So.......I woke up at 3am Thursday morning with the room spinning. I couldn't focus. I couldn't walk without falling down or getting sick. So I did both. Then stumbled back to bed and went back to sleep - or was it just going unconscious? When I woke again at 5am, I knew instantly it wasn't just a bad dream. Somehow I made it downstairs, where I collapsed on the couch - room upside down and spinning. A combination of merry go round and roller coaster. Neither of which I would ride unless paid a very large sum of bribery money.
It didn't stop, unless I closed my eyes and laid very still.
I called in sick, somehow managing to use the telephone.
Then passed out again.
I have a vague recollection of feeling like this after a particularly wild party in college....too bad - this time - I don't seem to remember having any fun before all the spinning and upside down stuff started.
Periodically I woke to spinning and sickness.
Hubby called to check on me. I must have sounded really bad.
He called back a few minutes later to tell me he had spoken to my doctor, who told him to get me to the emergency room.
WHAAAA???
OK, maybe I'm having a stroke? A heart attack? I have a brain tumor?
I went upstairs and woke my son. Good morning, can you please drive me to the hospital??
The merry go round was still a wild ride. The roller coaster had slowed down a bit.
The hospital was wonderful. They were nice to me. They gave me lots of tests - EKG, chest xray, CT scan of the brain, blood work. They gave me medicine to make the roller coaster stop.
Diagnosis : Vertigo. Possibly Meniere's Disease - a disorder of the inner ear. They sent me home with medicine. And a phone number to call the Werner Institute of Motion. Apparently they do things like hang you upside down and shake you. Can't wait!
It really is so incredibly true - if you have your health, you have everything.
Happy to report, a few days later, no more spinning.
