Darkness at noon?

It’s about noon on Sunday.  The sun is out. Sweat is slowly making its way down my back as I sit reading my book.  The roof over my bench casts a cooling shadow over the bench that I am sitting on as I read a Ken Follett book.  I am relaxed.  A breeze gives me a slight relief from the scorching sun, and the view of the lake in front of me gives off a feeling of peace. 

I look up from my book, thinking that maybe I heard something, or saw something.  Instead, I realize that I have a strange feeling, one that I don’t quite comprehend.  It is not until the landscape in front of me turns to shades of gray that I understand what is going on.  The gray scenery is now being interrupted by streaks of black that interrupt my view, then, everything is back.  I am conscious, but I cannot see anything.  I am alone.  Not to worry, this has happened before (although, not when I have been sitting).  Luckily, I am already on a bench and I lean back to lie down.  Within seconds my vision returns.  Whew!  I lay there for a couple of minutes then I sit up; I should have stayed down longer.  I can feel the blood draining from my head, being pulled down into other parts of my body.  Then, the darkness comes back again.  Of course, I lay down again; this time for about 15 minutes.  I sit up again.  I wait.  No weird sensations, no darkened vision.  YAY!  I stand…still good.  I take a short walk across the street and buy a bottle of water and head back to my bench where I sit for another 30 minutes.  Things are looking good.  Success! – well, except for a headache J

I have had this happen to me before, but it has been a long time.  Normally it has occurred when I was in the shower, at the gym, or in the last move of my hot yoga class.  I never thought it would happen when I was just sitting and reading a book, and I didn’t expect it to happen while I was in Thailand.  I decided to call the PC doctor this morning to get it checked out just in case.  We had a good conversation where it was decided that I probably have Orthostatic Hypotension.  This is where for some reason, my blood pressure suddenly drops dramatically and my blood does leave my head and my body attempts to pretty much make me faint so it can fix itself.  Apparently, eye sight is the first thing to go when you have this.  The doc said its nothing too serious, and I just need to make sure that I am sitting up and standing up slowly and to lay down whenever I feel an “episode” coming on.  We are going to check in again in a week just to be sure, but all should be well.  Woo Hoo!!

Other than that, I had a pretty eventful weekend.  My mom was going to take me to a monk ordination on Saturday, but when she found out it was going to be at 3pm instead of noon she decided against it because it would be too hot and sunny.  So, instead, I chilled in my room (with the A/C on) and read a book…ah, to relax…love it.  I have been buying myself a lot of cereal to eat lately.  I love eating my American food in the evening.  Fantastic!  I’m working on looking at the bright side of things again at the moment and I am hoping this is going to be a fabulous week.  Tomorrow, I am going to witness the creation of a wat out of sand…super excited!

Hope all is well for everyone else! Have a fabulous week!