Hey Nerds,
Can you believe that we have almost made it through July? It feels like only yesterday it was 2019. I kid! In reality, I have spent the last FOUR months mostly isolated in our home. The last time we went out and hung out with other people was MARCH 15! That was ages ago during, as my dear AZ BFF would say, The Before.
During this isolation period, life continued on and in early May I started getting crazy dizzy with full on vertigo. World spinning, disorientation, full on collapsing while trying to get dressed. It. Was. Terrifying.
Full disclosure: motion sickness and vertigo aren’t new to me. I get VERY seasick on ships. Found that out the hard way after a Disney Cruise for my NP4L’s entire family. He and his family felt nothing. They frolicked and enjoyed themselves. I could feel the ship move every single moment of sailing. Lying in bed. Walking down the hallway. Showering. The very first dinner I had to excuse myself halfway through so I didn’t unceremoniously hurl all over everyone’s dinner. Then after the cruise? Vertigo for a month.
Fun Fact: If you get seasick like me, they have wonderful options for helping with that these days. There’s the Transderm-Scop patch which helps prevent nausea and vomiting associated with seasickness. That requires a prescription from your doctor. Another option is acupressure wrist bands. I also used these while on a cruise to Alaska in 2019. Specifically I used PsiBands. They were reasonably comfortable, easy to adjust the size to press against your wrist, and come in a variety of colors. I also always travel with good ol’ Dramamine. It NEVER hurts to have some on hand.
So when the dizziness and vertigo hit in May, I was obviously concerned but didn’t call my doctor. I thought I can handle this on my own. Do my Epley Maneuver and it will eventually go away. In the meantime, I took things like putting on socks/pants/shoes extra slow made sure my NP4L was always around when I needed him to keep me steady in certain situations (i.e. getting in and out of the shower).
A month passes and I’m still getting dizzy, every. single. day. It’s not nearly as bad, but it’s time to bring in the professionals. I Tele-med with my certified nurse practitioner (CNP) and she wants me to keep doing the maneuvers and prescribes me a round of an antibiotic and a steroid in case it’s a sinus infection. Along with dizziness, I was experiencing some ear pain and it had all started with killer allergies back in May. Cool, I got this. 2 weeks later, after I’ve finished both full rounds of medication and give it a few more days, I’m still getting dizzy. Back to Tele-med! Now we’re on to a CT scan to see if maybe there’s fluid built up in my head.
Going to a medical clinic during a pandemic is quite the experience. I was hands down the youngest person in the waiting room, there were several exposed noses, and my seat was slightly damp from a fresh wipe of disinfectant. Now a CT scan (computed tomography scan) utilizes a combination of X-rays and a computer to create pictures of your organs, bones, and other tissues (thanks WebMD). In a CT scan, they need to see soft tissues more clearly and that requires a contrast material (usually made of iodine or barium sulfate) introduced into your body in one of three ways: injection, orally, or via an enema.
I have had two of the three ways and I honestly hope to NEVER require the third. You then lie down on a table while the technician takes a series of x-rays of the affected area. It’s mostly painless, though I will tell you what they didn’t tell me the first time I received a CT scan. If you drink the barium sulfate orally for the scan, you have to remain near a restroom for the remainder of the day…
Thankfully, my CT scan returned normal results. My CNP then recommended I go see a neurologist. Another fun visit to a medical office during a pandemic, but a much quicker affair. Within 5 minutes the neurologist was like, “nope, nothing wrong with your brain. You just have BPPV.” I have what now? Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. These tiny little calcium crystals in my inner ear moved into an area they weren’t supposed to and BOOM vertigo. The solution? The damn Epley Maneuver I was already doing PLUS Meclizine. Meclizine is an oral drug used to treat and prevent nausea and dizziness caused by motion sickness and can help reduce dizziness and loss of balance due to inner ear issues. It does, however, sometimes make you nauseous (???) and super drowsy.
A week later, I am no longer dizzy! It dawned on me today that I haven’t felt dizzy once since Tuesday. Now I know some of you out there are anti-medication, but without Meclizine who knows how long I would have continued experiencing dizziness daily. It was worth the multiple times I just passed TF out on the couch and napped for an hour because of said drowsiness.
After all this, my thought was…why didn’t we start with the Meclizine? Should we have jumped to BPPV before we jumped to CT scans and neurologists? Hmmm…
But the moral of this story is thank God for Meclizine and flexible spending accounts.
Cheers,
Head Nerd