Vertigo

Peter Rukavina

I don’t think I managed to capture the essence of what vertigo feels like in this sketch, but I like it anyway.

Vertigo sketch

I’ve been surfing along the edges of a kind of “background vertigo-like sense” for the last two years: the room isn’t spinning, but everything’s not 100% in focus either.

In the summer of 2017 I consulted a physiotherapist and she walked me through the Epley manoeuvre, which proved ineffective, perhaps because it’s not BPPV that ails me.

In what appears to be an otherwise unrelated development, though, earlier this week I woke up with the room actually spinning in a whole new kind of annoying, and although that subsided as the day went on, it seemed like something new was up, so I tried the Epley manoeuvre before bed and it turns out–very, very conclusively–that in this case it was BPPV, as the kind of vertigo I experienced was a deep-down-holy-shit-what-the-hell-us-going-on kind of vertigo that I didn’t even know was possible.

Fortunately it seems like the Epley manoeuvre did exactly what it was supposed to do, and the BPPV has cleared. Leaving me with my vague, background, vertigo-like-sensation and an abject fear that what I experienced with the full-on vertigo might ever become a permanent condition.

Comments

Submitted by Susan White on

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A couple of years ago I experienced a month of vertigo - the kind that hit full force when I moved my head a certain way. It was a horrible out-of-control feeling that I never wish to experience again, but I've bookmarked the Epley manoeuvre page just in case. Thanks.

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Photo of Peter RukavinaI am . I am a writer, letterpress printer, and a curious person.

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