on the list of weird things that can go wrong

[the_siobhan]

I think I must have some kind of inner ear impaction. I'm having a hard time figuring out which direction is "up".

It's a very odd sensation.

I think I am going to take a tentative walk around the block to test my navigational skills before I go to work tonight. I rather suspect I'm going to fall down a lot today.

[EDIT]

Scratch that. Fell out of the chair while trying to put my boots on.

I seem to be ok if I stay vertical and don't bend my head. But I called in to work anyway -- last thing I need is to go ass over tit in a freezer or something.

I swear. Somebody Out There is taking the piss.

Comments

[northbard.livejournal.com]

man..you get the COOLEST fucked-up conditions. I just get head colds and bronchitis and wimp-ass shit like that.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

sleep and take dramamine. that's my dizzy advice.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

You called in to work because you're afraid of falling down a lot?

Ummmm..... I'm just gonna sit here and not say a word, 'kay?

no comments from the peanut gallery

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

shush you.

[timly.livejournal.com]

i agree with northbard, some of the most unusually queer ailments find their way to you.

see what happens when you leave your home so much? : þ

well ok, more than usual

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I've read about inner ear infections causing loss of balance because it's where the body has it's centre of gravity.

I've never known anybody who had one before.

The weirdest part is that otherwise I feel totally fine.

Re: well ok, more than usual

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

My Mom got Meniere's Disease (http://oto.wustl.edu/men/) when I was in Junior High, the same inner ear disease that grounded Alan Shepard from spaceflight for a while. Very not fun for her - lots of vertigo and nausea and stuff that would take her down for days at a time. She finally had a surgery to put little valves in her ears to regulate the fluid balance, but she still occasionally has problems (or maybe the valves are just getting old - that was some 15 years ago). Definitely have your thing looked into if it doesn't go away presently. =/

Re: well ok, more than usual

[timly.livejournal.com]

that's it, scare the shit out of her, why don't you?!?! : þ

Re: well ok, more than usual

[silentq.livejournal.com]

I've had two bouts with dizziness that were from less scary causes: dehydration, and a virus. I ended up in the hospital with an IV in to rehydrate me, that sucked hard core. But I hadn't been doing anything odd, and been drinking my normal amount of water each day (2L), no idea how it happened. The virus hit me after I was really sick for a week or so and then got better, though now that I think about it, I'm not sure that the Labyrinthitis was caused by a virus or not.
In any case, it sucks, and I wouldn't wish dizziness on anyone.

Re: well ok, more than usual

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Can you give me any more info about this? A friend of mine has just been diagnosed.

Re: well ok, more than usual

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

Sorry - spaced on this email. I don't have a lot of info myself, since I was pretty young when most of it went down and she didn't tell me a lot about what was going on, but I found http://www.menieres.org for her a couple of years ago and she seemed to find it helpful, and I learned more about it myself. She'd been having more trouble, as I mentioned in the prior comment, but through that website she got the idea to try a daily allergy pill and it's basically stopped the returned dizzy spells in the 3 (!) years since this original thread.

Re: well ok, more than usual

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

Er. Not to say that allergy pills cured anything - they just keep her sinus fluids in check so her valves will keep operating properly and cleanly.

Re: well ok, more than usual

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I had some sort of illness when I was a teenager that made me constantly fall over for a few days. I didn't really feel ill, just profoundly dizzy. I even fell out of bed a few times when I sat up to eat.

It wasn't anything serious :)

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Interesting sensory-overload experiment: Try to figure out whether all modes of head movement (pitch, yaw, roll) make you dizzy, or just some of them.

I get occasional bouts of benign positional vertigo, which means that I get bed-spins-type dizzy easily for a month or so and then it goes away. Apparently it is due to the fluid in one or more of the semicircular canals (there are three behind each ear), turning to sludge. For me it's worst in the head-nodding direction, not so bad in the other two. It's possible (although a tad weird-looking, I'm told) to get out of bed and do most other daily activities by substituting a combination of other motions for the head-nodding ones. Tying shoes is still a challenge though

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

As of today, bending forward is the least disorienting. The real spins start if I tilt my head to the side.