I’ve been fighting some kind of bug for the last week or so. You know, fever, congestion, cough, achiness – the usual. I’m sure a lot of you have had it too. It’s been going around.
For me, one of the symptoms is usually extreme dizziness. Being sick tends to aggravate my Meniere’s Disease, and cause episodes. On Monday it was so bad that I was forced to use the walker that Michael made me buy. I’m so glad that he did, too! It makes it possible to get around when I’m so unsure on my feet that I would otherwise be going hand over hand along the walls.
I wrote this little 300 word piece to express what it’s like, being dizzy like that.
This is a dizzy day.
I have them, sometimes. I wake up, and I’m dizzy. Or I wake up fine, and then somehow, suddenly… vertigo.
I have Meniere’s Disease. It happens.
I can go years between attacks. We all can. But lately, I’ve been having a lot of them. It was so bad a couple of weekends ago that I had to be taken out of IKEA in a wheelchair. It was so bad last weekend that I gave in and got a walker.
It’s weird.
When I was small, I thought being dizzy was delightful. I would do things to make myself dizzy. I’d beg Uncle Harish to hold me by my arms and spin me through the air until I was giddy. I’d twirl around and around. I’d lean far back while swinging, and let centripetal force have its way with me.
I thought it was hilarious to stagger in circles, ground pitching under my feet, trying to walk while the world whirled madly around me. I’d be disappointed when the feeling wore off, and jump to my feet, eager to “do it again!”
My how times and tastes change.
Now I sit here, the room slowly rotating, wishing it would wear off! I notice I’m holding my head on one side, which seems to lessen the effect slightly, and wonder how much I’ve been doing that lately.
Is that a symptom? A warning? Because that’s the most dangerous part.
There is no warning.
There never is with Meniere’s Disease. It’s part of the diagnosis.
My sister is convinced it’s an ear infection; if I take the proper drugs, it will all go away.
But I know better.
It will go away when it goes away, and nothing really hastens it along.
Until then, Dizzy Broads R Us.
Picture Attribution; image twenty-one; spinning by RCabanilla Used under a Creative Commons 2Generic License. Resized, but otherwise no changes made.