingers around my brain and taking all the blood from it. I got very, very hot and my vision blacked out. I grabbed Katherine's arm and said, "I'm having a reaction" but over the sound of the crowd she thought I said something about the music and just nodded and smiled. About ten seconds later, I collapsed, out cold.
I woke up to Katherine shaking me and calling my name and she helped me out of the middle of the crowd. I don't remember this. As we got to the edge of the crowd a young woman came up and said, "I'm a nurse. Are you diabetic?" I told her no, I'm hypoglycemic and she said to a staffer, "Get her juice!" They got me to a bar stool over on the edge of the crowd where I got myself a glass of water before passing out again. I couldn't stay conscious. At least this time I just passed out with my head on the bar. No more falling needed, thank you.
The nurse got me juice and within three gulps I was wide awake again. I was still really, really hot and sweaty all over and shaking and weak, but at least I was conscious again. Katherine was in awe how three gulps of juice could turn me around, but that's how we hyper-hypos are.
Needless to say, Katherine and I only stayed through the first set. I was still having trouble standing and didn't want to risk sticking around. We got back to Katherine and Andy's and decided it'd be good for me to simply stay there for the night and not attempt the 20 minute drive home.
So that was my holy $#@% night. It was humiliating to say the least, and I kept telling people, "I've only had one drink! I'm not drunk at all!" because people kept looking at me that way. I was sad to miss the show that I was so looking forward to, but I was also scared. I mean, it's not normal for one's body to do that.
I talked to my mom on my drive home today and she helped shine some light on it. Turns out I also have extremely low blood pressure (never knew this) and so that, coupled with the lack of protein in my dinner and high amount of carbs probably caused me to pass out. With the low blood pressure I need high amounts of oxygen, so being crammed into a room of people I can't breathe properly and my hypoglycemia needs high amounts of protein and simple sugars and what I had eaten had been lots of carbs and some complex sugars. All that with the fatigue of long work days and I was down for the count.
I took the day off of work to rest and try to get my body back in order. The last two times this has happened I ended up with concussions, so at least this time the only thing I hurt was my knees (from falling on them) and my pride.
Poor Katherine, she was such a good sport about it all. I felt so bad for her. I'm sure I scared her.
The moral of the story is if we're at an event and I suddenly grab your arm, it means something. Hold on to me and get me a chair and some juice and do it quickly. Hopefully this is the last time this happens, but I didn't know I felt bad until 20 seconds before I collapsed. Yup, I should wear a helmet everywhere I go.
One perc is that the juice that was given to me was actually stolen from Gillian Welch's personal stash. That was a sort of high point. I didn't get to see the rest of her show, but I did get her juice, dammit.
Hypoglycemia has to do with the regulation of insulin in the body; it's essentially the opposite of diabetes in that diabetics can't produce or absorb enough insulin and people like me produce or absorb too much. I have watched my diet in the past, but recently I've become more lax about it; I thought I was doing fine. Whoops.
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