Fainting and Goats

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been prone to fainting and blacking out!  The first time I fainted was when I went to Dr. Ruth Wilcox, our pediatrician, and she pricked my finger to test the iron in my blood.  Plop!  There I went, straight to the floor!  After several trips to the pediatrician and anytime there was blood involved or any visits to the hospital, I was always being shaken and awakened by patting of my cheeks and a cold compress to the forehead.  Yep, welcome to my life as a fainter!

As I got a little older, maybe 8 years old through 10, I used to black out each time I caught wind that my mom was leaving town for a conference.  I am laughing as I write this because I was never emotionally bothered by the fact that my mom was going out of town without us.  As you read in a previous blog, my grandmas were awesome and I loved going to stay with them so there was no reason for me to be "blacking out"!  None of us knew why at the time, but as I got older, the fainting and blacking out persisted.  My mom thought I was anemic so she took me to "Dr. Ruth" again and they pricked my finger, once again, and there you have it...I was lying on the floor.  It took years and many experiences to control my fainting.  I can laugh about it now, but at the time, it wasn't funny.  It was serious and very scary!  If I were the dramatic type, my parents would have probably gone bonkers because the fainting happened so frequently.  I didn't know what was causing my fainting or why it was happening, but we just thought it was part of me like my hand or foot!!  We tried to narrow down the causes and figured out that most of the fainting was caused by the sight of blood, trauma, accidents, anything where I tried to imagine in my mind how the accident happened and all the gory details which in turn threw me into a panic and then, it would never fail, I would faint. 

My senior year of high school, I took Government which was taught by Mr. Tom Goettel.  He was a huge believer in taking his 18-year-old students to sign up to vote.  We walked down to the courthouse twice.  Once in the fall and once in the spring so that we who turned 18 years old could register to vote.  He was also a huge believer in donating blood when the blood mobile was in town.  I could never donate blood and still to this day have never donated blood because I know what will happen.  I'm starting to get worked up thinking about it.  It is a wonder that I was able to give birth to four children without passing out!!

Fainting is just bazaar...I had to throw "bazaar" into my blog because it is my chosen word of the week!  Bazaar is fainting...how does a person just pass out and not die?  That was the question I so often wondered when I was younger.  These fainting episodes were sometimes funny...after I was older and could tell whomever ahead of time that there was a possibility that I would faint...the looks I would get and the reactions were priceless!  Like that one time...at the eye doctor...when I fainted the first time I got contacts.  And that one time I fainted when I took my dog to the vet and I made the mistake of watching the needle go into her body when she was getting her shots and Boom...on the floor I went!  And how about that one time I fainted because I watched a colt being born.  Yikes!  And the one time I fainted when my niece was in a horrible head-on car accident because the other driver was texting.  I was helping my sister take care of Bethany, her daughter, at Children's Mercy because her husband was in the Overland Park hospital and her son, Will, was in another room at Children's Mercy.   Bethany was getting ready to take a breathing treatment because one of her lungs had collapsed and she wanted me to hold her hand while she took her treatment as it was very painful.  I started out doing well, but eventually had to kneel down beside her bed as my neck became all clammy...still holding her hand though...then I had to put my head down on her bed while kneeling...and then, the moment you have all been waiting for...I was gone!  I felt like a weak, weak aunt let me tell ya!  Not the rock star demeanor I was used to displaying!  How about the time I was washing dishes at my grandmother's house.  She had to place a step stool in front of the sink so I could actually reach the dishes to wash them...for whatever reason...thud!  Down I went!  Heck, I even try to faint when someone is telling a story about something bloody or some medical procedure...I have to ask them to stop or simply walk away.  I know, I'm a wimp! 

But then there was this other time I got sent to the principal's office as a sophomore in high school during Biology class because I wouldn't let my teacher prick my finger.  We were studying blood types.  I told him I would pass out and he didn't believe me.  He told me I would get an F and I told him I didn't care so he sent me to the office.  The principal called my mom over the intercom...yes, my mom taught Home Economics in high school at that time...and he asked my mom if she could come to the office that there was a little problem with Julie.  Mom came right over and the principal told her I wasn't cooperating with Mr. Young in Biology.  She asked him what I was doing and he told her it wasn't what I was doing, it was what I refused to do.  Mr. Leake, our principal, told her that Mr. Young was pricking fingers determining blood types and that I told Mr. Young he couldn't prick mine or I would pass out.  My mom had my back because she knew that would be EXACTLY what would happen.  She told Mr. Leake..."if you want to pick her up off the floor, go ahead and prick her finger!"  Needless-to-say, Mr. Leake sent me back to class with a note excusing me from that finger-pricking activity.  I don't think Mr. Young was very happy with me, but I was not going to embarrass myself and pass out in front of my classmates like a fainting goat does when they panic!

I haven't passed out in many years, but I have had "near misses" many times!  I have had to "suit up" and face some of the things that trigger a black out or fainting episode!!  I've learned what to do when I feel my neck start to become clammy and my stomach starts having the butterfly feelings floating about.  I have come to the conclusion that I have anxiety and/or panic attacks.  I've never been to the doctor to be diagnosed officially so I guess you could say that I self-diagnosed!  I am glad it seems my anxiety and/or panic attacks are very mild. I mean, I'd hate to be mistaken for a fainting goat...but then again, being a G.O.A.T. isn't quite so bad. (Greatest of all time) 😜

Fainting Goat

Another Fainting Goat

Dr. Ruth Wilcox...the only female doctor in her class!

G.O.A.T.