It must be incredibly boring to be confined in a hospital, I thought as I stared at my legs propped up against the wall while I lay on the clinic bed.
This position wasn’t exactly very comfortable, but the nurse had told me that this was a fast way to get my blood pressure back to normal, which is definitely a whole lot cheaper than getting myself hooked to an IV drip and oxygen, which was what the doctor wanted.
My blood pressure had dropped to half when I fainted earlier. Yes, fainted.
I went to Patient First for a pre-employment physical exam last Saturday. My first stop was the lab. The nurse wanted to collect my blood sample, and as I sat there while she plunged a syringe into the inside of my elbow and tried to get it, I looked away and tried to think of other things except the fact that I was scared of blood, especially mine.
“Are you scared?” she asked after awhile. The blood had refused to flow, and that was because of my nervousness, she said. Her alternative was to collect it from the back of my hand.
Oh no. In the past, whenever I lost blood from my fingers, I got a bit dizzy, like the first time I had my blood typed. I hoped it wouldn’t happen now.
She successfully drew blood from a vein on my hand. The moment she released the rubber around my wrist, however, I felt my head grow heavy, and I felt like puking.
But I tried to fight the feeling and stood up to follow her. In the middle of the hallway, my whole world turned black.
The nurses brought me to a bed and when I opened my eyes, they expressed this observation with relief. “Her lips are beginning to have color,” they told the doctor who was taking my blood pressure.
I was still a bit weak, but I felt like I could get up and get on with the physical, but the doctor did not share my opinion. She insisted that I be fitted with an IV drip and an oxygen mask because I had a very low blood pressure.
The idea of another needle being inserted into my veins did not seem like a good idea at all, and when they told me of how much it would cost, I told them I was fine. Really.
So they asked me to sign a form that said something about the patient refusing treatment and insisted that I was not to stand up.
From that point on, all other nurses and doctors on my other exams referred to me as “the girl who fainted.” Kinda embarrassing, actually.
I just hope it doesn’t affect my employment.