Vertigo

Prior to last September, I only associated the word "vertigo" with the Hitchcock film, starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak... and then got out of bed one morning, and I felt the room spin as though I was in a barrel. For a bit over a week, I was at the mercy of this condition.. even simple movements like bending, tilting my head, laying down on my back set it off.

Slowly but surely it lessened, and I felt like my old self, but it came back after Christmas. That time it passed after a few days. It reoccurred in January, and my doctor prescribed a medication similar to dramamine, meclizine, that while knocking me out, lessened the symptoms. The vertigo disappeared that time within a week, but in February, it returned with a vengeance, and didn't respond to the medication any longer... which was disheartening, because each recurrence disrupted my ability to get things done...  you don't realise how important the little movements we all take for granted are. Since February, it has come and gone and when each time it returned, it was worse.

I was sent to an ENT, and given a few tests that showed I had meniere's disease.. essentially, a few of the calcium particles we all have in our inner ear that help us balance, got loose.. which cause the dizziness and spinning. I've been getting physical therapy, which has really helped, and I've been vertigo free for almost a week now... and really feel that I will beat this thing. The exercises really help lessen and stave off the bouts of vertigo.