Swoon

This morning, in the middle of our monthly staff meeting, I did something that I haven't done for years; something I've almost only ever done as a result of either too much alcohol or eating seafood and drinking alcohol at the same time - I fainted.

I could feel it coming, that extreme light-headedness followed by the urgent desire to close my eyes and put my head down on something soft, so I did what I usually do when this happens - I left the meeting room, went to the women's toilet and sat there until the feeling went away.

Trouble was, fairly soon after I sat down again at the meeting, that horrible feeling came back - only this time stronger and quicker; I didn't have time to get to the ladies' without risking falling flat on my face along the way. So I desperately tried to keep my eyes open, while the cold sweat gathered on my forehead, and propped my head up in my hands.

Next thing I knew, everyone (including the new communications officer whom I'd just met half and hour before) was staring at me. My boss was wiping my brow with tissues which I'd brought with me to wipe my cold virus-laden nose with and the admin officer was supporting me on my other side. I must have gone as white as a redhead with an SPF 50 habit, because after a while I heard someone say that my colour had come back. I joked that this hadn't happened since the last time I got really really drunk. My boss murmured that this apparently sometimes happens to pregnant women. I wondered if the yoghurt I'd had with my cereal this morning was past it's use-by date after all.

I made some noises about excusing myself to go sit on the toilet for a while, and then I'd be okay, but one of my workmates had already gone to her desk to ring up the boy. Shortly afterwards the boy came by in his shining armour (a Toyota Camry), brought me home and tucked me up on the sofa with the telly and the heater on.

I suppose it was a bit of excitement for the day, for the folks at work. Perhaps one of them will go home tonight and blog about it (or not). For me, it was a little scary because I'd thought I'd worked out how to avoid blacking out in public - don't drink lots of booze, don't mix booze with seafood and try not to eat my own cooking - but now I'd discovered another variable, one which I could't pin down.

Several hours later, I finally got hold of the mid-wife. Although my having a cold could have had something to do with it, normally this sort of thing would only happen if I'd been sitting or standing still for a long time (which I hadn't), leading to my diluted blood pooling a long way from my brain, or if I was anaemic (which I'm not). In other words, she didn't have an answer except that sometimes this happens when you're pregnant.