Back Home by Chris Hardie
Some say the key to a good life is balance, which is hard to achieve when you’ve always been a half-bubble or more off level like me.
While some of that statement is metaphorically true, it’s also literally true. For the past five-plus years I have dealt with vertigo, which is the sensation that the world around me is spinning. It hit me hard in February of 2020 when I suddenly couldn’t walk because of the spinning and was violently ill like I had the world’s case of food poisoning.
A couple of trips to the emergency room and return visits to specialists for more tests revealed that I had Meniere’s Disease, an inner ear disorder caused by a buildup of fluid and changing pressure in the ear. Meniere’s can cause episodes of vertigo along with ringing in the ears (tinnitus) and hearing loss.
A scan of my brain revealed that half-bubble blip – which I already knew – but did also show that at some point I had suffered a minor stroke. That’s why I try to take Green Bay Packers’ losses less seriously these days.
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders said Meniere’s can develop at any age, but usually happens to adults between 40 and 60. There are about 615,000 people in the U.S. with the diagnosis and about 45,500 new cases diagnosed each year.
The symptoms are caused by a building of fluid in the compartments of the inner ear, called the labyrinth. This is where the organs of balance and hearing reside.
There is no definitive answer to what causes Meniere’s, but it can be linked to viral infections (such as Lyme), allergies or autoimmune reactions. In my case I had vertigo first, then Lyme, but it’s possible I was already carrying the Lyme virus and it flared that summer.
The year 2020 was a tough one, as I had Lyme, vertigo, Meniere’s and Covid all in the span of six months. In the midst of this my father died and I had a bad attack of vertigo the day of his funeral.
Physical therapy helped me control and eventually lessen the vertigo symptoms and they eventually went away. Hearing tests – including a recent one – shows a loss of hearing that puts me borderline for hearing aids – a diagnosis my wife Sherry knew years ago.
But peripheral vertigo is never really cured and can flare up for no known reason. For the past month or so, I’ve felt a little off – more so than my normal half-bubble. I was stumbling a little more and just felt weird.
One recent morning I woke up and the off-kilter spinning had started again. It wasn’t a severe attack, but it warranted a trip to the emergency room just to make sure. I spent most of the day in bed but was back to work the next day.
Best practices to control vertigo are to drink more water, move slowly when you feel dizzy and to lie in a dark quiet room. I can do those things. One should also limit caffeine, alcohol, salt and tobacco. I don’t smoke and I prefer pepper. But I love my coffee and own a winery – two out of four ain’t bad.
And one should also control stress and practice relaxation techniques. With two jobs, a rural property to manage and with just a wee bit of uncertainty in the world today, let’s just say that stress to me is akin to breathing.
I’ll try to find the balance when I walk in the woods, cut some wood, take in the fresh air and strangely enough, write. Words are my companions and writing helps stimulate my brain. That’s where I find some semblance of balance.
And I can always be a better listener.
Chris Hardie spent more than 30 years as a reporter, editor
