"Medic!"

I was a little hurried on my way home from work last night (and side trips to Walmart for dinner materials is always enough to annoy me with humanity). I got home, Jonathan came in and helped me put groceries away, then I started making dinner, which was abruptly halted by The Can Of Corn. First I have to say, my can opener is extra-lame. It left two still-attached edges on my lid, which forced me to have to use a fork to pry the top off.... which resulted in the lid-with-sharp-edges slicing violently into my thumb and ring finger on my right hand.

I rushed to the sink to run my finger under cold water, and stood there just watching the blood gush out. I told Jonathan to run and grab me a band aid, "or two!!" When he came to my side, I started feeling light headed so he laid me down on the couch and sat with me, applying pressure with a paper towel to my gushing wound. After a few minutes I felt that I could get up to wash it out again. But at the sink again, I felt faint and went down this time.

Let me tell you, if you've never fainted, it's really an odd feeling. It's like the whole process of falling asleep happens within an instant, there's even enough time for a really brief dream, which I don't recall in this instance. I didn't feel my head hit the sink, nor anything that happened after that, until I felt myself laying on the kitchen floor and heard Jonathan call my name and tell me to look at his eyes.

I came back into consciousness pretty quickly, with the ever-familiar post-faint taste of metal in my mouth. I laid limp on the kitchen floor for a few minutes while Jon scrambled around to take care of me, propping my legs up, holding the towel around my hand and above my heart, bandaging up my thumb while dabbing up the blood from the other finger. He dead-lifted me and carried me over to lay me on the couch where he assessed the wound, still bleeding. It's nearly 1/8" deep and about 3/4" long. He did some quick research before he confirmed that I wouldn't need stitches since the gash clotted within 15 minutes.

I'm so glad for Jonathan's medical experience and abilities. It actually helps me to not focus on what hurts when he tells me what's physically going on with the thing (like how it started to swell which caused some secondary pain).

I'm not really sure what it is in the process of experiencing gross physical mishaps that gets my anxiety in a tizzy, resulting in a fainting spell. I guess it could be a panic attack of sorts. My doctor told me I have vasovagal syncope. It's a condition where the uncomfortability of certain medical situations makes my heart rate and blood pressure drop very quickly, sometimes leading to fainting and shock. It's just the way my blood pressure and the nerves react. I think this is what makes me most nervous about having children some day. I'll pass out and lay there like a slug and the kid will have some kind of complication because I'm doing nothing to help it. Let's not think about that now, ha. I'd much rather have a gashy finger that looks like a corpse.

Anyway I'm glad Jonathan knows the routine with me now, whenever something like this may happen again :)