Monday I woke up, and the room was spinning. I took a clariton, which did not help. By mid afternoon I was tired of the intermittent spinning, so Ralph took me to the Urgent Care. The doc did a neuro exam, and agreed that it was probably an inner ear issue, but said I should go to the ER and get a CT scan, due to my age. We stopped at home to get a few things, and headed for the ER. I checked in, and sat down. A nurse came rushing in with a wheelchair for me. When you check in with dizziness and nausea, and say the Urgent Care doc said you should rule out TIA, it triggers a whole stroke protocol. We were in the hallway and the ER doc was doing a neuro check while a nurse was doing a blood sugar check. They put me in an ER room, and drew blood and started an IV, and because of my cardiac history, put me on a monitor.
I had a CT with and without contrast, which came out fine, and they also did a CT of my neck vessels. Because of my age, they decided to admit me overnight for observation. Tuesday morning I was cleared by Neuro, PT, and Speech, and saw a med student, a resident and finally an attending, and was discharged mid afternoon. Diagnosis Vertigo.
Wednesday I saw my family doc, who prescribed meclizine (anti vert) and gave me a couple of exercises to do. The ear has three canals, and sometimes crystals migrate to the "wrong" canal and cause the vertigo. Thursday I was dizzy in the morning, but fine later. I added a pillow, as per an article I read, and I've been fine since.
That was my adventure this week.
1 comment:
I have had this type of vertigo! It felt as though I was going crazy! I was referred to physical therapy to move my crystals back. The therapist had me lay down on the bed. I was totally certain I would fall on the floor. She promised me I wouldn't. As I was reclining, she started laughing because my left eye was moving so erratically trying to get a focus. That was the side that had the most vertigo. When she told me why she was laughing, it made sense why my eye was so unfocused. After doing the exercises for just a day or two, I was back in the land of normalcy! This happened a few more times, but I knew what to do when it happened again.
I'm glad you are better!
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