This discussion is now closed.

Check out other Related discussions

The most frightening experience of my life

Where do i begin?

I'm currently working at a bank as a temp, and currently job-shadowing a cashier at the bank. I was sitting down, taking notes, observing, and unfortunately as i was adjusting myself on the seat, my knee hit a metal instrument located under the desk. This hurt immediately, not too much but instantly i felt quite dizzy and sick, i guess blood pressure wise, i was quite badly affected. I immediately left the cashier location, walked up a flight of stairs and got to the toilet asap. I felt a little dizzy but moreso, i felt sick. I sat on the toilet seat for approx. 10 seconds and then had an urge to be sick. I positioned myself over the toilet, standing, about to be sick. Turns out i wasn't, and that evidently, i collapsed, falling to the side of the toilet. The next thing i knew, only thing i knew was happening, was that i had to work bloody bloody hard to breathe, gasp in air, whilst sweating profusely. This felt kind of semi-conscious, i don't think i had any clue where the hell i was, what had happened, all i knew was that i was badly struggling for air, and so i was working extremely hard just to take in air.

At some point, my consciousness had fully returned, my eyes slowly opened, and i saw the lights above me, the toilet light. I gradually understood where i was, lying flat in a locked toilet cubicle...after a couple of minutes of very hard breathing, i hoisted myself onto the toilet seat, and just focused on my breathing. The toilet is located a floor above my work colleagues, i had no buttons on me to alert them of the situation, but i understood that the best thing for me was to focus on me, my breathing. I felt awful, breathless and pretty dizzy. I sat on the toilet seat for another 20 mins, approx, then got to my feet once the dizziness had gone, or had moved to a much more tolerable level, walked to the staff room, and notified staff what had happened.

Mum picked me up, went to A&E, my readings have come back fine, blood pressure is fine, HR is fine, i'm very fit they say. But whilst i was gasping for air, having regained some consciousness of kinds, i felt like i was on the verge of dying, it was an absolutely horrendous experience. I had an ECG, it wasn't a heart attack, i thought maybe it could have been, when i was on the verge of being sick in the toilet, i didn't really feel particularly dizzy at that point, but i still collapsed, and haven't been sick at any point today. This bit seems bizarre. I can't remember feeling so dizzy that i would be on the verge of collapsing, but collapse i did. I can't remember the collapse itself, whether i hit something on the way down to the floor, i don't know. I probably did, either the side of the cubicle or something else, but i have no bruises to show for any knocks i sustained on the way to the floor. I'm relieved because i genuinely believe i may have escaped death today, and i'm not being sensationalist, i just think i'm pretty damn lucky, to have got my breath back. Now i'm currently resting up, as the whole episode as been a seriously big fright/shock to me. If the experience of a heart attack is worse than that of having really really bad shocks, then omfg....

Just thought i'd share, it really felt i was fighting for my life today, and i think i got lucky. But why i had such a bad reaction to hitting my knee, remains perhaps a bit of a mystery. Maybe being so physically fit, having very low blood pressure and HR made the breathing process, fighting the shocks, that more difficult. That was some kind of possible explanation given, but the shocks were extreme...

absolutely horrifying. Maybe there is a higher authority, most likely i'm just extremely lucky to be living???!!!

Reply 1

Tickety Boo

A near death experience: perhaps for a purpose? Perhaps it was God...

Reply 2

Triplet1

13

That must have been horrible for you. Strange experience from hitting your knee :s-smilie:

I'm glad your ok now! :hugs:

Reply 3

schmuall

At least you didn't hit the alarm button like I did when I worked at the bank. The shutters went up and hit some lady on the arm and I think she tried to sue...

Anyway, has this changed you? what are you going to do differently?

Reply 4

Chewwy

17

note to self: never bang knee.

Reply 5

Spacecam

15

Sounds like a panic attack to me... don't bang your knee again!

Reply 6

towny

Something to do with an altered bloodflow? Or a bizarre nervous (as in CNS) response?

Reply 7

lullybug

Are you sure you didn't just faint.

I have banged my knee before walking down the stairs. I was 9 and on a school holiday and late or breakfast. I was rushing banged my knee, got to the breakfast, told them what had happened and that I felt dizzy and sick and next thing I knew woke up laying on teh floor with loads of teachers around me!

I also have fainted next to a toilet, like you I felt sick so was sitting infront of the toilet. I called my mum who was thee luckily as I fainted and slumped forward my mum couldnt feel me breathing so tried to lie my flat and called my dad. Not sure why it happened but ended up with a nasty burn on my hand as when my mum pulled me round my hand was against the water pipes for radiator and because i was out for the count I didn't pull it away. Worse bit of it was the burn!

Hope you feel better soon

Reply 8

BabyBee

i had a very similar thing. i worked at a sealife centre and was on 'touchpool' duty, showing the public the things in the rockpool and letting them touch and hold certain things. there was a crab known as the devil or velvet crab and we were suppsoed to pick them up - holding them so that they couldnt nip and let people touch the shell. i was fine with this but one day the crab slipped and he nipped me. and then hung on my finger - now these arent small crabs and they have the ability to break bones.
and yes it hurt, it didnt bleed (was my nail) but it hurt a lot. i laughed it off to the people around me but as the minutes went on i felt wful really weak and dizzy. i was trying to talk to some man about muscle shells i was clutching the edeg of the pool and leaning down. i felt so strange and sick and ill.

that's all i remember.

then i was dreaming about a corridor and someone shouting at me to run away

then i opened my eyes to find myself surrounded by people and laying face down on the floor

the thing was - yes i had fainted BUT i didnt recover the way people who fait r supposed to - they had to keep me lying down, i cudnt focus, i cud barely talk and i just felt really odd.

they called an ambulance and they checked all ym vitals and told me i was fine!

but i so know what u mean.
i felt almost dead at one point and it's petrified me. it scared me so much i quit the job because i got a bad feeling whenever i was there.
was a shame. i loved that job!

Reply 9

Norman Shilcago

I have personally had an almost identical experience. It was in school one morning and we were reading a book in english that was a little bit gory. All of a sudden everything you described happenned to me, i asked to go to the toilet before it came on fully and managed to leave the room before starting to go almost blind and completely dizzy and sick. I suffer from severe emetophobia (phobia of vomiting) and some other phobias so i was especially scared. I collapsed in an empty room and stayed there, semi-conscious for like 20 minutes before shakilly going outside.
I reckon the reason it happenned to me was because of my anxieties. I statred feeling sick about the blood in the book and it spiraled from there. I get anxious like all the time about everything. I think it is an extreme anxiety attack and i am a little bit of a hypochondriac myself so that inveriably didn't help. It's only ever happenned to me twice but at least now i know what to expect and what to do if it happennes again, so next time, you'll know your not going to die

Reply 10

white_haired_wizard

OP

16

i've had panic attacks before, and what i experienced today, just felt like an almighty step-up from having a panic attack. I wasn't shaking on the floor, i was semi-conscious, but trying desperately desperately hard to breathe, gasp for air...for a few minutes. I was there, but then again, i wasn't....

i must have simply got a really bad reaction to my knock on the knee, fainting/collapsing, not sure if there's a difference??, but it's the coming back to consciousness process that really shook me. Really surreal and it felt like i was on the verge of dying. It was exhausting trying to breathe, and my eyes weren't open at the time, when breathing was at its most difficult. Had i stopped breathing, then i'd have been ****ed, and i was pretty close to not being able to breathe. I'm a lucky boy i reckon, and maybe i have a pretty strong heart. I tick all the boxes for having had shocks, and a few symptoms associated with heart attacks, but from the ECG, there were no signs of heart damage or abnormalities, thank goodness. But i've never been in so much pain and distress in my life.

Reply 11

Bear_Grylls

19

Lucky you didnt hit anything on your way down, i felt exactly the same after i fell unconcious in a bathroom on new years day, could have easilly struck my head on somthing hard, thankfully i didnt.

Reply 12

white_haired_wizard

OP

16

ALEXnk

Lucky you didnt hit anything on your way down, i felt exactly the same after i fell unconcious in a bathroom on new years day, could have easilly struck my head on somthing hard, thankfully i didnt.

i must have hit something on the way down, as when i woke up, my body was squeesed down one of the sides to the toilet itself, in the cubicle. Whether what i hit made matters worse, i don't know. I simply don't remember the falling down part, so whatever i hit, proved painless..i only remember crouching over the toilet, preparing to be sick...and then trying desperately hard to keep breathing for a minute or two after having gained some consciousness back. I don't have any bruises from my fall, so i think i perhaps got quite lucky with the fall.

Reply 13

Aimai

7

white_haired_wizard

i've had panic attacks before, and what i experienced today, just felt like an almighty step-up from having a panic attack. I wasn't shaking on the floor, i was semi-conscious, but trying desperately desperately hard to breathe, gasp for air...for a few minutes. I was there, but then again, i wasn't....

i must have simply got a really bad reaction to my knock on the knee, fainting/collapsing, not sure if there's a difference??, but it's the coming back to consciousness process that really shook me. Really surreal and it felt like i was on the verge of dying. It was exhausting trying to breathe, and my eyes weren't open at the time, when breathing was at its most difficult. Had i stopped breathing, then i'd have been ****ed, and i was pretty close to not being able to breathe. I'm a lucky boy i reckon, and maybe i have a pretty strong heart. I tick all the boxes for having had shocks, and a few symptoms associated with heart attacks, but from the ECG, there were no signs of heart damage or abnormalities, thank goodness. But i've never been in so much pain and distress in my life.

You can't faint from a panic attack. You faint when your blood pressure drops, not when it rises (which is does in a panic attack). Perhaps you had severe anxiety whilst coming back to consciousness (understandably!) which could account for those symptoms? Our body does strange things. The main thing is that you've been checked out and that you're ok. :smile:

Reply 14

Spacecam

15

If its not caused by any found abnormalites then chances are it was something temporary, like a panic attack. It is unlikely to be cause by altered blood flow since the only major blood vessel that runs in the knee is the popliteal artery, which lives really deep down and you won't have banged it.

If you felt yourself going then you were probably in a feint, or a panic attack - it sounds very much like that. You will probably have had a combination of the two - starting to feint then panicked about it.

Its unlikely to be a neurological problem from just one incidence. If you have another very similar episode, then it's time to go to the doctor.

Have you considered when you last ate in relation to this and how well you slept the night before, and how much alcohol you drank the night before.

I'm fairly certain it is nothing sinister

Reply 15

white_haired_wizard

OP

16

Aimai

You can't faint from a panic attack. You faint when your blood pressure drops, not when it rises (which is does in a panic attack). Perhaps you had severe anxiety whilst coming back to consciousness (understandably!) which could account for those symptoms? Our body does strange things. The main thing is that you've been checked out and that you're ok. :smile:

it was extremely severe, the breathing process...this is what shook me the most. My blood pressure will have dropped, and my blood pressure is very low, according to the results at the hospital. They seemed almost gob-smacked at my figures, blood pressure reading and HR, both very low. I think my HR measured 46 p/m, and the average is something like 70???

so perhaps having low blood pressure and being very healthy and fit to begin with...made me coming back to consciousness and dealing with the severe anxiety, much harder. I had a fight on my hands, to put it mildly.

Reply 16

Boon!

Hey, I've had similar experiences in the past, one of which was in the knee as well.

I was meeting some old friends in town, and idling at our meeting spot. One of our friends came running, shouting me, so I turned. Anyway, in his enjoyment at seeing me for the first time in ages, he lept on me, but we banged knees. Now nothing happened for like 30 seconds except we were rubbing our knees, obviously, from the bang.

Next my sight goes all fuzzy - like when you turn the TV on and there's no channel selected, just a fuzzy black and white dotted screen. I also started to sweat alot and the skin felt prickly.

I carried on walking with this friend, thinking it would subside in a moment. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but knew he was talking to me. Anyway, after a minute of walking the vision was still fading, but the other 2 I was meeting had found us, and one of them noticed that my eyes were practically just pupils...all enlarged, he described it as something out of a sci-fi movie :tongue:

Anyway, eventually my knee buckled and I had to rest on a nearby bench for a few minutes.

It happened again after I took a top layer of my skin was grazed away from a wheelie bin falling on my wrists. (We have a horse trailor down the side of the house, and me and my dad was lifting it over, where he decided to drop it onto my arms).

I went to see a doctor about it, had a few tests but he said I was perfectly fine, just that I had a low pain threshold...kind of sad really, because nowadays I'm overly paranoid about avoiding objects so this can't happen, as it is a horrible sensation when it occurs.

Reply 17

Dark Flower

Boon!

Next my sight goes all fuzzy - like when you turn the TV on and there's no channel selected, just a fuzzy black and white dotted screen. I also started to sweat alot and the skin felt prickly.

I carried on walking with this friend, thinking it would subside in a moment. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but knew he was talking to me. Anyway, after a minute of walking the vision was still fading, but the other 2 I was meeting had found us, and one of them noticed that my eyes were practically just pupils...all enlarged, he described it as something out of a sci-fi movie :tongue:

Anyway, eventually my knee buckled and I had to rest on a nearby bench for a few minutes.

I had this, and a similar experience to the OP, but not as extreme. For me it means I haven't eaten enough and my blood sugar's too low, or I have a megrain coming on.

If it happens again, go back to the doctor for sure. Though sometimes these things happen and the doctors can't find anythiny wrong with you.

Hope your feeling better, it's a horrible feeling like your going to die. (lol that's a bit of an understatement)