It happened again. For the second time in three visits to the eye doctor, I passed out. Just as before, it was just after I had received eye drops. The first time, I thought it was from the "numbing" eye drops, but this time it appeared to be caused by the "pupil dilation" eye drops.
The first time I ever passed-out (or fainted, but "passing out" sounds more masculine) at the eye doctor's was when I was living in Delaware. I got my drops, and then started feeling queasy. It slowly built over the course of a minute or so, when the doctor suggested I get up to get a breath of fresh air outside.
I didn't make it. I regained conciousness in the hallway of the opthamologist's office while the doctor was giving me smelling salts. I quickly recovered and had no apparent ill effects from the episode.
I talked about the experience with friends, and someone suggested it was probably hysterical syncope, which is fainting brought on by severe emotional distress. This can happen to people when they see blood, for instance.
This did not sound right to me. Although I don't like getting eye drops too much, I never fretted about it. If I was stressing out about it, it seems like it would be leading up to the eye drops, and not immediately afterwards. And the stress must have been mostly subconcious, since I don't knowingly dread the eye doctor or his drops.
So yesterday, I was back at the eye doctor (a different one) for my routine checkup. Just before he applied the eye drops, I warned him about my previous fainting problem. He didn't seem too concerned. After the numbing drops, I felt fine! Actually, I was a little nervous about the drops since I had fainted before, but I was also very relieved when he measured my ocular pressure ("19" and "20" for my two eyes, whatever that means) after getting the drops and did not have any bad side effects!
So next were the pupil dilating drops. The doctor gave them to me and promptly left the room, saying it would be about 10 minutes for the drops to take full affect. His nurse/assistant was still there, thankfully, because very shortly I started feeling queasy. The feeling intensified rapdily, and I could hear myself starting to slur my words when the nurse asked me questions.
I let out a quiet "Oh, my!", which is when I think I lost conciousness. The next thing I remember is still being in the chair, but now it is fully reclined. The doctor is hovering over me applying smelling salts (that stuff really works!), and my left leg is shaking, dangling off of the chair. Immediately upon regaining conciousness, my whole body is covered in sweat. I asked how long I was out, and the nurse said "I don't think you were". If I wasn't, I sure have a gap in my memory. It seemed like it was probably about 1-2 minutes.
So now I'm very confident this is a physical, pharmocological effect, and not just my hysteria getting the better of me. This second time seemed to have a decidedly rapid onset. Of course there is no way for me to tell if I was out longer this second time.
Some quick web searches revealed that fainting can be a rare side effect from these types of medications. I'll check with my regular doctor to see if there may be some medicinal allergy I can be tested for.
Posted by Rob Reid at October 10, 2003 01:10 PM