After workout, I went downstairs to do the laundry and make tea. While soaking the laundry, I suddenly felt pain on my lower abdomen, similar to dysmenorrhea. I was thinking, it's prolly my period coming in. I made tea and went to the bathroom. Typical normal but still painful. But hello, I have this every single freagin' month so no biggie. Besides, even if I wanted to take painkillers, I still can't because I haven't eaten anything yet.
Okay, so here's what happened. I sat down and started feeling dizzy, and I was home alone. Malas! Pero again, it wasn't anything bad. I still was able to let our cleaning lady in. Buti na lang. When I sat down, everything kinda went dark and the whole place looked like it was moving. Okay. So this was bad. I called our cleaning lady and told her I was feeling dizzy. When she looked at me, she was like "Ate, namumutla ka!" She's not the type to make me bola or exaggerate so I knew she wasn't saying crap. In fact, I was feeling cold all over and I was sweating buckets. It's the sweat that kept on pouring, in fact it wasn't even the sweat after cardio. It was pouring talaga and I was cold and clammy all over.
"Kuha mo ko ng water dali!" She ran back with water and my tea. I gulped down the water. I knew this was something I couldn't handle anymore myself So I asked her to get my phones on my bed. Kawawa naman she kept running back and forth. Here's when the malas started: We both had no idea to give first aid to dizzy spells. I haven't had this episode since 1998, and I passed out at that time so I had no idea what was the first aid they did to me. At that time, I wished I paid attention to my cell biology and biochem class where they discussed respiration and cellular stuff which I think would benefit my condition. Okay, I did pay attention but my brain couldn't comprehend abstract science.
I immediately decided to call Terry, my doctor friend from college. Ang malas ko naman my Globe had no load, my Smart couldn't connect, and my Sun had no signal. I had to wait till I'm able to stand up (at that point I was squatting with my head down) and walk the stairs. Our cleaning lady told me to eat at least because I might be hungry. So I grabbed a piece of bread and started eating it alternating drinking tea and water.
When I got to my room I immediately plopped on the bed and called Terry. No answer. I called his wife, and she answered and she said he's in QC and gave the number to the landline. I woke Terry up and he asked me what was wrong. I told him what happened to me minutes ago. I told him I have never experienced episodes like that and the last time it happened was a long time ago. I didn't do anything more than usual. I'm used to intense physical activity and I have a very active lifestyle so working out is pretty normal for me. "Yesterday's workout was more cardio pa nga eh." I also told him that it was the first day of my period as well.
Apparently, Terry assessed that I experienced hypoglycemia (lowering of blood sugar). Coupled by my blood drop due to my period, that's why I got all the dizzy spells and all. Terry told me to take iron pills and drink orange juice.
"Pwede tubig?"
"Orange juice! You need sugar!"
Good thing I had orange juice in the ref, which I bought last Saturday since I was craving for orange juice that didn't taste fake. I added brown sugar. If that's not enough sugar, I don't know what that is.
It was really weird that something like that happened to me because I don't see anything in my lifestyle that could trigger a hypoglycemic attack. I'm not diabetic. Everyone who knows me knows how much I eat, that I live on not 3 meals a day but five to six meals a day. I had adobo and rice after that incident plus donuts and juice. I'm very used to exercising and of course, I eat after exercising, especially with yoga or pilates, which needs an empty stomach. Bawal magutom, and all my friends know that. Maybe I was just malas that morning, or probably it was a sign for me not to take my lifestyle for granted, even on days out.
Key points learned:
- Always have load. Wag na magkuripot at ipasabukas ang pagloload. This incident happened early in the morning.
- I need extra jolts of iron during these times of the month. Hence, ferrous sulfate supplements.
- Anorexia is not a good thing. I just want to stress this a lot. Kailangan kumain ng tao. Not eating is not cool. It's unhealthy. Diets are different from starvation. Diets are specialized food plans that can make you lose weight but if you notice, they are planned to fit your lifestyle too. If this could happen to someone who eats six meals a day what more to someone who doesn't eat at all? This incident made me stress the importance of keeping the body nourished.
- Call for help. Malas ko I was at home alone at that time. Good thing the cleaning lady arrived and at least she was able to fetch for my phones so I could call Terry and get me water and food. At that time, I didn't think of orange juice yet but water to combat the dehydration I'm about to get from sweating.
- Have a regular eating schedule. I sometimes tend to push lunch to like 3 pm if I'm working straight. If I can't drop everything to eat, at least I should keep food at hand like crackers, snack cakes like Twinkies or stuff like that.
So that's what I learned this morning. I'm all okay now. In fact, I'm off to work in a bit. But that incident stressed to me the importance of food, which I really appreciate. I love food, I love eating, and I think I'm loving it more. I'm glad I was lucky today that my pockets were saved from hospitalization. I just spent probably on ferrous sulfate and more on food since I'm keeping myself nourished. But all's well now. I'm just enjoying my day.
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