The Mysterious Illness Returns, of all times too

Damn server errors. Wrote a whole blog and even saved it, but there was a server error from Google and I lost everything. I am not sure that I can write it better this time around.

Here I go. What I said before is that this week has been one of ups and downs for me. I have gotten good news, and then for each piece of that, either bad news or something bad happens.

A few months ago I had these dizzy spells that came and went. They lasted for a long time when I had them, but came and went. One day, it was so bad I went to the ER, which I blogged about. The ER doctor told me it was vertigo and prescribed me an antihistamine, meclizine.

I followed up with my Dr. the next day and he said I had acute labrynthitis. To the layman, this is from a virus in my inner ear. Basically, since that is where balance is controlled my brain is confused. It doesn’t know where I am or what I am doing, which makes me dizzy all the time. He said the ER doctor gave me the right medication. I took if for about a week and it went away.

The bad part about this is that this condition can last for years- there is no cure. I can only mask the symptoms. So, yesterday it came back. However, I shrugged the dizziness off as not eating. When I got home, it became worse and today, even worse. I had some comp time from work I was using this morning, but asked if I could take the afternoon off. I also realized that we have training on Weds., and told my boss I would still come on for that. However, I just got out of the shower from a scary experience.

While I was showering—and no I was not singing—I lost my balance and almost fell. I caught myself, but my heart was racing and I was petrified at the thought of me getting knocked out and laying in the shower, naked with water failing on me and no one around to help since I am home alone. It was a scary thought. In fact, one of the most dangerous things about this disease is the chance of injury from falling due to dizziness.

I usually shrug things off, but I need to start taking care of myself. I called the Dr. and the earliest they can see me is at 1:00 tomorrow. I called my boss to let her know. She advised that I stay home—even if I did go to the Dr. driving this dizzy is not a very smart idea.

The medicine does not seem to be working this time, although maybe I do need to take a few doses before it kicks in. When I took it last night, about a half hour later, around 8:00, my eyes were so heavy and I was slurring my speech. The next thing I knew, I woke up this morning on the loveseat, half sitting up. It conked me right out. I remembered that my doc said to take just half if that happens.

It upsets me feeling this groggy from a medication—first of all, I have more energy than ever since I became a vegetarian and it is also a lovely day. It’s terrible I feel that way. Second, from a general standpoint, it’s terrible that all a lot of medications do is make you sicker or have bad side effects. Sure, I can’t feel that I am dizzy—BECAUSE I AM ASLEEP.

I am not sure what more the doc can do for me. Maybe there is a different medication, or maybe there is something else they can think of that I may have. In a strange sort of way, I like the name of my illness- acute labrynthitis because the Labyrinth was always one of my favorite movies. If you are interested in this condition, here is an article I found that really explains it well. There is som really fascinating things about it. Maybe he can refer me to an ear, nose and throat dr.; Dave's sister works for one.

Wish me well. Also, I am moving this blog down a notch so that my tribute to Tom can stay on top. I was already feeling down because of this, and now I get sick again.