An Advanced Degree in Medicine? You can still make mistakes

I had noticed a difference in the way I felt, but wasn't sure what it was.  If I rolled over in bed, I'd get sick to my stomach.   If I turned my head to quick, I'd get dizzy.  I was sleeping twenty four seven.  I could fall asleep in seconds if I was not moving. I found it difficult to "walk a straight" line.  I just felt I had lost my center.

I developed what I refer to as the "pink elephant" syndrome.  I have always been focused, but I would start a task and the pink elephant would walk by and I'd follow him. Never finishing any thing I started. My vision started to be blurred and bright lights really bothered me, especially at night if I was driving.

A month after I fell, I decided I needed to have this checked out.  I am not one to go to the emergency room as I figure that is for emergencies, not paper cuts, but there was seriously some thing wrong. I drove to the hospital and checked in.  I was put in to a room immediately. The doctor came in and took my history and was confident he knew what it was.

Love Notes from B

After his examination, he thought the impact had dislodged a crystal in my inner ear that traveled to my middle ear that was creating the issues with my equilibrium.  It made sense.  Imagine a pinball machine and the ball traveling down the board, each time it hit a sensor, a dinging heard.  This crystal was the ball and each time I felt the uneasiness, it was hitting a nerve, so every movement of my head, created this disturbance. But he wanted to run tests.  I understand running tests, but the tests came back negative, so he sent me to a specialist.  

I was seen by a neurosurgeon, who, after his examination, came to the same conclusion, but was more interested  in talking to me about my job and that he would like to expand  his business more in the workers compensation arena. He prescribed physical therapy.  His idea? I'd have to learn to walk again to gain my balance once more.  I went to therapy one day, the therapist directed me to these bars and wanted me to walk from one end to the other for five minutes. She went to help some one else.  Are you kidding me?  You think this is going to cure my issue, walking back and forth between two bars?   Learning to find my balance again on balance bars was absurd! I walked out.

I drove to Florida that year, two months after I fell. I'd been to the doctor but they were of no help to me. Every year  I drive to Florida to visit my parents. Over the years, I have chosen to drive through the night as the traffic is not as intense in the larger metropolitan areas. I leave around six at night and pull into my parents sixteen hours later. This year though I was miserable. Any movement to check my mirrors or blind spot threw me into a dizzy spell.  The head lights of oncoming traffic increased the pressure in my head. I made it to the Florida state line and was in tears.  I called my parents, I was four hours from their front door.  I had to stop, but when I start this trip, I am determined to get there, so I put on sunglasses and continued my trip south bound.

Love Note from B

When I drove back home, I had to figure out what was wrong.  I slept more than sixteen hours a day and on weekends, I slept non stop.  No one listened to me.  I had been to my family physician and he suggested I had the same thing the other doctors had spoke of, but he sent me to neurologist who specialized in eyes and ears.

I had lost faith in doctors, but this doctor restored it.  He asked me what my symptoms were and then had me lay down and sit up real fast.  I hated this, every doctor made me do it and it made me sick to my stomach.  He quickly pulled out a flashlight and pointed it in to my eyes. This doctor knew how to inflict pain!  He wanted to give me a hearing test first.  Can you believe it?  A hearing test!  He needed it though to confirm his diagnosis.  My hearing was perfect so he promised me in twenty minutes I'd be back to normal.  His diagnosis was exactly what the ER doctor had told me. I had dislodged a crystal and his plan was to return it to my inner ear and the dizziness would disappear.

The treatment was bizarre.  I laid on a table while a technician took a three prong vibrator like you'd find in any store and placed it behind my right ear, which is where they figured the problem was.  I started on my right side while she placed this vibrator behind my ear, every few minutes I turned to my stomach, left side and finally on my back.  When she was done, I had to sit up quickly and that was it. I was cured.  The only think I  needed to do was to sit upright for forty eight hours to insure the crystal settled in to the inner ear and embedded itself in to the wax.

I had bought a sleep number bed that I could raise the head and foot of. I slept in a V for two nights and the dizziness was gone.  Within sixty hours of this treatment, my neighbor, Louie and I went to the Colts Football game. We had a great time, but on the way back to the car, I missed a curb and lost my balance falling into a brick wall.  People just kept walking over me and not stopping. Lou helped me up and I feared I would be back to square A.  I was.  I had to go back and have the treatment again.

During my vacation in Florida that year, I decided to teach myself how to make jewelry. I had made a few pieces, but I was able to spend more time perfecting my skill during those two weeks.  I found it therapeutic to create and I started knitting again. My maternal grandmother had taught me to knit forty years earlier and it came back to me with ease.  

I still was having some side effects from the fall, but at least the dizziness was gone.  Two Thousand and Eight was just around the corner. Many more changes were on the horizon, some good, some not.