My hero, Lucille 2. I feel ya... I feel ya. ;_;

Okay, so I thought it would go away when I stopped swimming… it didn’t. At least I’ve deducted it to a couple of things. Decided to keep a log, in case anyone else out there has the same issue?

Vertigo History Log

CASE 1:

First day February 10th or 11th, 2010
Happened the morning after watching Dave Chappelle’s late night stand-up show. (Had like an iddy-biddy sip of Brent’s drink. Possibly a beer.) Got home late, around 2AM. Slept until 8AM. Felt the first rush of vertigo around 7ish when I was sleeping. I turned over and felt the rush of gravity pulling me the opposite direction, head was spinning, room was spinning, head hurt a little, but tried to sleep it off. Slept for a little bit more, but it didn’t go away.

Vertigo dizziness persisted for about four more days. Triggered when I looked up, twisted my head back to look up/back, whenever I leaned down, and laying down in bed and turning over–bad on both sides.

CASE 2:

First day March 23, 2010
Night before, went to Jake Shimabukuro show in SF. (Had iddy-biddy sip of Brent’s drink. Beer maybe?) Got home around 1AM. Slept until 7:30/8ish. Felt dizziness while in bed again. This time, was worse when flipping over to the left side. Worst when leaning down, looking upwards. Went away after two days. Went to see a doctor on the 25th when it was mostly dissipated. But came back on the 26-28th.

CASE 3:

First day April 11, 2010 [CURRENT]
Night before, went out for some bar hopping. Had 1 mixed drink, 2.5 beers. Got home around 2ish. Slept until 9:30. On the 11th, didn’t feel like vertigo but just slight dizziness, probably from drinking–didn’t feel like gravity pulling like usual. Didn’t feel any symptoms when leaning down nor looking up, just a little bit when laying down.

Day 2: definitely felt like vertigo when leaning downwards or backwards about half way thru the day, and laying down too.

[More updates regarding current case in the next couple of days]

My Thoughts and Theories

Could it be from staying out late? It’s the common denominator. I haven’t swam in the last month so I’m pretty sure that is out of the equation now. Could it be my overall sleeping? Am I struggling in my sleep due to breathing, and thus magnified on the nights when I don’t sleep my usual 9 hours?

I’ll be trying Breathe-Right strips tonight to see how I feel tomorrow. Maybe my body’s not used to getting less than 9 hours of sleep? Maybe it’s not used to going out late? I totally don’t know. It just seems a little odd that it keeps happening the nights when I stay out late.

Maybe in Case 3, I didn’t feel it as much the first morning because I slept more. But the weird part is that on that night of the 11th, I slept around 9:30PM and woke up on the 12th around 8AM, about 11 hours of sleep and it still hit me in the afternoon. Not sure… maybe there’s no logic to it. =/

Resources

I’ve done some research to see what I can do to lessen some of the symptoms.

• My doctor suggests taking dramamine or other sea-sickness medicine — I haven’t tried it yet because it makes you drowsy.
• The “Brandt-Daroff Exercises” which can be found on this eHow.com article, and also on this pretty informative article on BPPV.

  Here’s a video of the exercise:

  The latter site mentions:

  These exercises are performed in three sets per day for two weeks. In each set, one performs the maneuver… five times.

  1 repetition = maneuver done to each side in turn (takes 2 minutes)

  Suggested Schedule for Brandt-Daroff exercises
  Time	Exercise	Duration
  Morning	5 repetitions	10 minutes
  Noon	5 repetitions	10 minutes
  Evening	5 repetitions	10 minutes

• I also became the only Facebook Fan of this Page (lol I don’t become a Fan of many things on FB…): Treat Vertigo Now. They seem to provide pretty informative info about vertigo. Seems to be the only FB Page dedicated to medical Vertigo… not like… a rollercoaster or some sorta music group. ;x
• Oh my doctor says they dunno the cause of vertigo, and not sure how/when it happens. Some people have it frequently, some people get it once and never again–hard to predict and say when it happens. As long as you don’t have a fever with it, it sounds like it should be benign. Also, if it happens when you’re just sitting and not moving, that’s no good either.

I’ll keep updating this post whenever I find out more info, or if there’s any updates to my own vertigo situation.

Please share any info you may have or also be experiencing if you have vertigo too! (Am I the only non-granny that has vertigo??? ;_;~~~)