Many of us take trigger point injections to deal with the muscle spasms that can accompany fibro. Mine took an interesting turn today when I passed out, mid-injection.

The doc was working on an area behind my right ear with the goal of reducing neck tension and headaches (not all caused by fibro, by the way; as a writer, I spend many, many hours at the computer). In the seconds that passed between the start of the injection and when I regained consciousness, my left hand somehow managed to hit the doctor’s syringe, piercing the webbing between my left thumb and forefinger. (It was ‘through-and-through, from the palm side to the back side of the hand.)

Although only out for a few seconds, I was seeing double, unable to walk and unable to speak for at least 10 minutes. The feeling was surreal and reminiscent of a stroke experienced in 2010.

The medical term for what happened is ‘Bradying down’ (sounds like ‘braiding down’ when said aloud). It’s a fancy way to say one’s heart rate has dropped dramatically.

Trigger point injections have been part of my therapy regime for years but never with a reaction like this. (Please comment – would love to hear stories from everyone, but especially from people who’ve had this happen to them, too.)

It was several hours before the foggy-headedness wore off. As I rested, quite a few questions came to mind: is chiropractic a good alternative to injections? (Many chiros now use an instrument for adjusting; I wonder if that provides the same kind of relief minus the needle?) How does one work as a writer without curling over a computer all day? Are there alternatives – Somatic training, Pilates or alignment practices that will loosen chronic neck tension? (It’s probably an easy ‘yes’ to the last question.) I’ll do the research and report back here.

Update: two doctors have identified what happened to me. It is called vasovagal syncope (vay-zoh-VAY-gul SING-kuh-pee). It’s a fancy way of saying I fainted. It is a response to a trigger, and the triggers can be a wide variety of things: the sight of blood, extreme pain, heat exposure or even standing for too long. Read more at the Mayo Clinic’s site.