Thread: Death would have been better............! Vertigo at it's finest.

I recently replied to Brian's (bandchaser) thread about his ear surgery;
"My Mom has had serious bouts of vertigo over the years and will go to bed fine and wake up, go to stand up, and hit the floor. Some times it lasts a few hours but others a few days. I hope I never see that situation. A friend of mine had it for 7 months a few years ago and it nearly killed him. I can't imagine feeling nauseated constantly like he did."

Well sometimes I wonder if keeping my mouth shut would be the best. We've all seen the wind die down when on the lake and we say we sure are glad it did then it starts blowing even worse than before? I had one of those moments last week.

My wife and I had been to a local buffet for a late lunch. We mostly ate the same things except for a couple of items. I went home and dozed off in the recliner a couple of hours after we ate. When I woke up 1/2 hour later and stood up, my whole world was spinning. I went ahead and drove to my shop (dizziness stopped when I was sitting) to try to finish a job I was working on. I barely made it to the shop restroom when I was hit with the "green apple screamers". I drove back home and had to run to the bathroom before the vomiting started.

The next morning I was unsteady on my feet again but came to the shop anyways. All day I felt sick when I was on my feet. The next day it was somewhat worse but I was still functional.All along I thought it was food poisoning and would pass.

Friday I had a couple picking up a black crappie mount who ran later than they had said and I barely made it thru till they were gone. Every time I went to walk I would start dry heaving. I spent the rest of Friday and all of Saturday in my recliner unable to keep anything down. Sitting wasn't bad but if I turned my head especially to the left, my whole world would spin. Sunday it was slightly better but my upset stomach also included some pains in the right side of my chest which I conveniently failed to mention to anyone.

Monday it got almost back to the point it was on Friday so my wife loaded me up and took me to the local hospital ER. When I mentioned sick stomach and chest pains the fun began. I got an EKG, CAT scan, all kinds of blood tests and all kinds of manual tests like a drunk driver would have on the side of the road. After almost 4 hours, they told me I had vertigo. Not like I hadn't already pretty well figured that out.

Being a holiday, all pharmacies were closed so the meds they had prescribed couldn't be bought. I was advised to see my family DR the next day. I was put thru the wringer again and told I had vertigo. No crap Sherlock!!

As soon as I got home I got on the net and started looking for vertigo cures. I kept seeing something called the"Epley Maneuver". It is an exercise designed to move the obstruction in the inner ear canal back to where it belongs and stop the vertigo.

I've been doing this for a couple of days and it has really helped. I have to wear a neck brace after doing it so I won't look down but it seems to really be helping. All the sites that tout the Epley also say it may take from a day to a few weeks to completely see the symptoms go away.

I'm much better but far from back to normal. I've had to turn down 4 days of guide trip bookings and haven't done anything in my shop in a week so this is getting into my wallet big time. I have always sympathized with those who went thru this but now I have a full understanding of what they went thru. I just wish I had looked up the Epley long before I did. Maybe I would have been back to somewhat normal before now.

There's an EARS NOSE AND THROAT Dr in Owensboro that has cured a couple of people I know by manipulating there ear. Can't remember his name right now but if your interested personal mes me I I'll look it up. Dwight