Monday, December 1, 2008

Vertigo

Yesterday morning while at Mass, poor Rick collapsed and I, panicking (though I really think it was the right decision), had the usher call 911. So they took him to the ER and after a few hours determined that he had veritgo. The poor guy was incredibly and violently ill. Awful, awful, awful!

We got home a little before 6:00 p.m. Hannah and all stayed home all day with the younger ones. It was a miserable dreary, cold, wet day. Poor Hannah is having boyfriend trouble and is rather low.

Anyway, everything feels amiss. I don't think either Will or Josh got much of their homework done for the math tutor this a.m. Gotta get them up and going. The grocery shopping and housework didn't get done either. I'm feeling terribly out of sorts this morning. Can I just go back to bed and skip this day? Pretty please?

But Rick did wake up this morning feeling a little better. He was able to sit up and he ate a little bit of a banana and some toast with jelly. I better go check on him. He is so worried because he's supposed to fly to CA on Wed. to go to the meeting that was cancelled because his grandmother died. Now there is this. If he gets a vertigo attack while in CA he'd wind up in the hospital! Plus, if it is the inner ear causing havoc, wouldn't flying on plane be verboten?????

Lord, have mercy!

2 comments:

Satia said...

He should see a doctor immediately because odds are he has an inner ear condition that should be taken care of. But there are also some very serious causes behind vertigo attacks and he needs to have a doctor verify these things.

I have vertigo and flown. It is not comfortable for me but I can do it. However, my vertigo and the reason why I have it may be very different from his.

Hopefully it is a simple ear infection and a little antibiotics is all you'll need. After two years of living with vertigo, there are things I do, simple exercises, to help me live with the symptoms. I hope Rick won't have to deal with it on a chronic level but if he does, please feel free to contact me for more information.

Oh and I give you full permission to take the day off and stay in bed. If anyone asks, tell them I said it was okay and if they have a problem with it they can complain to me. :)

Suburban Correspondent said...

He definitely needs to determine the cause, if the doctor didn't already. There are approximately 4 possibilities: Meniere's Disease (inner ear disorder), BPV (benign positional vertigo, which involves calcifications in the inner ear and that there are "exercises" available for), brain tumor (ack - sorry to mention that, but I doubt that is the case), and a weird ear infection, for which they prescribe antibiotics and sometimes steroids to take down the swelling in the inner ear that creates the vertigo.

Call me for details on anything.