Whirligig

TL;DR I got dizzy. Time passed, and it's getting better.

So here was something new and, at first, truly horrible. I woke up Monday morning and when I went to get out of bed I couldn't because I was whirling around and about to be thrown off into space. I clutched at the mattress through my sheets and hung on for dear life. After what felt like hours, things settled down a bit, I opened my eyes and I tried again. Again, everything whirled at enormous speeds, things went black (probably because I closed my eyes) and I fell back down, not certain if I'd find the mattress or the floor or even land on a wall.

Breathe, I told myself. Feel the breath. It's coming and going. Breathe in through your nose and long and slow out by the mouth. Feel the mattress under you. Feel the covers over you.

Just then, I felt something else, urgently. My bladder was insisting it was time to get out of bed. Now!

Moving my head very slowly, I sat upright on the edge of the bed. Everything swirled, and started to go black, but I felt my soles on the wood floor and I braced myself and I rode it out. Clutching in turn the bed, the bookcase, the dresser, the sink, I made my way to the bathroom and managed to deal with urgent necessities. I stood up, and after the first several seconds, discovered I could walk. Moving slowly, afraid gravity would desert me at any instant, keeping one hand on the wall or furniture, I poured a cup of the already made coffee and sat down in my morning chair with the iPad.

It was then the nausea rose to the top. I was terribly thirsty, but water and coffee made me retch. I was rotating in my head in my chair, and fighting my stomach. I went for guided meditations and visualizations on my phone, and kept panic at bay. I really really did not want to throw up. It was taking most of my energy fighting it. I texted my brother-in-law to call me when he could, and took stock of my situation.

I reviewed what I know. People don't die from vertigo. But, it is extremely disabling. I had had vertigo for a couple of houra at this point, and already I could feel my life shutting down around me. I couldn't read, too dizzy. I certainly couldn't drive. I could barely walk. What did I actually feel? Sick. Aside from trying not to throw up, what was I feeling? What kind of dizzy specifically was it?

Both the nausea and dizziness came in waves as I sat there. Dizzy was definitely spinning, to the right. It was very different from the momentary light-headedness I sometimes get when I stand up quickly, especially if it's been a long time since I ate. There were moments between the waves when I felt almost all right. During those moments I decided to use the telemedicine option my insurance company set up last month. I also cancelled my garden consultation scheduled for that morning. I knew I wasn't dying, but perhaps there was something that would make me feel better.

It took over half an hour to work my through the telemedicine bureaucracy, get my info into the system, download their app to my phone, and get it the queue for a video consult. During that time I talked to my brother-in-law. He agreed to check up on me several times during the day. I was exhausted from trying to fight the nausea, and went to bed (with a basin) and the phone open to the telemedicine app and plugged into the charger.

I fell asleep and woke to a tone from the app. The video with the doc was basic, some more history, some moving around to see where the dizziness came from. She prescribed a medicine - basically, motion sickness pills. It would fight the symptoms, but not fix the problem, and was guaranteed to make me sleepy. She suggested certain videos on Youtube, how to maneuver your head to try to shake loose the little crystals in your ear canals and get them back in the right place. The assumption was this was positional vertigo, from displaced crystals. If the maneuvers didn't work, the symptoms should wear off in a month or two.

A month or two. OK, google. Show me some videos!

With the telemedicine, the prescription needed to go to a pharmacy in the same state as me (normally I go to one in DC) so I picked a CVS. In a little bit, I tried to get the prescription delivered. The CVS phone app was very buggy, and eventually I got up and went to the computer, where it worked.

By then, it was mid-afternoon and I was starving though still nauseous. When getting ready for the pandemic, I figured if I got sick I would be taking care of myself, so I had several boxes of Trader Joe's chicken soup, my go-to easy to digest, easy to make, food. I used up one from my precious cache. I was definitely feeling better, but still cautious. I performed the "half somersault" maneuver (designed to fix the vertigo) several times on the living room floor. As advertised, it made me really dizzy during it, and I couldn't tell if I felt better afterwards or not. 

So I puttered during the rest of the day, mostly listening to books and podcasts, watched a little tv. I ventured around the block with the dog. I woke the next morning much better. Some whirling as I got up, but not very disabling. I took it slow during the day, ate carefully of bland food, had my garden consultation, and did a bunch of laundry and stripped the laundry room of all portable things getting ready for a plumber the following day. Every trip up and down the stairs I kept a hand on the railing, even with a laundry basket. I went to bed thinking I had this thing beat.

Wednesday morning, blam, I was hit with the whirlies again, when I went to get up. Oh, no! It wasn't as scary this time, as I had been here before. It was extremely unpleasant, and I had to clutch the bed to keep on it, but it was not as purely terrifying. It was just something I had to cope with. I moved one way, wait one beat, whirl, wait for the settle, then move there, wait for it, whirl, settle, and I just kept going. Cautiously, with handholds, but steadily forward. I had a busy day of gardening (mowed the grass!) and I checked in with my chronic-pain-fighting facebook group. I searched on "vertigo" in the group, learned from past messages what kinds of things they had tried and what had worked. I posted my own query, and before bed got some very useful advice. I learned that it comes on when you are lying down, and some people avoid getting horizontal after an attack and instead try to sleep in chairs. That sounded too much like the torture of an overnight flight for me, but I was nervous about going to bed, normally my welcoming safe spot. I took one of the pills (my first one) before bed, and in bed did the Epley maneuver, carefully as shown on several youtube videos, before going to sleep.

This morning, no whirlies! But a general lightheadedness and wooziness, as likely caused by the drug as anything else. In fact, mid-morning I went back to bed, urged on by the weathercaster in the local paper, foretelling a very gloomy and very wet day. Based on the advice from my group, I'll be doing the maneuver every night in bed for at least a week, whether the symptoms come back or not.

In other news, I felt good enough to go out to the store this morning, first trip in three weeks. I was panicking at being down to my last package of coffee beans. I was woozy from the drug (taken 12 hours before) but not whirly-dizzy. (I practiced looking back over my shoulders to make sure I could.) Sadly, I was pretty disorganized, so I spent some money but missed a lot of stuff on my list. The good news is, I have food to eat without having to do serious cooking from scratch. I impulse bought some cookies, and got the planned couple of pints of ice cream, because sometimes, that's just what is needed.