Swooning - for real.

I really wish this post were about my Swoon quilt.  It really needs to be - I've made very little progress on that poor thing in the last couple of months.  However, I did find myself swooning in the non-quilting sense this weekend...


To back up a bit, there was a point in time when I thought I wanted to be a doctor.  Like really, really wanted to be a doctor.  I geeked out over all things medical - books, documentaries, TV shows.  (I mean, those were the George Clooney on ER years - how can you blame me??)  I started a pre-med program in college, and in the summer after my freshman year, I volunteered at the local ER.  My only experience in a hospital before that was visiting my mom after she'd had surgery on her neck.  It was a pretty serious surgery, and she looked pretty bad when I went to visit.  When I was in her room, I walked over to the window - 14 stories up - got woozy, and passed out.  Cold.  I chalked that one up to stress.

Flash forward a couple of years to my time volunteering at the ER.  I spent most of my time restocking the blanket warmer, and doing other not-so-exciting tasks that needed to be done.  It's a suburban ER that usually only saw things like ear infections and, on an exciting night, the damage caused by an errant kitchen knife.  The docs who worked there knew I was pre-med, and so when a guy was brought in after a bar fight, needing stitches, they called me in to observe.  The last thing I remember was them putting Betadine on his lip, and then - BAM.  Passed out cold again.

Seeing this as a sign that I am just not cut out for the medical industry, I switched majors to something much less bloody and graphic, and just chalked it up to a weak constitution.

Until I passed out again in the middle of my chemistry lab.

And again when visiting a family friend who was recovering from being sick.

And again when I was at a restaurant hanging out with a friend while waiting to go see a movie.

And again in law school while I was on a first date.

Sigh.  Guess I changed my major for nothing.

With my crappy law student health insurance, I toddled down to the doctor (at the insistence of my mom), and got myself all checked out.  All kinds of possibilities were discussed - blood sugar issues? seizures? brain tumors?

I don't even want to think about how much I had to pay for the neurologist, who after running a handful of tests diagnosed me as a "swooner."  There is absolutely nothing wrong with me, except that (usually at the most inopportune of moments), I faint.  Pass the heck out.  And it has always happened in public.  Double sigh.

Why am I telling this story on my quilty blog?  Because irony of ironies, this past weekend, I swooned when I should have been Swooning.  I headed off early on Saturday night to a ladies night in my neighborhood - just a bunch of us gals hanging out with a glass of wine and chatting.  I was planning on having one glass of wine, and then coming back home to sew.  All was going well, until it happened.  Again.

Somehow, I managed to set down my glass of wine so I didn't spill it, but the next thing I remember is waking up on the kitchen floor with about a dozen women standing over me.  I must have been out for a while this time, because within just a few seconds of waking up, my husband was there.  He's never seen me faint before, so he was pretty freaked out.  He made some pretty awkward small talk with the other ladies (and thankfully, the husband of the neighbor hosting was there, too), while I finished waking up, and then he walked me home.

He likes to point out at this point in the story that when I said I was going next door for a glass of wine, he told me to call if I needed a ride home.  Har-dee-har-har.

Anyway, if you've indulged me this long in this non-quilting story, the whole point is that I got absolutely nothing accomplished this weekend.  It took me the better part of two full days to recover from this one - I just can't shake the clammy feeling.  And it took me until today to get my blood pressure down to a reasonable level, which, along with a couple of other symptoms I've had in the last week, tells me this is definitely a stress-related issue.

But just before I took my swan dive onto the kitchen floor, I'd gone out to my LQS, Zoe's Trunk, and got myself stocked up on some awesome fabric that I plan to cut into A-S-A-friggin-P.  I need some sewing time in a bad way.  You know, to keep that blood pressure down. :)