what a drag it is etc.

[sanpaku_backup]

Recently my body has been doing some strange things. Without my meaning to, that is.

Not long after the episode in which the nurse taking blood from me failed to find a vein, causing me to black out, I had this really weird thing happen. At some point in maybe April, I was out in the yard walking Phoebe when I stepped in a hole and twisted my ankle. Nothing that bad -- a sharp pain, but the ankle didn't hurt for more than a few minutes. I've done it tons of times.

But this time, although it wasn't really cold out, I started to feel really cold. Really, really cold -- so cold that I started gasping and teeth chattering from it. I staggered inside and sat down. My body shook back and forth and the veins in my neck stood out. This lasted for a good five minutes and I couldn't make it stop. Finally, after lying down, it slowly ebbed away.

I had forgotten about it until a couple of weeks ago, when I mildly strained a muscle doing something that isn't worth mentioning. I woke up in the middle of the night and within a couple of minutes was in a cold sweat. It was exactly the same as before -- tremendous coldness, throbbing pain, teeth chattering. And it gradually went away, maybe 20 minutes.

Until these three episodes I never had a bad reaction to pain before or was especially worried about it. Now I wonder if this is something like shock. I was very distinctly conscious in the last two episodes (enough so to think, "damn, I have no control over this whatsoever") and I think the cold finally went away by willing myself to calm down. But of course this is really disconcerting.

I will try to get a doctor's appointment when we get back from Maine, but in the meantime I wonder if this is something anyone else has heard of?

Comments

[librarygrrl.livejournal.com]

this sounds freaky. Is your heart racing when it happens? Do you feel anxious? (Not that I know what the f I am talking about, mind you.)

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

It is hard not to feel anxious when you feel deathly chilled and your body and teeth are shaking uncontrollably. If I had to describe it as similar to anything I've ever been through, it would be close to how you feel when you have a fever and you're really chilled from it. Maybe a panic attack of some sort?

This last time, it was so bad I was seriously thinking of going to a hospital, except that it would take an hour and by the time we got there it would be over.

I am sure...

[flw.livejournal.com]

I am sure that a good doctor will be able to come up with a few possibilities. Sounds an awful lot like an anxiety attack though. And the fact that it is associated with pain or injury makes me think, "Hmmm, well maybe when the injury happens, there's a load of adrenaline released into the blood stream and a sudden release of insulin and glycogen and all that other good stuff that gets dumped into the blood stream when one's body goes into 'fight or flight' mode. So you're heart races, your muscles tense, you become more self aware, and the pain leaves. So one could kill a bear or whatever it is your stone age blood chemistry thinks your body is going to have to do."

I've noticed a few times in my life that when I've felt cold, I was actually hot.

And get checked for diabetes. That's easy to rule out.

Re: I am sure...

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

A good conjecture, but this is something more like shutting down rather than revving up, I think. You're so goddam cold that being inside that bear's warm stomach sounds like a mighty good idea. It's hard to convey how physical and visceral it is... you're not just cold, you're freezing, teeth chattering uncontrollably.

What's the connection with diabetes? Some kind of low blood sugar thing? Oh shit. Man, I never want to be stuck with another needle as long as I live.

Re: I am sure...

[flw.livejournal.com]

The conjecture is that after the injury, a bunch of adrenaline and fight or flight chemicals get dumped into your system... including a goodly amount of insulin to process all that glycogen, so you can fight off the bears. Then, your insulin reserves drained, your body loses the ability to generate heat, so you get very cold. Hence, something diabetes-like. Some sort of insulin shock. Maybe the opposite of diabetes, where your body is taking excess insulin out of the blood. Just the whole thing made me think there was some sort of adrenalin/insulin thing going on. But, of course, you know, I know nothing about it...

Hopefully, whatever it is, it's not something that needs to happen to be detected. There's nothing worse in the world of cars or bodies than having to say, "Well, it was doing it before, it hasn't done it lately, I am not sure, Doc."

[cellio]

Yikes! I have no idea what that might mean, but I hope your doctor does.

[one-11.livejournal.com]

The other day I banged my funny bone on my half-rolled-down car window and it definitely hurt. But I started SCREAMING in the car like I don't think I have screamed since I was very little, like a raw scream of total panic and rage. At the time I remember thinking something similar to what you thought, like, "I am out of control, here."

What happened to you sounds far more serious, but I relate my story because I think Flw is on to something when he says a small injury could result in big adrenalin rush that'll really mess with you.