BPPV and Me

MS fears falling at the Falls

 

It was to be an exciting weekend.   First, a long road trip to an important wedding and then a short road trip to Niagara Falls.

Don’t worry my friends.  While this post is a little bit about a mini vacation, I won’t bombard you with vacation pics.  Even though I know how exciting it is to look at other people’s vacation pictures.

I was even excited for the road trip.  Sandwiches, snacks, and listening material were planned months in advance.  What’s a little 7 hours to start off a great time?  Just a way to get in more anticipation and fun.  I planned to help with the driving and when I wasn’t, to be the bestest copilot ever!

Until I woke up that morning and found the bed, the bedroom, and the entire house spinning at about 100 miles per hour.  What the hell was this??  I’ve stayed at Peter’s many, many times.  His house never spun before.

Peter himself wasn’t spinning.  He was going about his getting ready to leave plans as quickly as I wanted to be. I lifted my head but when I did, I was dizzy, unbalanced, unstable and nauseous.

I felt worse than five times worse of my worst hangover the year I turned 21.  And, trust me, I had some extreme hangovers the year I turned 21.  They came with alcohol and big nights out, some good, some bad but always wild.  The wildest thing I’d done the night before was watch the series finale of Ozark.

(Have you seen it yet?  If so, we need to talk. Message me.)

I managed to get dressed while Peter did both his pre-road trip preparation as well as my pre-trip preparation.  I also took an Uncle Joe test-what my mom calls the free Covid tests the president sent.

(It’s very nice of our President to send us these tests but it must take a ton of his time- packaging them, labeling them, stamping them, and putting them in the mail.  I sure hope the First lady and his grandkids helped.)

The test was negative and since neither Peter or I had ever heard of extreme dizziness as a Covid symptom, and we were both vaxxed to the max, we went on our way. My co-pilot plans went out the window.  It was all I could do let my seat back and keep my head still.

And I did manage to throw up in Peter’s car a couple of times.  Nothing says romantic trip than throwing up in front of your boyfriend.

Luckily, I had thought to bring something with me in case that happened, so it wasn’t too messy.  It wasn’t too classy either but at least I’m a neat barfer.

And I’m grateful that Peter is such a gentleman, opening doors for me all the time for which I’ve previously teased him.  Good thing he ignores my teasing.  At our first bathroom stop I attempted to get out of the car, and he caught me before I landed on the adjacent parking space that someone was pulling into.  If not for Peter, I would have been Portuguese road pizza for sure!

What could I do but blame MS and so I called my neurologist’s office.  I love my neurologist and they were a huge help and no help at the same time.

They didn’t think this was multiple sclerosis.  How could it not be?  MS is the root of yucky medical things.

They said it seemed more like something called BPPV.

Say what?

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo.

Really?

A new diagnosis that will take years for me to spell.  You should see what I went through just to spell it for you now.  I will never get it right again.

They also told me that it might go away on its own and if it doesn’t go away by morning, they could call in a RX to get me through the weekend.

Apparently, BPPV comes on suddenly due to crystals in your ear being out of whack.

What?

What crystals in my ear?

If I have crystals anywhere, shouldn’t they be something pretty and pleasant?  Like in a bracelet or something sparkly I put in my window.

We arrived at our hotel and as I did my best to get my act together, an ear worm also entered my head.

First crystals and now worms?  What was going on with my body?

The ear worm was the line “they come, and they go.  They got one thing in common, they got the fire down below.”

Likely, when Bette Midler sang this in The Rose, the fire she was talking about had nothing to do with illness of any kind.  I’m thinking she meant a fire worthy of the movie’s R rating.

Back in the early 80’s when we got a VCR, my mom and I went to a video store, (kiddos, look it up,) and rented Jaws 3 where I promptly added Dennis Quaid to my ever-aging crush collection- Shaun Cassidy, Scott Baio, Adrian Zmed (cringing as I remember them,) and The Rose.  Despite the annoying rewind process, I watched those 2 movies over and over that weekend and thus, The Rose soundtrack has stuck.

The “they come, and they go” line was on relentless replay in my brain.  I guess because as soon as the spinning sensation went away and I was convinced the BPPV was gone, it came right back.

I thought I was starting to feel better.

A lot better.

And then I would move my head.

They, the spins, kept coming and going.

I made it through the beautiful wedding cautiously not imbibing for fear of feeling worse, whoever paid for the open bar lucked out with me, and hardly dancing despite telling Peter for months that we should practice slow dancing so we looked appropriate for the wedding.

And my doctor did call in an RX that helped despite it being an anti-nausea medication which was silly since after throwing up twice the nausea was gone.  It was the dizziness that was the problem.

My doctor also said there were exercises I could do which was rude as he knows I am exercise adverse.  Still, I googled them, and Google told me I needed to know in which ear were the crystals displaced.

How was I supposed to know that?

The world was spinning, and spins go round and round so how could one know where the spins were coming from?

Plus, the exercises looked horrible to someone who couldn’t stop spinning and when I read that it was best to do them with a doctor the first time, I exited Google.

We continued onto Niagara Falls of which I had never been and which I highly recommend as it was gorgeous!  With the RX and trying not to move my head, I did ok.  My brain turned to my MS experience and fantasized about the vise they lock your head in during your routine MRI’s.  I suppose it’s less of a vise than a cage for your head, but I always think of it as a vise.

Whatever you want to call it, I suddenly wanted one.  A cage to keep my head still was exactly what I needed.

I scoured the souvenir shops, looking for a cage that said Niagara Falls but I couldn’t even find a plain one!  I guess head cages are not so big in Canada.

But the search helped remind me not to move my head too much and I got by.  Peter and I went under the Falls, above the Falls and even took the famous boat ride to get nice and soaked as you get as close to the falls as possible, and I was fine.

Then I forgot while getting out of the tour van and almost went splat again.  It was almost Canadian, Portuguese road pizza that time.

We were at the Falls, but I didn’t need to fall to appreciate the Falls.

BPPV is weird.

Like MS, which is also totally, horribly weird.

But also like MS, sometimes, with a good doctor and some good drugs, I was able to have a good time despite it.

Are they sure BPPV and MS aren’t related??

Update-  the BPPV is now in my primary doctor’s hands while I continue to take the anti-throw up meds and wait to see if it goes away.  It sure is taking its sweet time.  Oh well, nothing my 556^th prescription can’t handle. 

My medical forms are rapidly running out of room!