A First

Today started out like any other day. I woke up.... okay correction I woke up at 6 which is a little earlier than I normally wake up. My husband asked why I was up and I replied," I don't know I wasn't tired anymore and I just woke up... so I'm up." I got ready for work and went in a few hours early. Since it is Thanksgiving Eve my work was planning on closing at 4, which cut me short a few hours, we had lots of work to do to prevent us from coming in on Friday so i figured I would go in at 8. Okay so apparently my day didn't start out as usual but continuing on anyways.

I had just finished punching holes in some books so that they could be plastic coiled, like a spiral notebook but not metal. I'm going about my work, thinking about Christmas stuff. Just as I finished crimping a coil on a book BAM my elbow came in contact with a corner of the punching machine. Pain shot through my arm, probably the worst "funny bone" pain I have ever had. I set the book down and hold my elbow, straightened it and shook it out. My vision starts to go crazy and my head feels funny, like when you stand up too fast. I leaned over so that my arms rested on the table in front of me. Next thing I know I feel like I'm coming out of a dream after a good rem sleep. You know when you linger in half sleep stage but I hear a voice say, "open her mouth!" I open my eyes, and my mouth, and I see my co-workers around me. I am pretty confused because if I just had a heavy sleep why would I be waking up at work? I see Chris, our press guy, and Kim, my manager, over me and more people in the background. Kim is asking me if I am okay I tell her yes while thinking, why wouldn't I be I just took a nap at work apparently. She told me that I just passed out and hit my head. I was like WHAT!? I passed out? A little part inside of me was like FINALLY, I have a pass out story cause I feel like I am the only person I know that hasn't passed out. They had me sit up. I had hit my head on a machine that was directly behind me, no blood or wound. I just sat there, stunned. Then people started talking about what happened, because the sales people came out of their office to see what the big sound had been. I'm sitting there listening to them and all I can do is laugh and my eyes started leaking too. I felt bad for laughing because I know I scared the crap out of them and that passing out is serious and scary but I just couldn't stop laughing. Even now, thinking about it, I chuckle.

From what I gather, Kim saw me hunched over but my arms had fallen down, like I was reaching to touch my toes. And she was walking over to me and asking me if I was okay as I started leaning (probably more like tipping) back and she got to me just as I hit my head on the lower part of the machine. The press guy saw me going down and yelled "#*(%&!!" Once I was down my neck/head twitched a few times and the press guy thought I might be going into a seizure, which is why he was telling Kim to open my mouth to make sure I didn't swallow my tongue. That's when I woke up.

I tried to tough out the day but when I felt like I needed to stay seated, I realized I wasn't really helpful. Plus the head honcho boss strongly suggested I got to the doctor just to make sure everything is good... okay and my husband was ready to come get me and take me to the doc. I called my mom and she came to get me.

We called my regular doc's office and they said since it happened at work I needed to go through some process and get it taken care of that way. Instead we went to instacare and they said go to the ER now. Off to Riverton hospital we went. I was not excited to go to the ER cause there are sick people there and I didn't want to be around that right then but YAY no one was there. I had been drinking a lot of water because my hubby suggested to do so, by the time I got to the ER I was ready to pee my pants but the receptionist said hold it cause I will have to pee in a cup. She lied. I was escorted to an examination room asked questions about the incident and then other people got called in, a nurse, a tech and a physician, I'm thinking this is a lot of people, maybe this is worse than I thought. Anyway the questioner asked what my pain level was I said a 2 then she got talking to the nurse and then she said, " you stated your pain level was a 4?" I said no a 2. I don't like the # scale for pain, if you know Brian Regan and his skit on pain level you know my feelings, kind of. Anyway, my physician, Dr. Balls (yes, I snickered immaturely, in my head) basically confirmed my answers to the questions. Told me it was from the pain of whacking my elbow. Depending on the pain, it can send your body in to shock, I think he said serotonin gets released which makes your circulatory system dilate and you blood rushes to your extremities instead of your heart and brain. Your heart rate drops and you often feel like you might faint and in this case i did. This could be medically incorrect but cut me some slack he was talking fast and my head felt like it had a head cold so comprehending vast amounts of info at once wasn't happening. BUT fortunately they gave me a handout about it that I can read later.

When leaving the nurse said that if I should start vomiting, my speech goes weird or I start acting funny I should go back in cause those are signs of a concussion that don't always show right away. Based on that my mom and I decided I should go to her house rather than go home and be alone or go to work to get my car and drive home. So I am here at mommy daycare until my hubby is done with school =) One of my co-workers mentioned that if I had been standing straight up I probably would have hit my head on a part of the machine that would have hurt me a lot more, we're talking blood and stitches and shaving of hair to make stitches probably... I don't know if they would really have to do that but I'm grateful I said my prayers today and that the part about being safe came true. Yes I fainted BUT it could have been worse. I am grateful for my Heavenly Father that it looking out for me and for my mom who is taking care of me even though she is trying to get ready for Thanksgiving and I'm not really much use right now. Dr. Balls said to avoid alot of strenuous activity. Blast. there goes my run tomorrow anyway I am just rambling now. Love you guys and thanks for reading!