Near-death?

Today I woke up with a headache for the third day in a row. It wasn't horribly bad, but bad enough. Nothing would take it away, not prescription-strength Aleve, not Tylenol, not a hot bath, nothing. I wasn't feeling too awfully bad, except for feeling a bit tired and the headache. Shannon came over just before lunch to get Gage and Emma, as she had invited them over for a play date today. I decided I should take advantage of them being gone, and schedule an appointment at Biolife. Now that the kids are out of school, I don't have free time during the day to go. I didn't really feel like going, but I wanted to add another $20 to my Biolife debit card. I made my appointment for 12:45 so I would have a little time to eat something before going, as I didn't really have too much for breakfast. They always say to eat a well-balanced meal and drink a lot of water. I needed to get some groceries (which I was also planning to do while the kids were at Shannon's and after my appointment), so I didn't have too many choices for lunch, and ended up eating a container of yogurt and a Nutrigrain bar and drank a few cups of water.

Other than my throbbing headache and being a bit tired, I felt okay. I was reading my new John Grisham book, The Appeal (which is very good by the way!) while I lay on the reclining chair/table donating plasma. I decided my head was bothering me too much to keep reading, and my eyes were feeling quite tired, so I just laid still and closed my eyes to rest them a bit. It was getting close to the half an hour mark, and usually it takes about 45-50 minutes to donate and I started feeling a bit weird. I wasn't sure if I was feeling nauseous and was possibly going to puke or what? I told myself I should get one of the girls' attention and let them know, but I didn't want to draw attention to myself because I figured it was just nothing. Then I started feeling clammy and was breaking into a sweat. I got a little bit restless, but still couldn't make myself ask for assistance. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I knew I wasn't feeling well, and I also knew the donation process was nearly over, so I kept giving myself a pep talk, "You can get through this Stacy, you're fine! This spell will go away and I will be done in a few minutes and can then go home." Well, after several minutes (probably 10-15) the clamminess went away and I thought maybe I was getting over it. Finally my machine beeped and they came over to take the bag of plasma, then start the normal saline to flush the line and rehydrate me after the donation. Typically they ask if everything went alright, and then say "5 more minutes". I told myself I should probably say something if they ask, but I didn't know if I wanted to make a big deal out of nothing? Well, they disconnected the bag of plasma and started the normal saline and didn't say a thing to me. I wasn't sure what I was going to say anyway, and continued for 5 more minutes. When the process was completed she came over to disconnect me and she asked if everything went okay, and you know me, "I-cannot-tell-a-lie-Stacy" confessed that I wasn't feeling well. Of course then they had to get the blood pressure machine and fill out a report. At this point I just wanted to go home. I was quite shocked when my blood pressure registered at 88/24! CRAP! No wonder I wasn't feeling well! I was probably near death and was too embarrassed to call attention to myself!! My blood pressure has never been that low, and being a nurse, I knew that was way too low. In fact, I think the only blood pressure I have ever taken that was lower than that was on a patient that was dying!!!! Another gal came over to see what was going on and asked the first gal what my blood pressure was and she showed her the form she was filling out and she replied, "NO WAY! That can't be right!" So, she proceeded to take it again, and this time it didn't even register. They tried again, and again, it didn't register. She went to get the nurse and a new blood pressure machine and at that point, I must have gotten a little excited myself and thankfully the new reading was 109/74. Much better! Whew! I had to wait around awhile until I was feeling better and once they determined I was okay they took the needle out of my arm and I was able to go sit in the chairs by the nurse's office and she told me to eat a snack and brought me a bottle of water and a bag of mini oreos. There was another guy sitting next to me, and he was there waiting for a physical as a new donor, and he looked at me all concerned and said, "Is it really that bad?" I told him no, it wasn't and that this has never happened to me before. Probably not a good place to put me, next to a new donor who was scared to death! We decided it was probably due to lack of sleep (I had tossed and turned until 4 a.m. the night before last), or my menstrual cycle ending just recently (sorry, I know that's personal, but I know my Mom is going to be freaking out and in the process of dialing my number when she reads this post), and I didn't eat a very good meal. I learned a little lesson today! Not sure if it was worth the $20 or not, but one good thing about the whole situation was that I forgot about having a headache! :-)