VERTIGO (MENIERE'S DISEASE) Part 1

VERTIGO (MENIERE'S DISEASE)

By Nzinga Nzinga

Part 1 

That Spinning Feeling!

If you are checking for vertigo, that frightening dizzy condition, in the indices of your health books, you may be disappointed. However, if you check Meniere’s disease or dizziness, you will strike lucky because they are given as synonyms for vertigo, although vertigo implies dizziness but dizziness is not necessarily or always vertigo.  

Vertigo, as its name suggests, is a medical condition manifested by dizziness, experienced globally. When a person experiences vertigo, the feeling of spinning around even when one is stationary, causes severe dizziness. People suffering from vertigo will suffer an abnormal sensation that causes them to feel as though their surrounding environment is continuously spinning, whirling or moving. As a result of this, they suffer loss of balance or a sensation of nausea that may grow acute. 

Let me run this past you again. Even though one is on solid ground, the place is still spinning, round and round. I can tell you from a onetime experience that it’s a most scary and unpleasant sensation. Dizziness, fear of fainting, nausea and vomiting are some of the symptoms associated with vertigo. The victim may suffer only one or many of the symptoms, some not mentioned here. The condition can last for only a couple of minutes, for hours, or even a few days to the discomfort of the sufferer. Mine, related below, lasted some hours and I am only guessing.

I am particularly interested in vertigo since I had a virulent vertiginous attack in Jamaica in September 2009, which has left me with the greatest respect for vertigo victims, especially my many friends and relatives about whose disorder I learnt only after my attack. Let me relate my experience with vertigo. That beautiful September evening, around 6 pm, while on a walk by myself in a residential area in Kingston, Jamaica, ‘vortical’ (sic) vertigo spun me round and round, and knocked me down on the ground totally incapable of getting up or focussing. I experienced dizziness, spinning way out of control, nausea, loss of perception, helplessness and loss of balance resulting in the inability to stay on my feet thus falling to the ground. In going down, I held on to a parked car. A lot of car owners drive to that area, park and then set off on their walk, jogging or running. Holding unto that car for support was a bad idea as the alarm was set off and in the confusion I thought the car and I were plunging into the gully. In the chaos, I realised that the car was still stationary and beeping while I was on the ground with my world now a violent, whirling vertigo, spinning non-stop and uncontrollably around me. I just missed falling over into the gully. I vaguely remember calling weakly for help to a walker-by who obviously could not see or hear me since I was lying on the ground on the verge, shielded by the car.

Then, mercifully, two jogging female angels, at the start of their evening run, came to my rescue.  I was conscious enough to tell them where I was staying just down the road in one of the townhouses. Fortunately, I remembered the number of the house. One ran nearby for her car. They both lifted me into the car and drove me home. There was no problem with my memory, just my total lack of focus as my world kept spinning incessantly. Severe nausea overpowered me so much so that, to my great embarrassment, I started vomiting non-stop when the car stopped at the house. I remember that I got my head out of the car in time to vomit outside. Mercifully, it all went out through the open car door and none fell inside. My relatives came out to me and I recall insisting that they get the identity of my two guardian angels. They didn’t and to my greatest regret, I never saw them again. Forgive me, ladies. I pray that one day we will meet again so I can show my appreciation. Maybe if I were on Face Book we would ‘buck’ up.  

To cut a long story short, my cousin took me to the hospital.  In the hospital bed, while the faces of the doctor and the others in the room plus everything else were still out of focus, I had an embarrassingly desperate need to evacuate, resulting in copious loose bowels. Although I was able to recognize the many visitors who came to see me in the early part of the night, I could not focus on any of them. One even stayed until after 1am. It took a good while for me to lose the dizziness and to regain steady focus and a correct sense of perception. Oddly enough, I didn’t experience any ringing in the ears or loss of hearing.

I spent five days in the hospital and had a ct-scan. There were no side-effects like a stroke. Thank God, Dr. Scott and the rest of the staff for the care. I was scheduled to travel back to Ghana ten days after leaving the hospital. Of course it was very worrying for a recent victim of vertigo to be flying way up in the skies for some 15 hours. God was in control and as you know He is the greatest of Ace pilots and the caregiver nonpareil, so I left everything in his hands and travelled back as scheduled, wheelchair-bound with no crisis.

Let me pass on to you some recommended herbal treatments gleaned from diverse sources.

 To be continued
 All the images were taken from the Internet and I claim no copyright.