Holby City

Ever since the age of fourteen I have suffered from blackouts. They don't happen very often, usually about twice in ten years. I always know when they're going to happen; I get a prickly feeling in my arms and face and my head feels funny. I immediately try to lie down; sometimes I succeed but usually bash the back of my head as I pass out. I just lie there and wait for it to pass. I have always been alone when these incidents happened, except for the last occurrence about four years ago, when my brother was with me. He told me that my hands were moving oddly while I was out. My blackouts were actually fits.
Now I'll tell you why I felt so washed-up yesterday. On Tuesday evening I went to the pub and met a friend there. After an hour or so I started to feel a bit odd and went outside. I then realised what was happening and called my friend. I sat down and he caught me as I blacked out. When I came round my friend was holding me upright. I was held upright until the ambulance arrived. A first aider was there who thought I was having a stroke, and had an ambulance called. I went unconscious again a couple of times and felt so ill I thought I was dying. I don't think I've ever been so frightened. I was also desperately sad, thinking of the wonderful people I might never see again. I started breathing very noisily and then vomited violently. (It turned out that my blood pressure had become dangerously low. Where I was held upright I was suffering the effects of oxygen starvation and had gone into shock). The friend who who had held me said I kept grabbing with my hands while unconscious. I had had a fit.
Anyway I was taken to hospital by ambulance. The crew were fantastic and got me stabilised on the way. In hospital I was put on a saline drip, plugged into some sort of monitor, had blood taken and had my heart checked. After a few hours my condition had improved and I was allowed to go home. The tests I had been given all showed negative.
I want to say a big thank you those friends who helped me, comforted me, came to the hospital with me, and who came round to see me as soon as I got home. Thank you to all my friends for being such caring people.
When my appointment with the autistic spectrum specialist comes up, I will discuss this episode with him, as it could be connected with asd. I did tell my gp about it many years ago, and he put it down to the depression that he'd been treating me for.
I have learned a lesson from this. I am telling everyone I know socially that If I say I feel faint, I need to lie down immediately.
Yesterday I had my gp appointment for depression. He's doubled the dose and signed me off for a month.
Yesterday evening I went to the pub to meet my friend who has aspergers. We had a couple of games of scrabble and talked for about four hours. It was lovely, because we both bring each other out of our shells. That was a nice ending to a pretty rotten day, and I felt really cheerful when I came home.