The good news – I’m not a wimp for passing out (more than once) at the oncology clinic. I remembered something about a reflex that works in some people from my Abnormal Psychology textbook. So I looked it up. There is a case study of a woman named Judy, who fainted during a movie with graphic scenes of blood in it. Here's an excerpt from the book:“We now know that more is involved in [this reaction] than just [wimpiness and early childhood experiences]. Physiologically, Judy experienced a vasovagal syncope, which is a common cause of fainting. When she saw the film she became mildly distressed, as many people would, and her heart rate and blood pressure increased accordingly, which she probably did not notice. Then her body took over, immediately compensating by decreasing her vascular resistance, lowering her heart rate and, eventually, lowering her blood pressure. The amount of blood reaching her brain diminished until she lost consciousness. Syncope means “sinking feeling” or ‘swoon’ because of low blood pressure in the head….
A possible cause of the vasovagal syncope is an overreaction of a mechanism called the sinoaortic baroreflex arc, which compensates for sudden increases in blood pressure by lowering it. Interestingly, the tendency to overcompensate seems to be inherited, a trait that may account for the high rate of [wimpiness at needles and blood] in families.”
If you made it through that material, you learned two things. (1) I’m not really a wimp, and (2) It’s my dad’s fault.
The bad news – I did not get to have a CT scan on Wednesday as planned. This would have let us know how well the chemotherapy was working at shrinking my tumor. Unfortunately, my kidneys are getting overworked right now and since CT scans can be hard on kidneys, too, they decided to postpone the CT scan for a couple of weeks. I’m a little disappointed. It would have been nice to get some concrete data on my progress.
The good-or-bad-depending-on-how-you-look-at-it news – I start round 3 of my chemo on Monday. I will probably be in the hospital that afternoon.
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6 comments:
hey man, without getting sappy, I want you to know I've been praying for you and thinking about you a lot lately.
...and I thought you were a wimp long before you passed out in an exam:)
miss you a lot, praying for you friend!
trey
Aaron,
Thank you very much for giving me an excuse, I mean EXPLANATION for why I faint easily. I have fainted or nearly fainted more than once while having blood taken which is nothing compared to what you're going through. You're not alone!
I'm still praying for you.
Paul
Aaron, Dad's not too crazy about you blaming him for things..... but hey, I say better him than me!
Love you!
Mom
Thinking about you today.
Even Shue is praying for you.
Heard from your Mom you were starting round 3 today. Praying everything goes smoothly and that you continue your "laps".
A "Levy" Reader
Hey, it's great to finally have some hard evidence about my "condition". I get a little, shall we say, lightheaded whenever a needle is in the vicinity. I've only passed out once...and that's because I was really sick...no, really!
I do get it from my mom. She passes out even when she doesn't see a needle or blood (of course she most definitely does when she sees blood). The doctor was poking around in my sister's ear one time when we were kids. When she cried out a little because he hurt her, my mom hit the floor. Seriously, passed out cold.
It's good to be able to blame things on your parents for a change. LOL
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