Why am I passing out?

I ended up starting with the bank on April 19th, 2021. I was 3.5 months pregnant at this point. On the first day of work, I was being shown around and introduced to all their employees. The tour was almost over and suddenly, I did not feel well. I was cold, and sick to my stomach. There just happened to be a chair in the room we were in at the time, so I quickly sat down. Next thing I know I was opening my eyes to people standing over me, a blanket wrapped around me, and the EMTs asking me questions.

What happened? You guessed it. I had passed out again on the FIRST DAY of work. This time however, I not only passed out, but I also had a seizure. I gave all my coworkers a scare, and now have a very memorable first day that everyone remembers!

As I was getting a ride in the ambulance to the hospital after this episode, I threw up twice. My husband was on his way to the hospital as well and would meet me there.

When I arrived in the hospital they did some labs, an EKG, and they did a sonogram again to assure baby was doing okay and showing no signs of being stressed. Like last time, they told me all labs came back as normal and that baby was doing well. We then asked them why these episodes kept occurring if nothing was off with the labs. The doctors told us that this is very common among pregnancies and that some people experience it more than others and that it was nothing to be concerned about at this point. They told me to follow up with my OB.

If this was so common, why have we not been told that this is a symptom of pregnancy? I did some research on my own after being released from the ER that day and sure enough in the first trimester of pregnancies passing out and feeling nauseated are common. It has to do with the change of hormone levels which can lead to blood pressure drops, overheating and low blood sugar. Knowing this, I decided not to worry about it too much and just start snacking more on protein-based foods like eggs, almonds, nuts, those types of healthy snacks.

 Well, this “symptom” never went away for me. This is what made the pregnancy so rough for me on top of all the sickness I was experiencing. I ended up having another bad pass out episode on Memorial Day weekend.

My collage roommate, her boyfriend, my husband, and myself all decided to take a trip to Three Forks, Oklahoma that weekend. We were all packed up and ready to spend the day doing a river float trip. The men were in the front seats and my friend and I were in the back seats. All was great, we were laughing, having a good time when suddenly, I felt it. I knew I was going to pass out. I grabbed Codys shoulder and told him what was going to happen. Before they could even get the car parked, I passed out, right onto my friend’s lap. This time I was out for a few minutes, and I actually stopped breathing. I woke up to my husband calling my name and slapping my thighs LOL. I walked around the car for a little bit once I was fully aware of what was going on. I felt amazing within minutes, so we started back on our journey……. just to have me roll down the window two minutes later and throw up all over the side of our friends car! After that I was fine and we ended up having a great day on the river but I definitely gave them a scare.

To make a long story short these pass out episodes kept happening and happened more so than what we were comfortable with. Labs always came back normal, tests always came back normal, the doctors could never point to one specific thing that was causing this. My OB never prescribed me any supplements or seemed worried about it, even when we wanted to know more answers about why these were occurring.

I ended up back in the ER after another episode at work when I was 8 months pregnant. This time we saw a doctor we had not seen before in the ER. He ran the same labs as usual and when he came and told us all labs looked good my husband got mad at this point because it was stressing him out that we could not figure out what was causing these episodes. He asked the doctor if anything was slightly off or on the lower side of normal. The doctor finally told us that my iron level was just slightly low.

At my next OB appointment, they tested my iron and it was at a 7.2. My OB was still not concerned at this point, and I was just so ignorant, I guess, that I just listened to her and since my due date was so close I was just at the point of being over it.

I want to tell you that your iron level should NOT be that low when pregnant. I will explain what was done differently in my next pregnancy under the “Twins” section but if your iron level is this low do not just take the slow-release iron. Ask your OB to prescribe you a higher iron supplement and maybe even see if iron infusions could be done. All these passing out episodes that I was having could have most likely been fixed if someone would have just told me that my iron was low! I wish I would have known more about how fast iron levels can decrease when you’re pregnant and taken into consideration that a higher dosage iron supplement was needed sooner on in my pregnancy.

Never settle, if you think something is wrong or if you are unhappy with the results you are getting, stand up for yourself and get to the bottom of what is causing you issues. As first-time moms being pregnant we don’t know what to ask and when, but always ask questions to your OB and doctors, even if they sounds like silly questions.