The Desert Mermaid

I have a very overactive shock reflex. The first time it hit me was in 8th or 9th grade, I had been in study hall and was reading a Reader's Digest magazine where they were describing a brain surgery. I was like you, doing perfectly fine and not feeling a bit squeamish when suddenly the tunnel vision began. The tunnel got longer and longer, and about that time the bell for the next class rang. When I got up the tunnel became almost infinitely long, as I was going to my next class I couldn't see anything and was stumbling down the hall bumping into people. I never went completely out (I have no idea how I managed not to) and luckily my next class was air conditioned so I was able to sit and recover. Next time it happened was about 15 years ago, I was reading a magazine on an airplane and the story was about one of the Indy car racers who had suffered severe leg injuries. The photograph of the x-ray with all the hardware did it for me, I passed right out in my airplane seat. I was still a bit shaky when I got to my layover, I ate a pizza slice and felt some better. The weird thing is that as a kid I helped a family friend who was a vetinarian and I have assisted vetinary surgery (see my own list where I stole this meme) and I never felt weak at all. Go figure...