Sunday, September 18, 2011

BPPV

I've been cured from Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV)!!! Let me explain:

If you don't know let me summarize what happened 11 years ago. (I'll make a very longs story short) To sum it up Drew and I and two friends were playing baseball in the park. Though he did not want to and not without a fight, Drew allowed me to pitch to him. He hit a line drive and I caught it...with my left temple. Took an ambulance to the ER, spent some time in intensive care, had a blood clot in my brain, cracked my skull, and lost all hearing in my left ear. No big deal. Luckily, everything healed itself (or so I thought), but for the most part after a few months I felt normal. The blood clot absorbed on it's own, the crack healed itself, and all my hearing was restored. I was in college and didn't seem to have the time to go to my follow up doctors appointments when I felt fine, so I didn't.
Fast forward almost 11 years later. I have these random headaches that occur a few times a month and they are always right where I was hit in the head. It's not like I can't take the pain, but I let myself start to wonder if there was something wrong in there. Every time I have a headache I was pretty sure it was from a brain tumor. I know, dramatic. I decided to put my head at ease and have my follow up appointments. My last neurologist was in Flagstaff so I had to find a new one. I found a great Dr. who was very much intrigued by my story. After meeting with him for about 15 minutes and doing a few short tests he told me that he was pretty sure that I did have hearing loss (my other ear just did a great job compensating for it since I am young), and that I do get very dizzy when I lay down, roll over, and sit up. He set up a series of appointments for me. 1. An MRI to see my sexy brain. 2.) A hearing specialist 3.)Balance and dizziness test.
The MRI came out great nothing abnormal. My hearing test did show that I do have some hearing loss in my left ear, but I can hear fine so I don't have to do anything except take good care of that ear. (ear plugs for loud music and such) And my balance and dizziness test came back horribly. I get severely dizzy. I just don't remember life when I didn't feel this way, so it was normal to me and wasn't a big deal. Anyways they told me I have BPPV. When you have head trauma particles can get knocked loose in your ear that collect in one area of the inner ear that throws off your entire system. I met back with my doctor and he sent me to physical therapist for my "ear rocks".
I almost didn't go because the dizziness just didn't bother me that much and I thought for sure going to physical therapy wasn't going to help, but I decided to go. For most of my appointment I thought I was on a hidden camera show. The therapist, Karen, laid me down on my back with my head hanging over the table. She had my head in her hands and turned it to the left and then slowly jiggled my head. She continued to jiggle my head and rotate it at the same time all the way to the right side. Then I had to lay on my right side while the ear rocks were "leaving". I was waiting to see a pile of something on the floor. I guess they are microscopic and just absorb into the body and she just had to shake them loose, and then direct them to a place they can absorb without re-settling first. I was skeptical. Very skeptical. Especially when she said it usually works the first time. It didn't for me. Not the first, second, third, or fourth time. After about 40 minutes of head jiggling I had had enough. I allowed her to do it one more time though mostly because she was really nice, and what did I have to loose? We went for one more round of head jiggling and it actually worked!!!!! So weird. I don't know how she did it, but she was amazing.
I had no idea how bad my dizziness was until it was gone, and OH does it feel good to be cured! All in all it was worth the appointments to have peace of mind about my headaches, know to baby my left ear, and get rid of my dizziness. If only I had done this 1o years ago!
All of this made me think of Jesus. When I was in the middle of getting my head jiggled I realized many things.

1.) I was so focused on worrying about my headaches that I didn't worry about the other stuff going on. I think Jesus wants us to have healing in every area not just what we are worried about. He can show you where you need work in your life and give you the healing that you need even if you thought you were fine.
2.) It's okay to ask for help. It's good to have people around you lifting you up, jiggling you if need be, and pointing you in the right directions.
2.) Sometimes Jesus calls us to do things that feel strange, uncomfortable, or just plain don't make sense to us. Dealing with issues takes work, but brings peace. In the long run if you have faith God is good then you will great results. Trust him enough to lay your head in his hands. Let him jiggle the "ear rocks" out. And enjoy a repaired life that he wants for you!

4 comments:

  1. i love it! You have a gift for telling stories - simple but meaningful. Just wondering...did this also cure your vegetarianism? :)

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  2. phenomenal. i bet you could really master a jump toot now and not break your ankle. try it out. and while you're at it, try to eat a burger too you skinny lady! love you much. great post!!!

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  3. Your girls are going to love reading this post when they are older!!!

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