The big yawn

Let me tell you about my August. It sucked. I was sick from one thing or another through the entire month. Bronchitis, viral, which went into pneumonia, then sinus and ear infections, then a very bad reaction to Bactrim that I was prescribed for those infections. And then vertigo as a result, probably of both the ear infections and the Bactrim reaction. Oh, and 3 doctor appointments and a total of 7 different prescriptions. Oh yes, yes indeed...
Cha-freakin'-ching!

I also missed work for most of August, which is horrible. Too busy to miss that much time. So now I'm backlogged at work, and also at home... coz I got nothing done there either.

And my head felt terrible, and flattened, from laying down so much. And I am still not back up-to-speed with stamina. (I could use a nap right now, for example.)

But that old "every cloud has a silver lining" has come into play. 'Bout damn time, too.

August ended with my going to work on Monday, the 23rd. Wore me out, so I was in bed before 7:30pm. Woke up at 4am, and on my way back to bed from the bathroom (coz anyone with a lick of sense and a 50-year-old bladder knows darn well why I woke up at 4am) I sneezed hard. And my world began to wobble.

I've had vertigo since the end of June 2008. It is awful to have a vertigo attack... thankfully in all this time, I've only had 1 vertigo attack out in public, with the rest occurring while at home. It ain't pretty, so home is best. There is usually vomit involved. And moaning. And of course with me, also much cussing. (Sorry, Mom!)

So I made my way back to the bathroom, and I took an Anti-Vert tablet and a Valium. Then I slowly made my way back to bed where I hung onto the edge of my inner balance for roughly 4 hours. Usually, an Anti-Vert and a Valium will zonk me out within 20 or 30 minutes, but not that morning. Finally though, I fell asleep, and I slept hard for several more hours.

When I woke, I did not feel any vertigo symptoms. My right ear still hurt, though. And you know how you feel like you just can't move when you sleep that hard? Like life is in slo-mo?... That's how I felt. Got up and around, started to feel better, and I yawned. I mean I really yawned. A great big yawn. And I heard a CRACK! deep inside my right ear.

And my life changed.

I hadn't realized how much the vertigo has affected me the past two years... how much a feeling of constant wobbling, of peripheral dizziness, of almost-nauseated was part of my every-day existence. Getting vertigo was like a giant slap in the face, but living with it and adapting to it was a slow enough progression that I failed to comprehend how much it had changed me.

And now it seems the big yawn cured me. No more vertigo. As much as August sucked, it was worth it. I'd opt to go through 2 Augusts like that to be done with that pesky vertigo. So worth it.

And that there is my silver lining. Kinda matches my hair color.