I had a hairy moment at junior high school today. I fainted in the school gymnasium and fell and hit my head on the floor. Actually, I fell from standing position straightforward on my face, though, fortunately my hard head broke my fall and made contact with the floor instead of my nose or mouth, which are thankfully fully intact. Save for an invisible little bump above my eyebrow, I'm fine and feel totally normal. I have slight soreness on the surface of my forehead, but I don’t have any headaches or internal head pain, nor dizziness so I don’t think I have a concussion.
“What happened?” That’s what I asked. I was in the jhs gymnasium watching some students practice traditional Japanese dance in prep for this weekend’s school festival. There were some other teachers present besides myself, including the vice-principal who was on the other side of the gym, maybe about 20-25 yards away. Two women teachers from my elementary school were present and were seated on the hardwood floor just several feet to the left of where I was standing. I had been standing for about 10 minutes just watching the kids practice, when I decided to stretch. I did a big stretch bending my back while reaching backwards, almost as if I were going to do a backbend. I returned upright, accompanied by the light-headed sensation that you get sometimes when you stand on your head or do cartwheels. The next thing I remember was something hard slamming into my head, waking me up from sleep. My eyes were closed, and when I opened them, I then realized I was face down on the basketball court. I heard the voices of the teachers next to me as I started to raise myself off the floor; they were asking me if my head was okay. I attempted to rise, but one of them told me to just sit on the floor and chill out for a second--by that time the vice-principal was kneeling to my right. I regained alertness pretty quickly, I was just confused about why I had fallen. I’m not sure that anyone actuallysaw me fall except the two next to me. I asked one of them where my hands were when I fell; she told me straight at my sides. She was surprised when I asked her that--I didn’t remember anything between finishing stretching and hitting the floor.
The kids and teachers were surprised and concerned. I was surprised too, because that was the first time I fainted in life. The vice-principal was the most worried about my condition. He’d only seen me when I was on the floor. I sat for a few minutes then he followed me to the washroom so I could check myself out. One of my 6th grade students, Yurika, ran over, calling my name, asking if I was okay. After that, the vice-principal and I went to the staffroom and he called my company to let them know what had happened. He suggested that I go to a hospital, but I felt okay enough that it wasn’t necessary. He said if I felt worse the next day he would take me to a hospital. In his own speculations, he was making all sorts of insinuations about my health, including the fact that I don’t eat red meat, that I drink orange juice, and possibly have anemia. Admittedly, I’d gone to bed late the previous night and my body may have been tired, but I stopped eating red meat going on 10 years, so that had nothing to do with it--he was overspecualting a bit. I appreciated his concern, though. I eat pretty well and I'm not in bad shape, so I'm pretty sure the crazy stretch is what initiated the blackout.
On the other hand, I’ve done plenty of stretching and upside-down stuff at capoeira and never had that experience. I'm not sure what happened to me, but Just to be on the safe side, I'll try to catch more z's and protein over the next few days.
My mama and nem always said I was hard-headed--guess it finally paid off!
