STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

I've fainted twice. The first time I was traveling and it was my second day in Paris (France) and I was exhausted and not use to the time change and I was in the bathroom and suddenly felt neauseated and then everything in front of me turned green and the next thing I knew I woke up on the floor. I went to bed, and then a few hours later I woke up and felt much better (except for my butt, which I think got the brunt of the fall). The second time I fainted (many years later) I was in the subway and some jackhole had pulled the emergency break and I was standing in a hot, crowded car for about 20 minutes. I think the blood just pooled in my feet or something and the next thing I knew I was looking up into the faces of my fellow commuters. It was very disorienting. But, I was fine. I got up, and got a big container of OJ before work and everything was ok. I think your BF will be fine, but obviously get it checked out if he blacks out again within the next couple of days. HTH

I'm apparenty what doctors call a "fainter". I've fainted a few times badly in my life since I was in my teens and now I do every now and then but I can usually tell it's going to happen now (faintheaded, get spots in front of my eyes, weakness) and I immediately sit or lie down if possible and try to get my head as low as I can. I'm sorry to hear about your bf - I also know it's scary and a bit embarrassing. If he's never felt this way before and he wasn't particularly dehydrated, hot, standing still for a long time or in pain (those are the common triggers I have been told) I really think he should get checked out.  I ended up seeing a cardiologist just to run a routine EKG and make sure everything was fine and they also had me wear a blood pressure monitor for 24 hours which was a bit inconvenient but painless and it helped give me peace of mind.
HTH and hope your bf feels better soon!

I actually just had this happen to me at the beginning of the month. I was very dizzy, light-headed, saw spots and boom, fainted. I ended up going to my doctor, and then to the ER. They ruled it heat exhaustion, stress, and being overworked. Then a week later I found out I had mono, but they don't know if that contributed.

I'm glad to hear he's going to the doctor. Mine said it could just be nothing, or it could be a whole mess of things. So better safe than sorry. Keep us updated, and I hope everything is fine!!!!

Another thing it could be is low blood sugar.  Sometimes this happens to my dad and I when we overwork ourselves or haven't eaten in a while.  We get really dizzy and light headed.  What really helps is getting some good sugars into our bodies right away.  We usually eat a couple crackers with peanut butter and honey on them, for some reason it works every time.  Hope he feels better!

It's good to know he's having tests and hopefully they can work out whats going on. I know EKGs can sometimes show something like that but not really give an answer as to why. That's interesting about the low blood sugar thing - I was never really told about it but I notice whenever I feel like I am going to faint- straight afterwards I really crave sugar. Hope he's feeling okay and let us know how it goes.

I hope everything turns out okay and you find out what's going on! My sister faints occasionally due to her anemia. Hopefully it's just something like that.

Fainting is so scary - it's happened a few times to me, too.  Once from exhaustion/dehydration, once when I was sick and feverish/weak, and a few times from low blood sugar.

Kenzie, I hope your BF gains some insight from his doctors!  It's really quite rare for men to be anemic, especially if they eat meat/dark veggies/vitamins on even a semi-regular basis.  If the rest of their test come back normal, they may want to take the blood sugar theory farther and take fasting levels and 'sugar challenge' levels to see if everything checks out there.  It could be something as simple as an electrolyte imbalance - frequently due to extended low-level dehydration, or losing a lot of fluid (sweating, vomiting).  I went to the ER when I fainted due to what turned out to be dehydration - I truly didn't feel dehydrated at all, but the two bags of fluids they gave me fixed my caboose.

His body may also be trying to fight off some sort of infection, and is doing a reasonable enough job at it that he's not terribly symtomatic until he tries to overdo it.  Time will tell I suppose - keep us updated!