Saturday, July 24, 2010

What's Worse Than A Headache?

Not, the answer is not "Congress." Um, well, it is, but that's not what I was after--

Yesterday morning went as planned, took my headache into the shower and emerged feeling a bit better; took up the ol' neti pot and ran warm salt water through my nose (big fun! Usually helps, too). When I finished, I realized that with every movement, the room was spinning and lurching: vertigo!

It was very mild. I've had it before. The main thing is to not let it get to you; if you can keep your balance (mainly by using external references), it's like being a little tipsy without the mental blurriness. So I kept on getting ready, with the occasional sigh or giggle over missteps and Sock-Donning Adventures (and it truly is, when you're precessing like a tumbling gyroscope).

Told Tam what was going on. She was not as amused, warning, "You'd better stay home." In hindsight, not such a bad idea; but we're short-handed Fridays and I have better uses for the pooled Personal Time Off we draw both vacation and sick days from.

In I drove and it wasn't too bad. Figured things were looking up. Indeed, for the first hour or two, if I was careful how I moved, I hardly noticed.

Then it started getting worse. And worse. And worse. Started to feel like my throat was closing up, even. By the time I was working (ground crew!) with a tower-climber, my head was seriously spinning and nausea had commenced. As soon as that job was done, I checked out and drove to the nearest health-care provider.

Almost didn't make it. There were two turns at normal city speeds. My car made a 90°; my head made an 810°. But I got there, stumbled through check-in, triage (which they've finally started calling that, instead of some nice-Nancy obfuscating name), and found myself in an exam room being offered anti-nausea meds.

Didn't have to ask me twice. After bein' looked over by an M.D., I was fitted with an IV and shot up with an assortment of Modern Drugs. All of it aimed at the symptoms; the verdict was that they didn't know what was wrong but they could darned well control the effects.

It worked, too. Head still spinning, I was asleep in minutes; work up an hour later and...no spin! Weak, a bit out of it (little antihistamine in the mix) but gyros fully functional. It was such a relief I went back to sleep 'til they came back 'round a couple hours later and asked pointed questions about how maybe there was someone who could drive me home?

And here I are; Tam took me home (they promised not to tow my car) and other than a dinner break (pizza; it's loaded with nutrition, y'know), I have been asleep ever since. 16 hours? Longer.

I didn't even have a chance to tellya about the -- holy Joe McCarthy! -- spies for Cuba who showed up last week, workin' in the State Department. You'll have to come back later for that.

9 comments:

  1. Dang!

    Glad you're feeling better - I've had a couple of inner ear infections that made me feel like a Tilt-O-Whirl, but not combined with headaches.

    Take care!

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  2. Getting wobbly deliberately is (can be) fun. Doing it impromptu? Not so fun.

    Hang in there.

    Jim

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  3. My sympathy - and the dual observation that "migraines" are far more often than not an early warning of a sinus infection.

    Followed by the observation that meclizine HCL products such as Bonine, Anti-Vert, and similar products are very effective when vertigo decks you, and are available at very small cost OTC.

    Ask at the local big box pharmacy, and take the 25 mg adult size as needed. Usually one to three over 24 hours will take care of the problem. If it does not, you need to see the doc.

    Stranger

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  4. Whoa!

    Good to hear you are feeling better, lovely lady. I had any inner ear infection once. It was decidedly double-plus un-fun.

    Please take care of yourself. What was on the pizza?

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  5. Wow ear or sinus maybe both infection.

    I've suffered with them most of my life
    and the resulting tilts are bad juju.

    Please do get it checked out.

    Eck!

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  6. Pizza is, indeed, a health food.
    Hope you are better, and this goes away and never comes back!!

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  7. Red onions, mushrooms, andouille sausage, Tam tells me; I can hardly remember. Her half had jalapenos, too. Health food!

    I'll try keepin' the antivert meds on hand.

    I'm still sleepyish; we hit a new cafe for brunch and got my car, which may be about my limit for today.

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  8. Sorry to hear about the vertigo and glad you're feeling better.

    I've only had a mild case once and it was NOT fun.

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  9. My husband had a bad case, set off by an antibiotic he apparently couldn't tolerate. The antibiotic was for (another) sinus infection, and the docs figure that between the two he didn't have much hope, never had a serious case before, but in less than an hour he was so dizzy he couldn't walk. The prescription meds helped the dizzy but made him so sleepy he couldn't function, but the doc also recommended carrying Bonine, now he takes a full dose as soon as he starts to feel dizzy and so far thats solved the problem (crosses fingers).

    Good luck, severe vertigo sucks, especially if it keeps coming back!

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