Hyperventilation and the aftermath...

Two weeks ago a very bizarre thing happened to me. I went to the gym over my lunch break, did some cardio and some free weights (arms). I remembered as I was doing the free weights that, during my personal training sessions that came with our signing up for the gym, the lady had told me that breathing properly was important, and that you should breathe out while you're "doing the exercise" and in when you're getting back to starting position. So, I did this. I felt a little weird after the first exercise - my fingers and nose were a little tingle-y, and I thought maybe I needed to rest for a minute and just get some good regular breaths in. I finished up the other two exercises and still felt a little odd.

At this point, I started to worry and wonder what was going on, so I sat down on one of the chairs near the entrance and focused on taking deep, regular breaths. I felt a little better and decided I should drive back to work (about a 5-7 minute drive) and maybe sit at the front desk for a few minutes with the receptionist to make sure I was okay.

I guess I must have panicked at some point while I was driving, mainly because both of my arms started going numb. I was on the freeway at that point nearing the exit I needed to get off on, so I drove up the ramp and parked on the side. I realized that I needed some medical help, but by that point, my hands were contracted into tight balls and I couldn't move them. I waved out the window and yelled for help, and someone stopped and called 911 for me. In the meantime, my toes, calves, stomach, lower arms and probably some other things tensed up so that I pretty much couldn't move. The guy who called 911 came over and talked to me and I realized that my jaw was stuck, too - I sounded like I was mentally handicapped or something as I tried to talk to him. As I talked and told him what had happened, my muscles began to uncramp, and by the time the ambulance arrived I could at least move my legs a bit, although my left hand was still pretty much stuck in a ball. The paramedics asked me lots of questions and took my blood pressure several times. By then I was feeling mostly better and was able to move again, but I opted to go ahead and take the ambulance to the hospital to find out what had happened to me and to make sure nothing was horribly wrong. I left the key to the car with the paramedic and someone from my office came and took my car back to work for me. By the time I got to the hospital, I was pretty much back to normal, except for being shaky.

Somewhere in there I managed to talk to Chad, and he figured out how to get himself to the hospital. We only have one car, so his co-worker drove him back to our house, and he borrowed a car from one of the guys who rents out our basement to drive down to where I was (I work about 10 miles south of downtown, where he works).

After waiting a couple hours in the emergency room, the doctor came and asked about what happened. Pretty much immediately he knew I had hyperventilated and that nothing else was wrong with me. I felt more than a little silly. But when I looked up hyperventilation online after I got home, I found that only in very severe cases do people get tetany (which was lots of my muscles seizing up), and that it really is a good thing to go to the ER if it happens to make sure nothing else is wrong. Apparently, although it certainly feels like something is very wrong, there's no permanent physical damage done by hyperventilating, and it's pretty much impossible to die from it.

So physically, I am fine. But I am having some troubles with the emotional side effects. The day afterward, I was on edge and anxious all day long. Driving will sometimes make me begin the panic process. I went back to the gym a week later, and it was hard. I kept having to keep myself from giving over to anxiety about having the whole thing happen again. It's really frustrating - it's not something I can get through by thinking rationally; I realize the whole time that my thoughts are irrational, but yet I don't have control over them. Thankfully, I've found some things that help me to cope whenever something triggers the panicky feeling - like praying out loud, or calling someone on the phone and talking (which regulates my breathing). I haven't hyperventilated since then, and I think that talking with people about it and time will also help.

I talked with a co-worker yesterday when I started feeling anxious at work, and it turns out she has had some of the same aftermath to a scary physical situation. I am so thankful to have someone at work who understands and can help me do some physical things that calm my brain.

The brain is such a weird thing - you'd think that you should be able to control it by thinking things that are true and reasonable, but alas, it is not always so.