Saturday, January 12, 2013

Dizzy




I am having dizzy spells.  Apparently this is because I (may) have some kind of inner ear infection, but the GP might just have said this for something to say.  He did the thing of holding a pencil in front of my eyes and moving it from left to right and diagnosed on the basis of how my eyes swivelled in response to this.  Dizzy is also something that people with M.E. have a lot on account of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, which I already have but so far without the dizziness.  I would much rather it was an inner ear thing and hope it buggers off soon.  It reminds me of being drunk as a teenager, that swimmy feeling that came just before one passed out or was sick.  The first time I had that was when I was sixteen, so you could say I was a late starter.  It was at a party thrown by the mater and my erstwhile stepfather to signify their reunion after he had left her and then come back.  I resolved that I would try every drink on the table.  No-one had told me about what happens when you mix vodka, gin, whisky, rum and wine.  I think I tried to take my dress off while dancing in front of a room full of my mother's friends and asked if anyone wanted a French kiss.  The next morning my mother and stepfather were nowhere to be seen and I thought I was going to die.  I have had hangovers since, but never one like that.  The party had in any case been a grim affair because my mother knew that my stepfather was planning to leave her again.  When I tried to stand up the room began to spin around.  Actually, remembering this has cheered me up.  Things are not as bad as that now.  There is always a positive way of looking at things.

11 comments:

cakelady said...

Oh dear god that sounds awful, do you need emergency cake?

Zhoen said...

I had this a few years ago, found an exercise on youtube that helped it drain. Can't find it now, but I will try to describe.


Sit on the side of a bench (bed) look left, lie down without moving the relative position of your head (Look at the ceiling.) Stay there for a minute (longer? five, maybe? Or until the dizziness eases.) Sit back up, return head to front. Repeat for the other side. Did this every couple of hours for a few days, and that dizziness went away, and has not returned.

Zhoen said...

Look left, lie down on your right side.


So hard to give directions like that without missing steps.

Reading the Signs said...

Cakelady, I always need emergency cake and they don't seem to provide it on the NHS!

Zhoen, thanks for this, I have heard that something like this was on youtube - I will give your suggestion a try.

Sabine said...

I am so sorry to read this. I think I have an idea of some of what you feel. One of my balance organs was totally damaged by a flare up of an autoimmne disease a couple of years ago. I have been dizzy ever since. Sometimes more, sometimes hardly at all, depending on what the day brings - and the night, for that matter. It was the most frightening thing at first and I really feared for my life (found out that loss of balance can have that effect). Amazingly, there is an enormous capacity for compensation, even if both inner ears are affected. It takes a while so be patient (!!) and check out simple vestibular compensation exercise on youtube.
Obviously, you also want to go and see an ENT expert just to get a proper diagnosis (which involves quite a bit more than swivelling a pen in front of your eyes). Dizziness can have so many causes and lucky for us our brain has amazing plasticity - I hope that's the proper word.
Take care and stay positive, it really does help.

Fire Bird said...

oh god I do sympathise - something I get spells of too, but in my case they usually pass after a day or two. After-effect of an episode of labyrynthitis (not sure of my ys and is here...)
Courage!

Anna MR said...

Okay, blogger obviously agrees with me on this, for they have already wiped this comment out once. I will, however, persevere with my stubborn stupidity and try again:

When so many have been so sympathetic and supportive of your dizziness-syndrome, I feel quite the eejit coming here to tell you how funny I found the teenage-drinking horror story, but I did. Find it funny. It would make a kicking theatre-play scene in the hands (pen? typewriter? computer?) of, say, Alan Ayckbourne.

However, I am truly hoping you feel better or at least not totally shite today. Many mwahs.

x

Reading the Signs said...

Yes had that too F B - not fun.

Anna phew - I was waiting for someone to say something about the drinking etc. Beginning to think it was too embarassing to refer to! (and believe me this is the airbrushed version).

Yup, not so shite today ta x

Reading the Signs said...

Sabine, oops, nearly missed you there. Thanks for your response. I know how very dreadful this kind of thing can be. But I think (hope) I am one of the fortunate ones and will get off lightly - that this will get better.

Reading the Signs said...

Anna p.s. - and no-one has said anything about the youtube of 'Dizzy' which I think is rather cool in a Twilight sort of a way.

Anna MR said...

Well now that you've okayed me being as dorky as I am – I dig the vid too. My fav is the owl-shaped pillow dude, in bed with his remote. A cool dude, like, totally.

x