A Feeling of Helplessness

So there I am just ellipticalling away (yes, I just made up a word), when the instructor from the group exercise class comes out of the room with a lady in hand and sits her down at one of the extra desks by the front desk.  She quickly tells the employees what’s going on and heads back to continue teaching her class.  Meanwhile the employees are walking around looking for things (water I assume) and the lady has her head on the desk, with the trash can in convenient location if needed.  Now, I can assume she has low blood sugar causing her to feel extremely light headed and after mixing in some intense exercise, nausea as well.  

Despite the fact that I am a relatively healthy person (or try very hard to be), I am also someone known to be a “fainter.”  While I can only think of two times in which I have fainted (college graduation and a little over a year ago at work), I have had several times where I begin to black out and thank you to water and cool air, I’m able to come back before I get lost in the shuffle and end up on the floor or in someone’s arms being guided lightly to the floor.  The thing is, I don’t really have any medical know-how so when things like this happen (to me or others), I don’t know what to do.  And that makes me feel helpless.  I hate that feeling.

I was trying not to be one of those people staring at the person not feeling well, as I know from experience, that kind of attention is just awful.  And if anyone knew the medical extent to which passing out can lead you, you know the last thing someone wants is to be stared at if some of those more embarrassing side effects happen to occur.  And being the one mid faint, you have NO control over your body.  And I do mean NONE.  So some of the simplest tasks that you control on a daily basis for your body, become out of your control.  

I wasn’t staring as someone trying to figure out what was going on.  I was staring (or rather, kept looking over) as someone concerned and wanting to help.  But do to my lack of medical knowledge, I knew I couldn’t.  I knew I’d be as good as the employees that were standing around.  The best I could do would be to run to a nearby store to pick something up.  Though, I did wonder why an employee ran to get a cup of water instead of buying one from the machine right next to the lady.  But I also know in times of need, we often miss the simple solutions because we’re focused so much on the task at hand.  Either way, I wanted to help.  But I had no services to offer.  I manage bands.  I am great at administrative tasks.  I have a creative mind.  I work out a lot.  I know hardly anything about the medical field.  Fail. 

I wish that I could learn some of this stuff but quite honestly, I’m not that big into reading (unless it’s a story that grasps my attention and even then I struggle finishing books, even if I really want to!) and I’m not someone who learns by reading, I learn by doing and repeating said action.  Clearly, I don’t think I would serve well as a medical source of knowledge.  Ever.  It’s probably better I leave those tasks to others, like my cousin Drew who is currently in med school.  

I guess I’ll just have to deal with the helplessness as it occurs.  And if there’s something I can do, you better know I’ll jump on it and be there.  Otherwise, I’ll just keep looking over from my elliptical wishing there was something I could do.