Vertigo

I had my yearly doctor visit today.  I made the appointment ten days ago and just happened to awaken this morning with vertigo.

Vertigo is not dizziness, in case you've never experienced it.

Vertigo vanishes reality.  The world goes topsy turvy.  It hit this morning when I was just up and slammed me into the door before I realized what was going on.   I quickly dropped to the ground.  Everything was spinning.

It did not deter my desire for morning coffee.  So I crawled to the kitchen, waited for 10 minutes til the worst subsided, then got up.  Very very slowly.

It's positional my vertigo, something to do with crystals or little stones in the inner ear out of place.   Related in my case to my neck nerve inflammation issues, from that beating of long ago, allergies and dehydration.  The perfect storm had hit me with all the raking and leaf removal I've done lately inflaming my neck.  Dry winter air inside increases allergies and I'd left the heat on last night and the place was 70 degrees in the morning.  This kind of heat at night dehydrates me.

I like to sleep cold.

A friend agreed to take me to the doctor's appointment, since I didn't want to miss it and have to wait out getting another and I couldn't drive with vertigo.  Everything was fine until I got onto the exam table, tilted back, and boom, I was flat out with eyes closed to negate the swirling spinning world, a new form of reality to contemplate if you can keep your latest meal down as you do.  You'd think gravity would be enough for proper orientation on earth.   One inner ear out of whack and I start wondering about the nature of the universe.  Is up really down, is anything real?

Then I decided "ok, its because we have inner ears that I'm even thinking reality begins in the inner ear.  No inner ears, and I'd know up from down through gravity and wouldn't suffer topsy turvy when my facial and ear nerves are inflamed."  

I stop it by drinking lots of water, rest, and taking an allergy pill and an Aleve.  Also, I put an ice pack behind my ear.  That's where the nerves that serve the face come out of the skull and it can help to freeze out those inflamed nerves.  It can help a lot.

My doctor said she had it but it lasted a week.  Mine usually lasts off and on a day or two.  She thought she could survive at work, but found out she couldn't because she had to hang onto walls to stay upright.  The blood draw tech also said she gets it now and then.  Seems common enough.

Didn't stop me from going out for lunch after the appointment with my friend.  That was fun!  

Vertigo.   Not the movie.  The inner ear issue.

If you've never experienced vertigo, you've never really lived.  Bwah ha ha ha.