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| First Ever Blog |
| October 7 Write about losing a day Back in September, 2009 I was training for a marathon. I was along the edge of a sidestreet one moment, lying in a hospital bed the next. When I was told I was found unconscious in the gutter I couldn’t believe it. I asked the doctor what happened, he said he hoped I would tell him. I had various injuries including a broken foot and seriously bruised left shoulder. But the worst were the scrapes and bruises on my face and a pretty messed up torn lip. It didn’t seem as though I’d been hit by a vehicle as there was no trauma to my torso or legs, except for the broken foot. He then asked those concussion protocol questions and when I said today was Tuesday, he shook his head and told me it was 4pm Wednesday. The last thing I remembered it was about 10:30am the day before. I’d been out of it for some 30 hours. They kept me for another two days of blood tests, x-rays, MRIs, CAT scans and especially brain scans. After all that, they couldn’t tell me why I’d apparently passed out mid-stride. My guess…it was a combination of dehydration and an AFib event. During an AFib event the blood pressure can drop significantly. And if I were dehydrated, it’s possible my brain succumbed to a sudden drop in oxygen and fuel. And I fainted. Hitting my unprotected head on the roadway caused the loss of those 30 hours. Now, I’m not a doctor (though I did play one in a very, very off-Broadway production once), but the ‘experts’ on Google in 2009 admitted this was possible. My actual doctors said they didn’t have sufficient information to come to any conclusion. Which I understand. Anyway, it did recur one more time the following year, though not nearly so serious, so I switched from running Marathons to doing half marathons. I also suspected that an over-the-counter medication I’d used prior to both falls may have contributed to my dehydration. Immodium - for preventing the runs (the unpleasant kind of runs). It says right in the instructions it can cause dehydration. So I stopped using that and decided to try eating better. Knock wood, it’s never happened again. |
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