I fainted at the top of a steep hill on my ride today!

[phil_hg_uk]

Take care of yourself @ColinJ I remember the last time you were determined to ride up a big hill (otley chevin) fortunately the road works stopped you.

 

[Buck]

Blooming eck @ColinJ

Glad you are OK - reading your first post I was worried what the ending was going to be. Glad it was "only" a fainting episode.

That hill is the one we came down last year on the ride I did with you as I remember the junction at the bottom - it was bad enough coming down let alone going up!

Take it steady and recover well

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Fingers crossed it was just a faint, sounds like you have experience of them and the t-shirt of tests already. Take it steady and wait for the sunshine

 

[HLaB]

 

[ColinJ]

I think I might have an easy spin on my gym bike tomorrow morning and see what happens. If that is ok, I'll turn the resistance up a bit and carry on. If that is ok too, then I will venture out on the road and get a few miles in.

Assuming all of that doesn't reveal any problems, then I need to do a couple of harder rides to see if I am going to be able to do the long Humber forum ride from York on Saturday. And I'll need that Humber ride to reassure me that I am going to be able to do my own forum ride in the Yorkshire Dales the following Saturday. That is over 4 extremely demanding climbs which are much harder than the Heptonstall Rd climb so I need to be confident that this fainting malarkey was a one-off.

 

[Littgull]

I've been away for a few days and was alarmed when I read @ColinJ post headline and account. Thank goodness you are ok Colin and that there were pals at hand in the cafe at Heptonstall.

Please take great care, Colin. There are years of quality cycling left in you yet and we will enjoy many more of your superb forum rides. The sheer volume of friends posting their good wishes and relief that you are ok must tell you how concerned everybody is who know you.

Seems a wise strategy you have outlined above over the coming week, but make sure you withdraw if you feel the slightest bit uneasy.

I really wish I could make the Settle/Yorkshire Dales ride in early July so I could get you and your bike there by car but as you know the summer months for me are chocka block with family and other commitments. I don't tghink you should risk putting too much physical demands on yourself by riding part way to the start and then doing a very challenging ride.

Take care.

 

[ColinJ]

I've been away for a few days and was alarmed when I read @ColinJ post headline and account. Thank goodness you are ok Colin and that there were pals at hand in the cafe at Heptonstall.

Please take great care, Colin. There are years of quality cycling left in you yet and we will enjoy many more of your superb forum rides. The sheer volume of friends posting their good wishes and relief that you are ok must tell you how concerned everybody is who know you.

Seems a wise strategy you have outlined above over the coming week, but make sure you withdraw if you feel the slightest bit uneasy.

I really wish I could make the Settle/Yorkshire Dales ride in early July so I could get you and your bike there by car but as you know the summer months for me are chocka block with family and other commitments. I don't tghink you should risk putting too much physical demands on yourself by riding part way to the start and then doing a very challenging ride.

Take care.

Thanks, Brian.

I had been feeling stronger on the bike since our long ride in Cheshire a couple of weeks ago so this setback came as a bit of a shock. I didn't feel bad doing most of the climb but when I hit the short stretch of cobbles before the cafe, I suddenly ran out of steam and faltered.

TBH, I'm not sure what the problem was. Hopefully, it won't happen again. I will certainly try to avoid triggering further problems, but I don't want to sit in the house all summer and rest myself to death!

I will feel happier about coming forum rides once I have done a couple of uneventful local rides, and especially once I have got up some climbs without medical assistance being required!

 

[Wobblers]

Thanks, Brian.

I had been feeling stronger on the bike since our long ride in Cheshire a couple of weeks ago so this setback came as a bit of a shock. I didn't feel bad doing most of the climb but when I hit the short stretch of cobbles before the cafe, I suddenly ran out of steam and faltered.

TBH, I'm not sure what the problem was. Hopefully, it won't happen again. I will certainly try to avoid triggering further problems, but I don't want to sit in the house all summer and rest myself to death!

I will feel happier about coming forum rides once I have done a couple of uneventful local rides, and especially once I have got up some climbs without medical assistance being required!

It sounds like a rather extreme episode of postural hypotension - leaping off your bike the way you say means all the blood would have rushed to your feet rather than your head where it's needed! @CarlP's quite right: if you start to feel dizzy, the first thing you need to do is get your head low - between your knees ideally. I get the occasional dizzy spell on standing up and this always works for me. It's still doubtless worth talking to your doctor or consultant about it.

Doubtless you'll be fine - just remember to make a more decorous entrance in the future! Anyway, glad to read that it wasn't anything worse (and that you're already contemplating re-tackling that hill!)

 

[ColinJ]

It sounds like a rather extreme episode of postural hypotension - leaping off your bike the way you say means all the blood would have rushed to your feet rather than your head where it's needed! @CarlP's quite right: if you start to feel dizzy, the first thing you need to do is get your head low - between your knees ideally. I get the occasional dizzy spell on standing up and this always works for me. It's still doubtless worth talking to your doctor or consultant about it.

Doubtless you'll be fine - just remember to make a more decorous entrance in the future! Anyway, glad to read that it wasn't anything worse (and that you're already contemplating re-tackling that hill!)

That's what I initially thought, but now I am beginning to suspect mild concussion ... I had forgotten that I whacked my head quite hard on Thursday afternoon, 21 hours before my faint!

That's why I am delaying getting back on my bike - I want to make sure that I am ok before risking it, and the first ride will be an easy one.

 

[raleighnut]

Just a thought but could you have been a touch dehydrated.

 

[ColinJ]

[QUOTE 4331414, member: 9609"]were you wearing helmet, you've been told of the benefits [/QUOTE]
Ha ha - It was in the kitchen of a property that I was helping my sister to get ready before new tenants moved in. I had just manoeuvred a heavy washing machine under a worktop in the corner of the room and then stood up, forgetting that we'd had a cupboard moved to just above where I had been bending. The corner of it dug into the top of my head with a mighty 'thud' which made my sister wince! The wound bled for quite a while, no doubt due to my warfarin-'thinned' blood.

The first thing that I thought was to start a "Best helmet for headbutting kitchen cupboards?" thread!

 

[ColinJ]

Just a thought but could you have been a touch dehydrated.

Thanks, but no - I had only ridden 4 miles and I had plenty to drink before I set off.

 

[fossyant]

Have you seen a GP yet for a check over ?

 

[ColinJ]

Have you seen a GP yet for a check over ?

Nope - If my symptoms were getting worse (or staying the same) then I would go to the doctor but there isn't much that they could do at this point other than send me for a brain scan. I don't know if they would suggest that, but I don't want to have one if I can help it. I am fairly sure that I already have brain damage from past traumas but I don't want a scan to reveal the extent of any damage. I find it hard enough to be optimistic about my future without somebody confirming that there is something serious wrong with my brain, which will inevitably get worse, and that they can't fix! I would rather cling to the vague hope that I am going to be ok, and struggle on. (There may be little chance of winning the lottery, but there is SOME chance - if there was NO chance, nobody would buy a ticket!)

I'm doing everything that is on the NHS concussion checklist - no alcohol/drugs, resting, trying to avoid further impacts, watching out for any signs of problems (loss of memory, slurring speech, balance problems etc.) and so on.

If I were going to seek medical help, then really I should have gone soon after the head injury in case anything sinister developed in the first few hours. (Ok, yes - or after I fainted, but I had overlooked the possible concussion! ).

I am 4 days on now and feeling better with each day that passes. I felt like I had a bad hangover on Saturday, a moderate one on Sunday, a mild one yesterday, and today I feel just a little below par, probably partly because I have been slobbering around since Friday and need some exercise.

I fancy going out on my bike today, but I am going to leave it at least another day, to be on the safe side.

So, I suppose that I was foolish not to go to the hospital on Friday but I seem to have got away with it.

 

[ColinJ]

One of the friends who was with me up at the cafe at the top of the steep hill when I collapsed on Friday rang me up this morning to ask how I was. I said that I was feeling much better, though still just a bit dazed. I hadn't been on the bike since the Friday incident but was hoping to do a short ride today to see how I was on the bike. She then asked me if I fancied meeting her at the same hilltop cafe ...

I pointed out that it wasn't the best idea she'd ever had!

I met her at the cafe in the park in Hebden Bridge instead, an almost flat 5 mile ride each way along the valley from here. I'm pleased to report that I felt good on the bike. I took it easy on the way there, whizzing along with a tailwind. Since that went well, I made a bit more of an effort coming back into the wind and almost managed the same speed.

I feel better now than I did before I went out. I needed some fresh air after spending 4 days mostly cooped up in the house.

I'll try doing a moderately hilly 20-30 mile ride tomorrow. That will give me a better idea of how I would cope with the long York-Humber forum ride on Saturday. I did the equivalent of about 10% of that today.