Balance – life on a tightrope

I don’t know if there’s a god, but if there is, and he/she/it sent an email with a link to a survey about your experiences/approval of the design of the human body, I’d give it mixed reviews but in the comments box I’d ask this question:

                Why is most of the equipment for balance intimately tied to the equipment for hearing?

They’re crammed in the skull all coiled up together like a snail-shell with two compartments. So, all too often, a problem with one is also a problem for the other. I’m the poster child for that concept.

As mentioned, the hearing problem started at 9 years old. Remember when I said my disabilities didn’t come all at once? The balance problem waited in the wings for about 30 years after that.

When it woke up and reared its head, I honestly thought I’d been poisoned by the barbequed rib dinner I’d just eaten. I couldn’t stand up, and I couldn’t stop throwing up for about 10 minutes. In other words, I had extreme vertigo. The world was spinning, and my wife, who also thought I’d been poisoned, drove me to an urgent care thing with me doing my best not to barf in the car. I actually made it to a chair in the lobby, then I barfed.

For another one of Paul’s rabbit hole asides, I learned on that day what you want to do to get to the front of the line at the urgent care or ER thing. Plentiful vomiting and/or bleeding on their lobby floor will do the job.

They gave me something or other to help my poor stomach, had me lie down awhile, and then the vertigo passed. Obviously, they suggested a normal physician visit. With the appointment a couple weeks out, I had another one of these vertigo attacks, but I didn’t barf much because I already knew to lie down in a hurry.

When I did see the doctor, he asked me a few questions about both my balance and my hearing and uttered the phrase: “I think you may have Meniere’s disease.” I said the same thing you just thought. “What’s Meniere’s disease?”

Turns out it’s a problem with that godly design flaw I mentioned earlier. There’s a leak. Between the two sections (hearing and balance) that are not supposed to leak (essential fluids). The leak isn’t part of the “design” but there it is.

So, Meniere’s disease messes with both hearing and balance.

Now hearing loss sucks, no question.

A severe balance disorder with unpredictable attacks of extreme vertigo sucks worse – at least in my opinion.

See, I never know when a sudden attack of vertigo is going to take me down (and I mean down to the ground unless I’m there already). Good news! At least on the balance side, Meniere’s tends to self-resolve (somewhat) over time. So, as I write, I have a generalized and constant balance disorder, but actual big attacks are very rare – still possible – meaning I walk with a cane when I’m outside and rely on walls and assistive handholds when I’m home. I have become rather adept at grabbing door jams and other firmly planted objects as needed. I do pretty good unless I get cocky.

The cane is a third leg that helps me walk at a remarkable pace (my legs are better than fine) without falling (at least not very often).

Disability? – check.

Next: https://fullyanchoredblog.blogspot.com/2024/11/polarize-me-please.html


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