Comments on: Please Stand By for a Moment While I Make a Couple Big Life-Affecting Changes

By: Unknown

Unknown — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 07:06:34 +0000

Dear Fat Cyclist -

thank you so much for continuing to provide such a delightfully laughter-provoking (and exercise-inducing) blog. Best of uck w/ the move, new job, etc. And congratulations to your spouse on her collection of negative results!

The paper bag ‘trick’ works (I know of one instance where a large grocery bag was placed over the head of the ‘victim’, and it successfully calmed the victim down.

Everything that follows is surmise, so take it w/ a grain of salt. [No, I didn't look up the answer on the web. The idea of a simple paper bag having such a significant effect really fascinated me. ]

When some people panic, they breathe really fast and hard (fight or flight response kicking in, likely to get those fast-twitch muscles thoroughly primed for a few seconds of wild anaerobic effort). If a person hyperventilates too much, the result is wooziness and sometimes passing out. Covering the head w/ a paper bag or breathing through a paper bag will reduce the concentration of oxygen in the ambient air, so that hyperventilation isn’t such an issue. The body will generally respond by breathing more calmly, and the crisis passes. Of course, having something else to focus on (breathing through a bag or breathing in the dark inside a bag) other than the event that caused a person to panic in the first place, likely helps a lot, too.

Thanks again!

Kafryn (somewhat of a geek, needless to say)

By: TIMOTHY

TIMOTHY — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 23:03:11 +0000

Boz – I gotta admit that I didn’t actually hear the words myself, I read them – maybe they had someone fluent in Mickey Rivers translate….

By: uncadan8

uncadan8 — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 18:49:11 +0000

We’re with you, Fatty. Hope everything works out okay. We’ll be glad to see you back again.
Dan

By: Unknown

Unknown — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 14:36:05 +0000

Taocat – Can anyone really understand Mickey Rivers? Is that what he really said ?

By: BIg Mike In Oz

BIg Mike In Oz — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 12:02:02 +0000

People blow into paper bags so they can pop them, thus relieving their stress by distracting themselves with the action of scaring the hell out of the person they pop it behind.

By: Unknown

Unknown — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 09:30:26 +0000

I have a big ol’ baseball bat here if you’d like a nice bashing on the forehead. EVERYONE wants to hit a celebrity!

By: Unknown

Unknown — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 06:43:44 +0000

I guess you’re considering shutting your blog down too. Errorista, Rocky . . .

Botched

By: Juliet

Juliet — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 05:12:40 +0000

Hang in there fatty!
There’s nothing to fear but fear itself.

By: Unknown

Unknown — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 04:30:50 +0000

Hyperventilating frequently results from panic. Breathing very quickly lowers the amount of carbon dioxide in your blood. HCO3 + H = H20 + Co2. You can see by this chemical equation that lowering the CO2 causes a shift in the bloodstream of the acid/base balance. You begin to get dizzy, lightheaded, numb & tingly all over, and eventually pass out. Breathing into a paper bag causes you to "rebreath" the exhaled CO2 from your last breath, thus slowly increasing the CO2 in your bloodstream back to normal, and alleviating your symptoms, which, in your panicked state you and your family are confusign with a stroke.It is not frequently used anymore, because breathing into a paper bag lowers the level of oxygen that you are breathing, eventually making you hypoxic, which is bad for your brain cells among other things. The best way to treat it is to just stop hyperventilating (breath slowly and deeply). Having a family member who is aware of what is happening help to coach you works well. I didn’t use a search engine for this. I learned this in medical school. GOod luck with yoru decision.

By: TIMOTHY

TIMOTHY — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 03:14:39 +0000

Mickey Rivers (the baseball player) once said:

"Ain’t no sense worrying about things you got control over, ’cause if you got control over them, ain’t no sense worrying. And there ain’t no sense worrying about things you got no control over, ’cause if you got no control over them, ain’t no sense worrying about them."

Remembering that always helps me out – and my wife is an officer in the military, so we have given up control over large portions of our life. Not just a job…it’s an ADVENTURE!