The past three months haven’t been too good for me. I have had problems at work and health issues pertaining to meniere’s and health issues not pertaining to meniere’s. But something happened the other day that really scared me. It isn’t uncommon for your eyes to play tricks on you when you have balance problems, but this episode was particularly frightening.
My wife and I went to see my eight year old son play basketball on Saturday afternoon. I felt pretty good but I took an Antivert just to be careful. This was his 7th game this season that I went to. I was a little reluctant to go at first because watching basketball requires turning your head from side to side continuously. But the first 6 games I didn’t have any dizziness issues or meniere’s attacks.
Since this was the last game of the year, I took my camcorder to film him playing. I kept up with the game as well as I could, filming him going up and down the court. Luckily the games aren’t that long, so I didn’t become dizzy.
After the game we walked back to the car. I got in first and looked over at my wife opening the door on the passenger side. At this point the car in the space on my wife’s side started to back out. Suddenly I had the sensation of drifting backward. I slammed on the brake and held on for dear life. Which was ridiculous, because I hadn’t even started the car and the car was in park so we weren’t drifting at all.
Finally when the car pulled away I got my senses back. What a very strange sensation. This all felt very real. Needless to say my wife drove us back home. I don’t know what brought this on, I suppose the basketball game, I just don’t know.
This is another wonderful example of what Meniere’s disease can do to you.
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Wednesday, February 24, 2010
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6 comments:
I sometimes have a strange one a bit like this. Apart from feeling a reaction to unusual movements or shifts of perspective on TV, I sometimes get it on the computer as well. The odd thing is that it happens when things DON'T move!
What I mean by that is that sometimes on a page there is something you can click and you expect to get a menu or a pop-up or whatever. If I click and nothing happens, I feel a bit of a wobble. It's almost as if the body is expecting the visual feedback in response to the physical mouse click and if it doesn't happen the circle isn't complete and your balance has to kick in to compensate. It doesn't happen all the time, only when I'm not feeling great already. Pretty strange, eh?
It is strange! It seems when I have problems with my balance then I get these weird visual effects. It scares me a little because I don't always feel that I have control over my movements
David
My doctor explained to me that MD involves deterioration of the Vestibular System. When you read what the Vestibular System controls...it all makes sense. Just a bit what it does is "The vestibular system sends signals primarily to the neural structures that control our eye movements, and to the muscles that keep us upright." This explains my wacky eye movements sometimes and Drop Attacks in MD patients. Love your posts David! Keep it up!!
thanks I appreciate the info. and the kind words!
David
I too have had similar situations and have read that those of us with MD are really "re-training" our brains how to think and react to visual situations like the car moving that was adjacent to you. A non-visual example for me was when we purchased a front-load washing machine. I had heard that some of them create quite a bit of vibration, depending on the location in your home and your home's structure. The first week we owned the new washer I couldn't stand in the same room or the adjacent rooms while the washer was spinning. The floor shook a little too much and my brain couldn't figure it out. I was so scared I was going into vertigo that my anxiety triggers kicked in. After a couple of weeks I could stand in the next room and now I can be in the laundry room while the washer is spinning. Also, any situation where pressure changes in a room really confuses me and I have to leave. An example would be a windy day outside and 2 people simultaneously open front and back doors to the house, creating a pressure change in the house. I usually grab my ear (my left is the one involved) and look around to see what happened while other people in the room haven't sensed a thing. It's so subtle and strange and I used to be self conscious about it, but the brain seems to be able to re-learn because most situations I can handle here at home. I have had Meniere's for 2 years but have not had vertigo in 15 months - yay! Love your blog. I visit often. Thanks David! -Lita in Washington State, USA
It does seem to take time for us to make adjustments to certain types of movements. Our eyes too often send out the wrong info to the brain causing chaos and panic to our balance system.
I appreciate you reading my blog, stay in touch
David
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