Funny Episodes (1)

So..where was I? Yes, I was about to go on about my collapsing and my very bizarre experiences.

The first of these 'funny do's' happened a year and a half ago. I was sitting on the couch watching the quite amusing 'Tropic Thunder' on DVD with a friend. I started to laugh during the comedy (as one is supposed to), I coughed and felt a funny feeling in the left side of my chest. I started to feel weird and tried to put on my oxygen, but my hand couldn't put on my oxygen properly. My friend put on my oxygen for me. My legs and arms felt like they had pins and needles and my vision went blurry. I could still see, but there was a mirage effect. The vision effect was not distinctive to one eye, but to both in the same place. Apparently all colour went from my face. My legs felt cold and dead. I asked my friend to call an ambulance, I truly thought I was on my way out.

It took a couple of minutes for the ambulance to arrive. I was a tad confused as they asked me question, but I think I was able to respond adequately enough. They checked my heart, my oxygen sats and my sugar levels and all were fine. During the time they were there I started to recover. Feeling returned in my arms and legs and my vision returned. All seemed OK and the ambulance men asked if I wanted to go to hospital, I declined. I honestly felt fine again, it was all very weird.

Anyway, later on the next day, just as I was doing my late physio I had another similar experience. However, this time I tried to get to my oxygen concentrator and switch it on. Whilst attempting to get to the oxygen my symptoms got worse, so much so my vision went blurry and I lost feeling in my legs and collapsed to the floor. I couldn't see properly, I couldn't move arms and legs and I felt really cold. My friend once again got my oxygen for me and made sure I was kept warm until I recovered. I've never lost consciousness during these episodes, I've been quite with it. Anyway, after these two episodes over the weekend I thought it was best to go to the hospital on the Monday.

Since this is a story covering almost two years I'm going to split it into two. This part will cover the first year, the next instalment the more recent stuff, including a diagnosis. Anyway, where was I? Yes, hospital. So to hospital I went. After initially being told to go home, I asked for a second opinion as I was quite concerned by this occurrence. I was admitted into hospital for a week, then checked my heart, brain, spine, lungs and found nothing. From a heart attack, to a stroke, to a severed spinal cord, many options were explored. I saw a neurologist who confirmed it wasn't a fit of any kind. In the end it was referred to as a syncope related episode, meaning, It was a fainting episode. However, that wasn't the final diagnosis and it wasn't until a year and a half later I had another diagnosis.

Until next time...