Pokegeek151 asks us: "What does it feel like to bungee jump?"

I did a bit of searching around, and I found a website with a few responses to that question. Here's the link to the website, and a quote of the most interesting response I found.
-Anna

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Eric Sullano, Talent Engineer

Your heart pumps rapidly, your hands shake.
You're wearing this weird strappy harness thing, you feel it snug on your hips and over your shoulders.  There's a dangling hook thing that flaps around while you wait. 

You watch the crew prepares for our group.  They're working with deliberate speed, running through each safety check as their jumper looks to them with their life.  For the crew it's just another group jumper but they're voice is gentle and reassuring. 

Somehow you're first in your group to jump.  A pioneer of sorts.  Hahaha. Lucky you.  The crew member calls you up.  Yanks on your harness on a few places, makes a few small adjustments and checks your hands.  Your weight and jump number is marked on your hand in bright green.  That number will help you find the video/photos of your jump in the gift shop later; if you survive.  

Your heart pumps rapidly.  The adrenaline is flowing.

The crew member seats you in chair reminds you of one of those chairs they use to deliver babies.  Legs up.  A rebirth?  

You wonder will your wife be okay without me?  

The crew member starts strapping all sorts of things to your feet.  You sit there 3 feet from the ledge from where you're about to jump 134 meters to meet your death or your complete elation.  You stare around looking at all the unfamiliar equipment, harnesses, carabiners, cables, wires, winches, and bungee.  You notice the bungee is about 2.5 inch diameter of bundled rubber bands.  My life is in that rubber band you think.  The only thing that's gonna bring you back alive. Meanwhile the two-man crew is talking a back and forth to each other.  One at my chair, the other manning the bungee.  I'm not quite sure what he's doing.  He hollers out to the other crew member, pointing to the red marker notes on my right hand.  What is that he sais? They seem to be a bit confused.  The other takes a look and sais "don't worry" it's just a different color. 

Is this a ploy to make their jumpers even more anxious? Not sure.  You decide to trust them.  Do you have a choice?

You smile and look over at my wife, who's playing photographer.  She's not jumping. 

The crew member asks me to stand up from my chair.  And you almost fall over backwards off the ledge as the chair is wobbly.  A shot of adrenaline pumps through your veins; as if you needed more.

You stand up.

Your feet are bound together so you waddle over towards the ledge.  It's a 1 foot by 1 foot little metal square ledge that extends from the platform.  There's a piece of grip tape on the edge, the kind that you used to use on your skate board when you were a kid.  A piece of the grip tape is peeling up.  Wear and tear from hundreds and thousands have come through here and survived. You're suspended 134 meters (440 feet) above a little creek between this huge gorge.  Not nearly enough water to dive into.  Must be 3 feet deep.  

You're standing at the ledge.

This is happening. 

The crew member is holding your harness at my back.  Neither pushing me nor pulling me back. But you know he's there.  

He tells you to look up at the camera and smile.  What camera?!  There're camera's here? You would have tried to look more brave if you knew there were "hidden" cameras!  

You smile and try to look brave.  Flash! (that's one for Instagram you think to yourself)

He tells you he's going to count down from three.

You tell him you just want a second to take it all in.

Heart is pumping incessantly. 

You take a breath. 

Never do you think of turning back. It's not an option.  

You stand there taking it all in.  You look down and get dizzy. 

This is happening. 

This is happening. 

This is happening.

You look out to the distant mountain peak.  

You bend my knees, arms out.

You jump.

You lose connection with everything that is solid, secure, and familiar.

You are falling.

You look down.  

The wind is ripping through my hair.

You feel free.

All the anxiety, fear, nervousness, disappears in an instant. 

You let go.  You are falling.  You are completely inverted.  Head down, feet up.

You see the ground below.  It's coming at you and it's coming FAST. 

There's a bit of roller coaster feeling in your stomach but funny enough it's not as bad as a roller coaster. 

You've been falling for a few seconds.  

Where's the bungee? you think.

Then you feel the bungee starting to pull at your feet.  

It's a gentle pull at your legs and hips that slows you as you speed towards the ground. 

The blood rushes to your head.

You come to a stop and then almost at once you're moving away from the ground. 

Blood still rushing to your head. 

You get to the top and then you're falling again.

You look down and there's your old friend that is the ground coming at you. 

You feel another pull on your legs and hips but not as strong.  

At the top you're still upside down.  You yank on the strappy thing as the crew member instructed you to release your feet so you can sit upright for the ride back up to the platform.  It takes a few quick jerks of your arm but it releases.

You did it you think to yourself while you're suspended over 100 feet off the ground.  And you remember that it's only this rubber band bungee that's holding you up.  You remember you are afraid of heights.  But somehow your fear is masked by this feeling of complete elation.   You look down.  You look up.  You look all around and yell out "WHOOOOOOO HOOOOOO!"


A little red connector thing is coming down along side your bungee as you look up.

You are bounding ever so gently on your bungee as you sit there in your harness and recount what you've just done. 

The little red connector snaps into your harness and starts pulling you up. 

What? It's over?

You've got a huge-ass smile on your face. 

The ride up takes about 60 seconds.  You take it all in.  

When you get to the top you're spinning a bit.  The blood rushes to your feet as you realize that you're off of the ledge and not on solid ground.  Your fear of heights comes back to you. 

Ear to ear grin.  You look for your wife.  Your hands are shaking.  The adrenaline is still with you. 

Crew member grabs your bungee and pulls you to the deck.  You reach out to the deck with you feet.  More blood runs to your feet. 

You make contact with solid ground. 

You're back on deck. 

You celebrate with your wife. 

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My first and only bungee jump to-date was in New Zealand with the AJ Hackett company off of the Nevis (Queenstown Activities - The Nevis).  I've sky-dived before and I have to say that bungee jumping was scarier (or maybe I'm just older).
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Hopefully, this answers your question. :)
-Anna

What Medicines Are Prescribed For Nausea?

Zofran
Zofran(Ondansetron) is used very commonly when suffering from nausea associated with anesthesia, or even pregnancy(morning sickness). It is an incredibly safe drug, with very few side effects, but can cause constipation. It can be given either through injection, or as a dissolvable tablet. Both work incredibly fast. The normal dosage is 4mg 3 times daily as needed, but can be taken as 8mg if too sick.

Phenergan
Phenergan(Promethazine) Prevents and controls motion sickness, nausea, vomiting, and dizziness. Also used to relieve or prevent allergic reactions, helps people go to sleep, and control their pain or anxiety before or after surgery or other procedures. This drug can be given by injection, by mouth, or rectally. This drug is known to make one incredibly sleepy, so it is advised to never take it when you plan on driving somewhere.

There obviously are more than these, and I will add them as I find information on them.

Living with Autism

Living with Autism
by
Diana Shelton

I don’t know how to type this out, but think I’ll start by telling a little about myself. I was diagnosed at a young age and had speech therapy and special education in elementary school. I had found out later on that I was the first autistic child to attend the school. My autism has made it difficult for me to focus on a task that doesn’t interest me and thus I was frequently sent home with a lot of homework. I was also a frequent target of bullying though I was lucky enough that they didn’t beat me up. I don’t know how they found out that I was different from them, but I do know that they have saw that as a reason to hate me. It was almost as if they hated my existence. My elementary and intermediate school years were nice, but my middle school years were an absolute Hell, to put it lightly. My parents had to pull both me and my sister, who is also autistic, out of school as it was having a terrible effect on my health and view on life.




I’m an adult who still lives with her parents along with her sister and I feel ashamed of it. The autism had robbed me of a life I would have lived had I been neuro-typical. I have been improving though I do still have my moments. I have noticed that I had been focusing more on certain tasks and even broadening my interests! I even took an interest in cooking! What I hope for is a cure for autism that will enable me and my sister to live normal lives. Even better, I would like to be cured and able to keep the benefits that the autism had granted to me. Everyday, I have been doing my best to break out of the rut that the condition had stuck me in. Maybe one day, I might even gain the confidence to learn how to drive! Due to the fact that I’m a high-functioning autistic and I have received some special education, I have been able to pass myself off as normal most of the time.




My sister, whose autism is worse then mine, is incapable of living on her own. While I am able to adjust to a new situation, she would have a meltdown even at the slightest change. She is also a picky eater to the extreme, limiting our menu options. We have to bend over backwards in order to please her so she won’t have a meltdown in public. Once she has a meltdown, nothing will snap her out of it and she will never, ever shut up about how she hate this or that until we give her what she wants. Yes, my sister was able to get away with almost everything because of her autism! That makes me really mad. At least I actually feel guilty when I got something I wanted because of my meltdown! My sister is so autistic that she doesn’t understand that she can’t always have her way nor does she know that she was taken advantage of! Not to mention it adds to her thick-headed nature, refusing to change her ways! She never listens to a word we say, making it impossible to communicate with her! Trying to get information out of her is like talking to a brick wall as she would be very vague with her answers! She watches and repeatedly says lines from annoying shows to the point that I want to smack some sense into her! She even gets contrary at the most inappropriate times! I am so sorry that if I am bad-mouthing my sister, but I needed to vent and give you an honest opinion of what it is like to live with her! She really is a sweet girl most of the time and is concerned for the rest of the family. I still love her even though she annoys me and am worried that her autistic antics would annoy the wrong person.




So this is how it is like living with autism. I have been doing my best to overcome it everyday and I hope to continue to improve until a cure can be found.

What Does It Feel Like To Come Off Of Celexa?

It probably feels different for a lot of people, but I will tell you how it feels from my experience.
After being on Celexa for a little under a year I was told to come off of it to switch to another drug, Abilify. Now, my psychiatrist told me to just come off of it immediately, to just stop taking it.
Let me just say that this is NOT how it should be done. Celexa is a drug that has to take time to get into your system, to build up. You will not notice a significant difference when you begin taking it the very first day. Well, almost a year into building up in my system, I was told to just drop it.

At first I felt fine, body wise, I didn't feel peculiar that very first day I didn't take the medicine. I had also expected to have a drug to fall back on, but as there was no authorization to take this drug (an expensive drug) I couldn't fall back. It was probably the most horrendous week of my life.
The first thing I noticed was how easily angered I was.
This will be noticeable if you are not an easy to anger sort of person, like myself. At the drop of a hat I would just be extremely angry and so very volatile. It wasn't like me to get that way, but there wasn't any other way I could explain why it was happening.

The next thing is the zaps, or buzzes. Most often they are referred to as zaps and often for me they occurred at the back of my head or directly at the top. The best way I can describe it is if a wire is disconnected and has a short in your brain. Bolts of electricity, even though I have never been electrocuted before, just running through your head. With that, plus the onset of anger, made me want to sleep all day long and I couldn't function. So in a sense, I was an emotional mess with a short circuit in my brain. This went on for an entire week until I got onto the new medicine.

As I said, it may be a lot different for others, but I know I'm not the only one (and I have spoken to one other) who has had the zaps from withdraw.
Zaps and uncontrollable emotions were what I went through on a withdraw. That is what it feels like to stop immediately, as for tapering off, I do believe the zaps are still a big part of it. Everyone is different though, this is just based off of my own experience.

How Long Does It Take To Bleed Out?

How long does it take to bleed out if an artery is cut?

Femoral Artery

"It depends on how the artery is cut...if it is cut clean and straight across then you have plenty of time to get help because arteries and veins are sphinctoral muscles or circular muscles that are designed to contract and close off the cut but if the cut is at an angle then they can not close off and the bleeding will not stop with out additional treatment. you can lose consciousness in about 30 seconds for the average adult male and death in about 3 minutes if the bleeding is unrestricted."

Brachial Artery

"the brachial artery pumps out 30 liters of blood a minute. the human body only has 5 liters. you'll bleed to death in less than 15 seconds." - Answers.com

How long does it take to bleed out, generally speaking?

Stomach Wounds

'Just writing a story, and a character gets stabbed in the right kidney followed by the stomach (organ, not the area).'

"Being stabbed in the stomach is incredible painful. both injuries you describe are survivable in the short term without medical treatment providing that the stab to the stomach severs no arteries - the kidneys when traumatized clamp down pretty hard thus even though nearly 1/6 to 1/8 of the hearts blood flow passes through a kidney every minute at rest (so 1/6 of 3-6 litres ie 500ml to 1L every minute depending on the size of the person), it is more difficult to bleed out through the kidney - although the knife could damage the abdominal aorta which cause unconsciousness in 30 secs max and death would follow very quickly. 

acid from the stomach spills into the would and the peritoneum causing massive pain - the person would quickly assume the fetal position." - Yahoo Answers

"Generally speaking, a puncture wound to the stomach can kill within about fifteen minutes unless you're right next to a trauma center, and it is an extraordinarily painful way to die. Bear in mind that rattlesnake venom, and that of other species of viper, is composed of digestive enzymes like those found in your stomach." - Yahoo Answers

Liver Injury

"A liver injury is some form of trauma sustained to the liver. This can occur through either a blunt force such as a car accident, or a penetrating foreign object such as a knife.^[1] Liver injuries constitute 5% of all traumas, making it the most common abdominal injury.^[2] Generally nonoperative management and observation is all that is required for a full recovery." - Wikipedia

"Quite a long time, actually - the liver really doesn't have blood vessels until you get to the veins leading to the portal vein, so unless one of those is cut you would slowly ooze to death rather than bleed to death. If the cut wasn't too deep or severe, you could actually develop a good enough blood clot within the liver to staunch the bleeding and keep yourself from dying." - Answers.com

Basic Puncture Wounds

"We've all seen the movie where someone is stabbed in the stomach, or shot with an arrow, and they fall over dead, usually in seconds.
Particularly for the knife-belly wound - this doesn't seem right. As an older, overweight sofa dweller, I'm sure I'd be incapacitated, but I think it would take quite a while to bleed out.

Similarly with an arrow to the chest or back - barring a heart shot, I'd imagine that an average person would live quite a while (taking nothing from Boromir's epic last stand).

So - how long would it take to die (barring a major artery being hit)? Could the average person expect to not be total incapacitated from a single wound?"

"It depends entirely on what damage is done. There is no other possible answer.
An abdominal wound that cuts through a kidney can cause unconsciousness within a second, death in less than a minute. A wound that only damages an empty stomach can heal completely with no medical treatment at all. A chest wound that severs one of the major veins supplying the heart is going to be real nasty. A wound that leaves an open channel to the thoracic cavity can cause both lungs to collapse within a minute and death within 5 minutes.

An important point to realise is that "falls over and dies" is not the same as "falls over dead". Kidney damage, for example, can cause near-instantaneous unconsciousness because its screws up blood pressure control. A blow to the diaphragm can cause a person to drop immediately due to breathing difficulties. It may take an hour to die from such wounds, but the person will fall over immediately and never regain consciousness. From a movie perspective the difference between "falls over dead" and "falls over and dies" is non-existent.

Incapacitated is such a vague term that the second question is almost impossible to answer.If you get stabbed in the abdomen and suffer more than superficial muscle/skin damage you will be almost certainly be doubled over in pain and have difficulty breathing. In that sense you will be incapacitated. Even though fully conscious and able to speak, tend to your own wounds and so forth. You won't be running around much. If you've ever been struck hard enough to have the wind knocked out of you, you know the type of sensation that a stab wound to the stomach is going to cause." - Straight Dope Forums