An interesting episode this last week... About 7 days ago I experienced a mild vertigo (inner ear problem causing poor balance) which lasted a day or so. I put it down to bad food or perhaps an allergy or mild ear infection. Then, three days later, that vertigo came back with a vengeance! Were talking about dizziness so severe that eyes wont focus, the room spun so angrily that details were streaks, and crawling was the only safe method of ambulation. Now add the nausea that comes with dizzy - the kind that tries to empty ones stomach; again and again and again! Plus a version of photophobia - or aversion to light - that often accompanies a migraine. Out of a sense of precaution, we headed for the emergency room. OK, I lied; it wasnt caution, it was desperation. My wife remembers me saying, Just shoot me! I was quickly admitted into the hospital and given fluids via I.V., meds via injection, and calm via Valium. That last took the edge off sufficiently to allow me to stop demanding deliverance into the Hereafter (plus the ability to lie still on the litter while my head got CAT-scanned). A follow-up MRI scan provided the welcome news that I hadnt suffered a stroke and still had both brain hemispheres intact, which left three remaining possibilities: 1. A rare condition called Menieurs Disease (I knowingly spell incorrectly because Im still not sufficiently recovered to give a damn) which is permanent and incurable; 2. An affliction in which little mini-accretions (think: teeny kidney stones, but within the ears semicircular canals that affect balance) tickle the cilia (hairs in those canals) into believing gravity is coming from improbable directions; literally rocks in the head; or 3. A viral infection of the linings of nerves leading from the inner ear to ones brain, providing false signals of disorientation. Well, a fourth possibility was, We havent a clue. Need I mention that finding myself as a unique case study had exactly zero appeal? It turns out I walked through door #3. Ive been home two days now and, though diminishing, the unsteadiness persists. Im told that it takes the body a while to knock down whatever virus started this gymkhana but that the prognosis is for a complete recovery. Additionally, I learned during my hospital stay that one other patient had recently been admitted with precisely identical symptoms, although less severe. I suppose my symptoms were aggravated because Im spatial. (ugh!) As well, my daughters friend who is a pharmacy tech informed that there has been a run on anti-vertigo meds lately, which is oddly encouraging; if others are equally afflicted, then its going around and not peculiar to me. Out of an excess of caution, I wont be driving for a few days but should soon be up and about, resuming a normal routine within a week or so. One final word - weve heard a great deal about mismanagement and patient neglect at the Veterans Administration. That would be the V.A. *bureaucracy* performing as all red-tape organizations will, protecting itself and descending in a search for the lowest common denominator of performance. All of that is uncontested. For example, Ive been in Atlanta since February and havent *yet* met my assigned physician; our first appointment is in August. However... Once admitted, the *medical* care and attention I received was First Class in every single regard. Since my wife is a retired nurse (and not just a low level, Miss Bedpan med-cart pusher but someone who served as a nurse-educator running THE top program in Arizona at St. Josephs Hospital back in the day) Ive become sensitized to all things nursey. The staff was right on top of stuff such as vector control, hand sanitation, and patient education. I was never offered a medication or injection without a full explanation of its necessity and consequences and - most important - the opportunity to decline. Every single physician (or resident, or student - there were hoards of them from nearby Emory University) that entered my room made a point to be observed not just going through the motions of hand-washing, but indeed *working* at it. It was clear to me that the staff, at the Atlanta V.A. Hospital at least, had their priorities in order. Anyway, just in case this particularly nasty virus shows up in your life, know that the induced wall-hugging panic and stomach muscle exercise are transient. Now all I have to do is to make good on all those hasty promises I made to the Almighty.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 11:19:34 +0000
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