I’ve been having terrible episodes of vertigo. Some of them were so bad that I started avoiding driving. At first, I thought I had a brain tumor. I really, truly thought I did, until I remembered having the same thing a couple of years ago, but for a much shorter period of time. When I looked up my symptoms on WebMD.com last week, I found what I was certain the diagnosis would be. All my symptoms matched perfectly.
Richard took me to the doctor this week and we learned that, for once, my self-diagnosis was right! I was diagnosed with Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV). This is apparently a very common condition, which affects lots of people over the age of 50 (I’m only 38!). There are crystals in your inner ear that are sometimes lodged loose by trauma, infection or disruption in blood flow. (Please, no jokes about disruption of blood flow so close to my brain!) My crystals got loose and started dancing around where they shouldn’t be. Whenever I moved my head forward or back or whenever I got into or out of bed, my brain would get confused by the messages be sent by the swimming crystals and the world would start spinning around me.
There are simple head movements that doctors and physical therapists can do to try to get the crystals back where they belong. I went to a physical therapist (Richard, my loving, caring hubby came, too) and he did some tests and then did the head-movin’ thing and then, to my utter horror, slapped a neck brace on me, telling me I can’t move my head for 24 hours. I can’t even lie down when I try to sleep tonight (meaning I won’t be sleeping at ALL tonight).
We’d planned to leave there and head to OfficeMax for some supplies. But, after I got the neck brace, I told Richard heck no. Everybody knows that people in neck braces are either hypochondriacs or are on their way to court. Hey, if I’m wearing one, I can joke about them, right? Richard understood my discomfort and took me home instead. The nice thing is I’m not allowed to bend over. So, when Max spilled an entire cup of juice on his bed, I wasn’t the one who had to clean it up! Yea!
Richard successfully got the RV out of the snow and ice and it’s going to the shop tomorrow for standard pre-trip maintenance. We’re planning to leave here early Monday morning. You can follow our five-week adventure, including plenty of photos and humorous tales of our mishaps, at https://www.WirelessTrips.com. And, remember, we’re taking the entire business on the road via wireless Internet connections so we’ll still be right here for you.
Hugs to all!
Angela
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