Never heard of the vestibular system? I hadn't either until about a week ago when I started feeling as though I was stuck on the Tilt-a-Whirl ride at a typical amusement park. Your vestibular system is your balance system. Most people know that your inner ear controls balance, but it doesn't do it alone. The vestibular system is actually comprised of four parts:
- Eyes
- Ear, specifically your inner ear and a structure called the labyrinth
- Joints
- Skin
All of these things - input from your eyes, input from your ears, messages from your joints as you move, and air/water pressure on your skin - are what keep you knowing what way is up, what way is down, and everything in between. When the different parts of the vestibular system send different messages, it results in a condition called vertigo. Vertigo is the perception of motion - either of you or your surroundings - where there is none. This differentiates it from simple dizziness, where you just feel like you are going to pass out.
And that brings this all back to me. Slightly over a week ago, I started having episodic vertigo, although I didn't recognize it. I just thought the old blood sugar was plummeting. It wasn't until the feeling became somewhat permanent that I figured something was wrong. My sister and The Hubby said, "Probably a sinus infection putting pressure on your ears. Just call and get some antibiotics." When I called in sick on Monday, my boss said the same thing. "They'll probably give you some antibiotics for the infection and meclizine for the vertigo. Happens to me all the time." Oh, if it were only that easy.
No simple sinus infection for me, no sirree bob. Instead, I wind up with a diagnosis of labyrinthitis - and inflammation of the labyrinth. The doc says the magic words: It's viral. Those doggone viruses. So pesky, and so convenient for the medical community. Because once those fateful words are uttered, they are followed up with "Nothing to do except wait it out." Wonderful. So I left with a prescription for meclizine, a sedative. Didn't seem to be doing anything, but hey, what the hell do I know. I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. So I kept taking it.
But when things were no better on Wednesday, I called the doc again. Back to the office. Couple more brief tests. Nope, really just labyrinthitis. Doc offers Atavan, which is related to valium. Again, what the hell do I know? One Atavan later I know this much - I don't want another one.
By Friday, I am still no better and in fact now can't get out of bed. The pressure in my ears is killing me and I can't walk from my bedroom to my bathroom, which is only about 15-20 feet. Doc sends me to an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist. He says, "Yep, definitely vertigo. Could be labyrinthitis, could be benign positional vertigo (BPV). Both can be viral. Take more meclizine." There are those pesky viruses again. At least he says that when it goes away, it will most likely go away for good. Thank god for small favors. They do a quick hearing test (I passed), and some repositioning exercises. See, BPV is caused when small calcified debris gets stuck in the wrong part of your inner ear. The exercises get it out of where it's not supposed to be so it can be reabsorbed. No driving, they say (great, just what I need to hear). Schedule me for an ENG, which is stands for a big long word for a balance test. Recommend a routine MRI - because it our current lawsuit-happy culture, the doc has to run every possible test even if, as in my case, he doesn't think it will actually find anything. Of course now the insurance companies are understandably sick of paying for tests that are performed simply to cover the doctor's ass, so it has to be cleared first.
This brings us all to Saturday afternoon. I'm in the basement, feeling stoned out of my mind. I miss the bottom stair (I mean, my eyes told me there was a stair there), fall backward, and throw laundry everywhere. I start crying - this is freaking ridiculous. Eight days and all the medical community can offer is, "It will go away eventually." If I had cancer, they could treat me. Modern medicine can save the life of a baby born at 20 weeks. They can transplant major organs. Vertigo? Sorry, no can do.
The Girl, who is amazingly smart for a 7 year old, grabs my cell phone and calls her father (who is working). He calls the neighbor, who comes over to get me off the basement floor. Neighbor sends his son the EMT to check me out. Son sees no visual signs of vertigo (called nystgmus - I've learned such cool words over the last week), but tells me my blood pressure is 88/60 and my pulse is 104. To say those numbers are not normal would be an understatement. He recommends I call my PCP.
And my PCP offers this. "Well, meclizine is a sedative. You're not having a bad reaction, they are normal side effects - you're supposed to feel like that. Don't like it, stop taking it. I really can't do anything else for you, unless you want to go to the hospital. There's two possibilities - the vertigo will go away on its own or it will never go away and you'll adapt." Great, thanks doc.
After all of this, I know several things:
- Meclizine is the work of the devil.
- Why anybody would actually choose to be stoned is incomprehensible to me. It is, without a doubt, the worst feeling I've ever had.
- While we know a lot about human physiology, what we know is dwarfed by what we don't know. Again, it would be easier to treat me if I had cancer.
- No wonder they call it "practicing" medicine. There's a lot of exact science there, but a lot of guesswork too.
- Vertigo is now in my list of Top 5 Un-fun Life Experiences.
So here it is Monday and it's my sixth day off work. Enough is enough. There's one more drug to try, which is a steroid (because this could also be caused by vestibular neuronitis, which is an inflammation of the nerve ending in the ear that sends balance signals to the brain and steroids are anti-inflammatories). At least I know I won't get stoned from a steroid. As no physician can give me a reason not to work, I'm back on the job tomorrow; if I still can't drive, The Hubby will drop me off and pick me up.
Someone asked me, "Do you think this could be some kind of enforced R&R?" If the God or the universe or the Flying Spaghetti Monster (depending on your personal beliefs) wanted me to slow down, I would have preferred a broken leg. And if this is some body's idea of a cosmic joke, well, it sucks.
My personal advice? Stay away from vertigo. If you crave the dizzy feeling, visit the Tilt-a-Whirl.
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