Waking up on a hospital floor. Cold, nurses everywhere, and being unaware of what's going on.  My mom by my head yelling for help with no one in sight. I can hear everything that is going on, I can visualize everything around me but have no control over my body; almost as if in a dream that you can not wake up from no matter how hard you try. My grandma was in the hospital from having a stroke. She was getting discharged as the nurses were taking out all of her IV’s I looked away, as I started to feel sick. I knew everything was okay, I have even had IV’s taken out of myself. I told my mom I needed to use the restroom, but told her to come with me because I knew something wasn't right. I got to the restroom down the hall and felt very nauseous, and started to sweat but I was physically cold. I ran some water on my face thinking that may help, but nothing was working. I went out to the restroom and took a step towards my mom. She wasn't no further than 3 more steps away and a collapsed backwards onto the cold, hard hospital tile floor. My eyes stay wide open but I can not see a thing. My mom ran over to my head and sat it in her lap as she frantically yelled “Help! Someone come help my daughter!” No nurses in sight.

What seemed like forever, two nurses came into the hallway and propped my feet up to above shoulder level. The blood started pumping normally throughout my body again and my blood pressure slowly started to rise back up. I slowly came to my senses, like waking up from a deep sleep. When I woke up there were approximately five people surrounded me telling me that I have passed out, but I was already aware. The nurses told my mom to make an appointment with my family doctor for further inspection.

The following week was my appointment with my family doctor. They took me into a room and hooked me up to many tubes. The first test they did was an EKG test. An EKG is an electrocardiogram. They hook stickers up to your chest and look at the heart's electrical activity, to check for a heart problem.  After laying, standing, and sitting in different positions for 5 minutes the test came back normal. The pediatrician called the nurse into the hallway for a “meeting.” I looked at my mom very confused on what they were talking about. A few minutes passed and a different doctor came in and talked about my nutrition. My nutrition is normal and I am healthy for my height and weight.

Finally my blood pressure came into play. I have abnormally low blood pressure. Sometimes when I stand too fast, my blood pressure drops too fast, when I feel the pain of something someone else is describing or feeling, or when I am over stressed I pass out at any given moment. There is never any warning, never any signs, nothing. It is very scary. Whenever i come to a situation that I feel like could trigger my vasovagal, I have to warn whoever I am with which sometimes can be very awkward to explain. When I pass out, whoever is with me, if anybody has to put my feet above head level until I become conscious again. It can take seconds, to minutes. I am sure that it scares everyone around me.

Having dealt with vasovagal with so long, I have learned to cope with it. Carrying such a scary burden on my shoulders, I have learned how to overcome my dears, and strengthen myself as a person. THis is not something I can fix, this is not something that I can stop. Vasovagal has control over me at times, but that is when I have learned to overcome it.