Hyperventilation

It was a long week last week. I had the stomach bug for all week, and husband left town with the High School Robotics club for a competition in New Hampshire last Thursday through Saturday.

Thursday night I woke in the middle of the night feeling really disoriented, dialed my sister in Oregon, who told me I was freaking her out and to call 911, and she'd call my parents across the river to come over to watch the kids.

I wasn't scared, but I was nervous and by the time the paramedics came my hands and feet were numb, and my body was tingling. Did I go to the hospital? No, I was hyperventilating - breathing rapidly -  and just needed to breath slowly.

{these hands and feet are VERY numb!}

I'm writing this post in case you come across someone who's hyperventilating and hands and feet are feeling funny.  The paramedics had me hold my breath for a second and then breath slowly in and out counting to five in my head for each cycle.

I had to Google hyperventilation afterward and the numbness I felt was not not from a lack of oxygen (what you might think!), but from a lack of carbon dioxide in my blood.

from wikipedia: "Counterintuitively, such effects are not precipitated by the sufferer's lack of oxygen or air. Rather, the hyperventilation itself reduces the carbon dioxide concentration of the blood to below its normal level because one is expiring more carbon dioxide than being produced in the body, thereby raising the blood's pH value (making it more alkaline), initiating constriction of the blood vessels which supply the brain, and preventing the transport of oxygen and other molecules necessary for the function of the nervous system.^[2]"

I had hyperventilated once before in my life, and it was so different then what I felt that Thursday night that I didn't recognize it. I was a teenager and had just joined my high school track team, and the team was running sprint triages in the parking lot. I was completely out of shape and all of a sudden I was just gulping and wheezing rapidly. It felt like I couldn't get any air into my lungs. Back to wikipedia, this is what I think happened then:

"Hyperventilation can also occur when someone exercises over their VO₂ max, when they're unable to transform oxygen into energy beyond a certain level but hyperventilates in an effort to do so."

Ugh. I so admire people who know medical stuff, which is not me! I am feeling great today and getting to the huge pile of to-do stuff that has backed up all week. Ugh again!

Loretta