bike mechanic school, beginning of week two: shifting, vertigo, and headsets

(This is the second of four posts; you can find the first here, the third here, the fourth here.)

In my last post, I wrote about being in the last bike licensed bike mechanic school in the country, and how much I loved it and what I was learning. Today is Tuesday of the second week; we learned about shifting systems yesterday and this morning...

... and then, as we were going into a break about 10am, I started to see the room spin. Soon thereafter, my legs were weak, and I felt hot; I tried to get outdoors to cool down, but couldn't; I was caught by a couple of classmates as I fell. Two others of my classmates had EMT experience; one pulled out a blood-pressure cuff (from where?) and a diabetic classmate got out some test strips. I sat outside for a bit, and the EMT-experienced guys thought a visit to the ER was in order.

The dean of the school brought me to the ER, while the provost left a message and sent a text to my wife. All this time, I was mostly worried about getting back to class to make up the stuff I'd missed, and hoping I wouldn't have to drop out of class - and if I did have to drop out of class, I hoped my subsequent death would be immediate and painless.

But I cleared up in the ER (mostly), and within three hours, I was seen by the doc (if you have experience with ER's, you know this is unimaginably fast); he ran through some of the possible causes, which range from nothing-in-particular (like dehydration or electrolytes) to oh-my-god-I'm gonna-die-horribly (like brain tumors and cardiac problems). I told him I was an easterner, and he gave me a list of problems to go over with my doc when I got home, and told me it probably was not a rush to deal with this stuff, UNLESS it happens again while I'm here in Oregon. (I've had dizzy spells before, mostly when I was in grammar school; the last about 20 years ago. And I've been eating unusually, sleeping poorly, and generally living like I have no routine, so I suspect those are the real reasons.)

I got back shortly after lunch. I'd only missed a few bits about headsets and steering systems (I know a lot of that stuff) and a too-short discussion of electronic shifting (I'm of mixed feelings about that; I had hoped there would be more... but if there HAD been more, I would have missed that, too).

Except for the lecture, I'm caught up with the school, and I'll be catching up with the text when I finish this post. This day has been too memorable. We're on to suspensions tomorrow, and I, for one, will be grateful for the lack of drama.

And how was your day?