Yesterday I went back to college. Well, in theory. My roommate from UVA, Megan, is up visiting this weekend, and yesterday we went to Kings Dominion for the day. And ... we rode THIS:
The Intimidator 305
That in itself is not the reason for this blog entry. No.
You see . . . I am a Pediatrics RN and Megan is a Vascular ICU RN . . . and we are both:
Dorks.
I give you my case:
Check out this lift hill:
Okay, so you ascend this lift hill (305 feet) in 10 seconds...then you race down the first hill at an 85 degree angle in excess of 90 mph. However, as you go into the first turn at the botton of the first hill, you experience a moment of "blackout." Your eyes see hazy gray spots (like when you stand up too quickly) for a brief second, then your full vision returns for the duration of the ride. We, dorks that we are, spent a great deal of our time in Kings Dominion debating this from a physiological standpoint. Megan even texted one of her surgeon friends to ask her opinion about WHY this happens. She didn't respond--perhaps she had more important things to do? Anyways, here's the possibilities that we discussed (sometimes on the 10 second lift hill.)
a shift in blood pressure
g-forces
vaso vagal response
a change in ICP
inner ear pressure changes
We just aren't sure. If you have any thoughts, leave me a post. Until then:
"RIDE ON obsessive physiology debating dorky RIDE WARRIORS!"
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