Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Vertigo

I've been tired, and the residual motion sickness/vertigo I've got going on is not helping.

I have had vertigo at least twice before, and I'm happy to report that this time, it's relatively minor.

The first time I succumbed to vertigo, it was among the last straws in a time of Very Bad Health (VBH). I was only 19 years old, and VBH was something I'd never really considered. But, I had mono that went undiagnosed forever. I had to drop out of school. I got many infections, and then, perhaps due to an inner ear pestilence, I got vertigo.

Every time I moved, every time I stood up, every time I turned my head, I vomited. What we say here in the West household is that I visited vom.com. It was probably the quintessential visit to that fictional, disgusting locale. After the vertigo hopped on the VBH train, I took to my bed and didn't get out until I was all the way better.

I also had vertigo just last year when Are We There Yet? came out, and I spent inordinate time on the computer and on my iPhone doing virtual events and trying to interact with readers and reviewers during lockdown. I didn't realize phone scrolling could cause vertigo, but it can. I googled it. I'm pretty sure I wrote about it. 

(I just checked, and I didn't write about it. But, I did write about a different bout of vertigo I had in 2006. I have no memory of that particular episode, probably because I was in graduate school and had a two-year-old, and hadn't slept in a million moons.)

Anyway, we've established that I've had vertigo before. I had it again beginning last week after several harrowing Uber rides and bumpy flight from Chicago to Minneapolis. I went right to work on it with less screen time and those wrist bands with accupressure thingies. Now, I'm no longer on the way to vom.com, but I've been taking Bonine from time to time for stubborn nausea. 

I don't care for vertigo, as it turns out, but who would?

1 comment:

LH said...

Hope you're feeling steadier and stabler.