About
a month ago I was extremely dizzy. When
I stood up, sat down or walked I would practically fall over and a few times I
did fall over. Doc diagnosed it as BPPV:
Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo. The Vestibular Disorders Association defines
BPPV as “the most common disorder of the inner ear’s vestibular system, which
is a vital part of maintaining balance. BPPV is benign, meaning that it is not
life-threatening nor generally progressive. BPPV produces a sensation of
spinning called vertigo that is both paroxysmal and positional, meaning it
occurs suddenly and with a change in head position."
Basically
there are tiny crystals (rocks) in the inner ear and something caused them to
get loose. When they are loose they roll
around and get into the ear canals. This
causes the fluid in the canals to be displaced and sends false signals to the brain
which causes the dizziness. Treatment is
some crazy physical therapy where the PT lays me back on a table, hangs my head
over the edge and turns it quickly to the side. OH BOY… Room is really spinning now – it’s
like a crazy carnival ride on steroids .
So,
the physical therapy that I had a few weeks ago worked – at least I thought it
did. I still had some slight dizziness
but, it wasn’t really annoying or bothering me so I just dealt with it. Monday the extreme dizziness returned
again. I went back to the PT yesterday
and got the crazy carnival ride treatment again. Now, the problem is they aren’t sure which
ear canal is affected (there are 3) and the treatment varies for each canal so
it might take a few appointments to figure this out. Sample of my conversation with the PT when
she laid me backwards:
PT: Keep your eyes open
Me: Are
my eyes spinning in circles? (I’m looking at the bumps on the wall and they are
spinning in circles and kind of spiraling in and out).
PT: Yes
Me: Oh Good!
PT: No, you are not crazy! :)
In
the meantime, I am still trying to get in my workouts. It drives me crazy to miss workouts and
having or making excuses to miss a workout makes it even worse in my mind. So, I have to modify a few things. I can’t do anything where I tip my head
forward – like swimming. Biking is ok as
long as I keep my head up which I am supposed to do anyway but, when I am
biking on the trainer I tend to look down a lot. I also have to modify movements for my weight
and core workouts.
I
have another treatment scheduled for Friday and am really hoping we can get
this figure out/cleared up soon!
Changing
topics now – Sunday Pat and I hiked Lewis & Clark caverns. I have never hiked these trails and really
liked them. We got in a nice 7 mile hike
and experienced every weather condition possible that day. The sun was out and hot when we started –
starting out means hiking uphill so with the sun on us we got HOT! We were dressed for winter weather and were
shedding layers the whole way up. Then winter
returned when we got to the top. It started
snowing and got really windy. I used every
piece of clothing I had with me to get warmed up again (2 hats, 2 gloves, 4
layers of shirts and jackets). If you
haven’t tried these trails, try them, they are great! And there are quite a few trail options so you
can create many different routes/distances.
Tell me a "dizzy blonde" joke. :)
- I had
a bike session with my coach this week.
We discussed race schedule leading up to Louisville. I will probably do the same races as last
year (minus a couple):
- Bozeman
Triathlon on 6/28 – probably the Sprint but, maybe the Olympic.
- Spring
Meadow (Helena) 7/12 – Olympic. This was
my favorite race last year. Love the
bike course!
- Viking
Man 70.3 (Heyburn, ID) 8/22. I would
like to find a Half distance somewhere in the Northwest or Colorado or the
Dakotas (drivable distance) around the first weekend in September. Haven’t found one yet.
- Louisville
IM on 10/11!!!
- Feeling
much better in the pool now. I have had
some good swim workouts the past couple weeks and am feeling much more relaxed
and confident when I am swimming. I am no longer feeling stressed about it (like I was
when I posted Swimming: What do I expect?) – I don’t
have to be ‘there’ yet, I have time to build endurance and continue to work on
form/technique.
- I have been loving this for breakfast lately. It's a scrambled egg on an English muffin or piece of toast with avocado slices. YUM!
And I have been loving this salad for lunch or dinner. Baby spinach, nuts, beans (pinto on this one but, garbonzo beans are my favorite), quinoa, feta cheese and homemade dressing (greek yogurt, olive oil, garlic powder, salt/pepper, some other seasoning - whatever I am feeling like - cumin and chili powder in this one - also use dill weed quite often too). I usually cook up a batch of quinoa, barley or brown rice on Sunday to use in salads and as sides to other meals during the week. Grains in salads really make them more hearty and filling.
- I
have been doing some hiking on the weekends.
The trails are a mess! I have
encountered dry areas, muddy bogs, slushy snow, hard-packed snow and mostly
ice. A side story here… Last week I was
hiking Sypes trail in the Bridgers. The
trail was really icy so I was not able to look around like I usually do when
hiking, all my attention was on the trail.
I had a really weird feeling that something was watching or following me
(like a mountain lion). I kept hearing
things and just felt strange. Every once
in a while I would stop to look around but, never saw or heard anything when I
was stopped. At one point a flock of
birds took off out of the trees and I thought “what’s out there, I know I
didn’t spook them”. Anyway, when I got
back to the trailhead (after hiking for a few hours with this eerie feeling), I
noticed a bright orange piece of paper on the trailhead sign: “CAUTION, Lion in area may be feeding on
carcasses 1/29” (I was up there on 1/30).
So, was I imagining that something was following/watching me or was
there really something there???? It
gave me chills. I usually look at the
trailhead signs before starting out on a trail – I just missed it this day
because I was messing around with my watch trying to get it set up for the hike.
- And lastly... Friday
nights are usually “date nights” for Pat and me. This week’s date was a swim workout at the
pool and Pat wants to know how swimming
took over dinner and beer!
What do you do when you get a bad feeling about something? Do you ignore it and pretend everything is OK?
What do you do for date nights? I am pretty sure some type of workout is going to take over our standard dinner/beer night out - sorry Honey! :)
