On Saturday, Dec. 17, I watched the 3rd place/4th place World Cup match. Croatia beat Morocco 2–1, if you’re interested.
I was stitching up a tear in a favorite pair of long underwear and Boom! Vertigo. Not a terribly bad dose; I’d had one episode many years ago which lasted a few hours. I got this, I thought. I went outside for some fresh air and wandered around like a drunken baby. Took a nap, didn’t feel horrible. Made supper. Meh.
But the next day, Sunday morning, I barely got down the stairs. By lunch time, I was totally incapacitated. A virus, said Cath, RN, MSN, and that certainly made sense. What isn’t?
You’ve seen the lottery ping-pong balls bouncing at near-molecular speed inside the wind chambers, yes? That was my equilibrium for the next 3 or 4 days. I mostly puked, dry-heaved, and slept for 80-some hours. If I was awake, it was like being inside of Dorothy’s farmhouse as the twister spun her home all the way to Oz. By day 3, with a fair amount of concentration, I could watch a little TV, if there weren’t too many quick cuts in the show.
I lived on Antivert, Zofran, and Xanax. Thank goodness I live with a kind and loving nurse to see to me.
Stairs were not a possibility so I slept on the couch. Josie kept me company on the other half of our L-shaped couch. A walk to the bathroom was exhausting and required a hand on the wall.
Slowly, I began to get some food down. We started with potato soup from Panera, and built up to baked potatoes.
Music sounded terrible, all pitchy and flat and out of rhythm. I listened to brown noise on headphones.
On Dec. 25, I felt well enough to walk around in the yard’s snow with Josie. Very sketchy balance, I was glad for my trekking poles. I started rehab the next day; reteaching my brain how to function when not at normal equilibrium. It wasn’t until Dec. 27 that I felt comfortable enough to manage the stairs so I could sleep in a bed. Stairs still continue to require my attention. On Instagram, I’ve been tracking my rehab progress (@DStan_58)
As of today, 19 days in, if we had 10 inches of powder, I would not be able to ski. I don’t dare ride my bike on the roads. I’m edgy, and not quite myself. I can do crossword puzzles, watch TV, and music finally sounds normal again, but things are not quite right.
I crowd-sourced my vertigo issues on social media. A surprisingly high number of people deal with this on the regular and a shockingly high number have had at least one episode. Recovery times, to a true feeling of normalcy, ranged from several days, to 9 months, to “well, I still get woozy when I move my head too fast years later.”
Let me tell you, I’m really sick of feeling dizzy for 5 seconds if I move my head rapidly. If you’ve had your own issues, I’d like to hear about it.
Thanks.
