you know you have a chronic condition when...

...you know that it is physically possible to lay down on the floor of an airplane lavatory. [side note: obviously not just any airplane lavatory; I got lucky with this one.]

I've talked before about my vasovagal syncope/syndrome, but I haven't really gone into much detail about what it is. Basically, the autonomic response system gets confused in response to certain stimuli, and down I go. Of course, it's not as simple or quick as all that. I can always feel an episode coming on, similar to the "halo" that migraine sufferers get. Usually I'll get hot or lightheaded. Occasionally I'll get tunnel vision or ringing in my ears. I will often shake or have tremors and get nauseous. All of this is to say that this isn't like epilepsy or something; I'm not a danger to others on the road. ;)

Anyway, when I feel the prodrome coming on, I can occasionally halt it without resorting to the never-fails-but-always-causes-a-scene lying down on the ground. Those measures hardly ever work, though. Usually an episode ends with me lying on the ground, wishing i were invisible. It's a good day if I don't vomit. 

In addition to the aforementioned lavatory (which I got to add to the list yesterday on my flight from Indy to Chicago), here's a list of some of the ridiculous places I have had to lay in order to not die pass out:

• My car in a parking lot
• Multiple cars while in motion (I wasn't driving, obviously)
• Any number of public restroom floors (including, but not limited to, Olive Garden, Cooper's Hawk, and Wendy's)
• The bathroom floors of nearly all of my friends and family
• The floor of the bathroom in my office
• The main floor of an LA Fitness (right by the personal trainers' station... Oops?)
• The floor of a NICU
• A sidewalk in Hoboken, NJ
• My driveway
• A pathway at Holiday World

See, this poor kitty had to lay down in his bathroom too!

I'm honestly not sure what compelled me to word-vomit this at you, other than I felt the need to tell people that it is in fact possible to lay down in an airplane lavatory (assuming, of course, you're not very tall and you happen to be on a plane with a larger-than-average loo). And for those of you who have never had the joy of this experience, consider yourselves lucky. There's no telling what sort of horrors I've pressed my face up against simply because I could literally no longer keep myself upright.