thorninmyside

Have you been there?  That room is spinning while you are standing still feeling that brings with it a wave of nausea and difficulty figuring out where you are in space.  Yes, vertigo is not a good feeling. 

Vertigo can have different causes.  For most people, the problem is in the inner ear.  All of the movement in your body registers in your inner ear.  When the inner ear is getting conflicting signals, vertigo results.  For people like me, vertigo is neurological.  This is trickier to treat but it is still possible.

There are different options for treating vertigo- many are similar to the treatments for motion sickness.  Technically treating the symptoms but effective nonetheless. My doctor prescribed Meclizine.  Although this makes you very tired (doesn’t everything? LOL) it is effective in treating the nausea that can be associated with a vertigo attack.

There are other things you can do to treat/avoid a vertigo attack.  Avoid foods that can upset your stomach.  A natural remedy for nausea is ginger.  I usually have hard ginger candy to pop in my mouth if I am in a setting where taking my Meclizine won’t work (remember, it makes me very sleepy).  Closing my eyes makes the feeling worse so I naturally avoid that. Stairs, riding in the car, standing up suddenly are all things that can trigger an attack as well.

Do you suffer from vertigo?  Share how you cope with us!

Okay, so most people are able to go get an MRI and go home.  Not me!  First of all, I am claustrophobic.  Now this issue can come in varying degrees.  For me, it comes in a claw my way out, think my heart is going to race out of my chest, break into a cold sweat and cry my eyes out kinda way.  So, it is necessary to give me a little something to relax me before I can go near an MRI machine.

In addition, because the most accurate look at the brain is in a closed MRI machine and a closed MRI is how they monitor the progression of my MS and the status of a venous angioma, I spend some time in said machine.  My doctor is a kind human being, especially to the MRI technicians, and gives me enough sedatives to render me unconscious.  That means it takes a village, not to raise a child, but to get me through an MRI.

My friend, Noelle, picked me up at 8am, got me dressed with little assistance from my very doped up self and drove me the 65 miles to the MRI place.  There my grandparents met her to help get me out of the car and into the waiting room.  I sign my name (this of course I do not remember) on a consent form (now, really should you be signing your name on a consent of any kind when you don’t know where you are or what you are there for?).  Then they transfer my limp self to a wheelchair, then to a stretcher and put me in the MRI machine (after strapping my head down and closing the helmet like device on it).  It is knowing that my head gets strapped down that makes me extra thankful I am so out of it.  Then they put you in the tube, the machine makes loud scary noises that my brain somehow integrates into the happy drug induced dreams I am having, they bring me out of the machine, give me a shot of contrast, put me back in the torture tube, take some more pictures of my brain and I am done. 

Said support team gets me back out to the car where I spend the trip home sleeping off the meds.  Again, so thankful for the ability to sleep through anything with the help of medication. And, I am sure the techs and my family/friends are extra thankful too :-)  Results will be in mid month.