Prompts and a follow-up

[stgulik]

I got my assignment from the sshg_promptfest today! It wasn't my first choice, but it was a very close second, and I'm stoked.

nagandsev asked for an update after my doctor visit. I'm reluctant to bore you with details, so here are the headlines. The doc says the inner ear is still out of whack after the fall. Something about, there is sand in the tubes of your ears that helps you keep your balance. In my case, the sand shifted and hasn't shifted back yet. This condition can't be fixed. I'll just have to put up with the occasional vertigo until/unless the sand shifts back one day.

Then I saw a hearing specialist who told me my hearing is normal for someone my age, but that I have tinnitus and it can't be fixed until/unless it goes away on its own. She suggested I find ways to forget the noise is happening. Oh, okay! No problem!

Results were unsatisfying, to say the least. I'm still deciding whether to accept them with good grace. I imagine this is what middle age has in store for me - little tiny symptoms caused by little tiny problems. And doctors who say, "The body was only meant to live about forty years. Evolution has not yet caught up to the phenomenon of the HMO. So go home and take vitamins, and enjoy your borrowed time."

Comments

[squibstress.livejournal.com]

My husband suffered from constant ringing in his ears and some vertigo, and he saw several docs until one neurologist prescribed simple exercises to redistribute the "sand". You might ask your doc if the "half-somersault" and "Eply maneuver" might help you.

[beffeysue.livejournal.com]

My daughter had a bad case of vertigo, and the doctor used the Epley maneuver. Worked like a charm... but it included the full 48 hour follow-through of keeping her head in a vertical position. The doctor told her she could buy a collar, or she could roll-up a thick towel longways and put it around her neck and tying the "ends" together where they crossed under her chin with twine.

This is the exact procedure my daughter had when she had treatment for a persistant case of vertigo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK2Zj_TrBhE

These are also helpful websites:

BENIGN PAROXYSMAL POSITIONAL VERTIGO
http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/bppv/bppv.html

WebMD has a good article:
http://www.webmd.com/brain/tc/benign-paroxysmal-positional-vertigo-bppv-topic-overview

I hope you'll soon get over this vertigo.
((hugs))

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

I feel like I should get the award for Worst Friend of Forever. I totally forgot about your doctor's appointment. I'm sorry the answers weren't satisfying, yet relieved that they weren't more serious.

And while it's crap, it will settle down. I'll bet others have used certain sounds and white noises while trying to get over tinnitus. Perhaps there are good things to listen to. I wonder if Binaural Beats will help? The way they free website writes it, they're good for everything from headaches to hemorrhoids.

[kittylefish.livejournal.com]

well, i hope that your situations resolve themselves. i hope the things beffeysue recommended help.

and i have to say, your post makes me feel less of a lack from not having insurance and therefore not being able to go to the doctor - i'm just imagining as i present all my symptoms being told, well, that's pretty normal for your age and/or there's nothing we can do, and it will either go away or it won't. lol.

[droxy.livejournal.com]

U R seeing the wrong doctors.

Yay for prompts!

[nagandsev.livejournal.com]

Hello! Thank you for more details--it was just one of those things which is always, sort of, awkward to ask another in our virtual lives:-) I was just a bit worried, not hearing any further about things, wondering if the doctor had been able to give any specific, concrete diagnosis ( I dread their vague answers, which are half of the time what I've received... Yes, I know I'm aging and a natural klutz, etc.) And thank you beffeysue for sharing these links! They're wonderfully informative (but sorry that your daughter had to go through this). Miz stgulik, wishing the sand to shift back into its proper places a.s.a.p.!<3