That does sound like a scary day! Do you know why your son fainted? He was brave. I think a lot of kids are brave. I'm glad he was spared the needle. I have heard that fainting as a child is not uncommon. I fainted a few times as a child, but didn't get hurt. They never seemed worried about the fainting itself.

It's a beautiful thing that we are all different. I admire you and that doc for liking algebra. Algebra, especially Algebra 2, was painful for me, but I had a great teacher. I took Pre-Calc with him, too. Calculus and Statistics were in my freshman year at university. I specifically recall one night having dreams about solving Max/Min problems. When I woke up, I felt I finally learned them. It was an amazing feeling! Do I remember how anymore? Heck no!