Epilogue: My Fainting Experiences

      I can find no rational explanation for why I suddenly “pull the plug” and pass out in those kind of situations when I fainted.  When I was a baby, one of my front baby teeth started to turn black.  The dentist said it should be pulled, and so the appointment was made.

            I was too young to remember any of this, but my parents told me that when the dentist began to pull the tooth, he had a really difficult time getting it out.  It turned out that that tooth was joined at the root to the tooth that was beside it.  I think it was a very traumatic experience for my very young self.  I often wonder if that bad experience in a medical setting when I was a baby had some kind of lingering effect on my subconscious.  

            In more recent times, I did have one experience that should have brought on a fainting spell, but didn’t.  It happened in 2021 when I was up on our waterline intake on Sunbeam Falls.  The creek running over the falls was running hard after a hard rain, and as I worked with a neighbor to clear debris off of our culvert, a rock came shooting down from the falls above, hitting and mangling the ring finger of my left hand.

            I had to lay on the ground for a long period of time, while my neighbor hiked down the slope to call an ambulance.  As I waited, I did remember to position myself so that my legs were above my head.  Maybe being in that position kept me from fainting.  

            I did loose my finger as the result of that accident, but I spent most of the time in those hours before the operation on my back on a hospital gurney or in the ambulance taking me up to Prince George for the amputation.  At any rate, I didn’t pass out during that whole ordeal.

    All this fainting really hasn’t done me any lasting harm.  The worst part of those reoccurring ordeals is the blow it does to my ego.  It’s so embarrassing for a seemingly big strong healthy masculine guy like myself, to be floored by an event as non-threatening as a chest X-ray.  Of course, the sight of a glowing paperclip sizzling through your toenail maybe more understandable.  At any rate, it’s a flaw that is lurking somewhere deep inside of me and I have come to accept the fact and try to warn doctors and dentists when I find myself in a situation where it might show itself.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca