BPPV Strikes Back #2

Just as I had been feeling almost perfectly well for the past 1,5 weeks, I had another BPPV extreme episode on Friday in the middle of work. It was very strange 'coz I wasn't feeling any dizziness at all before it all happened. I had been working for about 4,5 hours and then at the beginning of my lunch break, when I was about to warm up my food in the microwave, I felt the room spinning around me and I was so scared of falling down, so I had to hold on to the edge of the kitchen cabinets until the strong wave passed away. But right away nausea took in and I had to throw up in the toilet. 

I tried sitting down and then I started eating my food VERY VERY slowly 'coz I still felt nauseous and dizzy. Couldn't even finish my food and then I went to the toilet to throw up again. Great! I tried sitting down some more and it always felt better to close my eyes. Dizzy, dizzy, dizzy, nauseous...I had left the anti motion sickness arm-bands at home 'coz I hadn't felt dizzy at all for 1,5 weeks. Too early to think I've been cured! Doh!!! 

I told my coworkers about it and then tried to be at the cashier after my break was over, but being there only made it worse 'coz I had to move around a lot and the nausea kept on going, so I asked the supervisor to be sent home (I threw up once more before going home). I didn't even dare ride my bike home. Though I was sure I could walk back home, it would be such a slow progress, so I called hubby to come and pick me up. Spent hours on the sofa, fell asleep for a while, browsed the internet for a while to try to find out what could have triggered that episode that came out of nowhere (as long as I stayed still it was fine and sitting down was no problem 'coz many sites suggests even sleeping in a half-sitting position). 


Saturday went to MIL's though I still felt like a "drunk" person (never been drunk before so dunno how it actually feels like, but many have described such a sensation). I felt like being on small waves or a swing, going back and forth or sideways the whole time. At one time I felt nauseous again, so I took an anti-motion sickness pill, which only made me MORE tired (nausea gone, though). Went back home and browsed around for more information and found out why I was so tired (even after the anti-motion sickness pill's effect had worn off). Found the answer from here:

"Fatigue. This is common with inner ear problems as the brain is putting all of its energy into keeping you balanced - where as in normal people balance is an automatic process.

No wonder!!! Slept 13 hours last night and right now I'm feeling better, though I still feel imbalanced and tired (I can feel my eyes being overworked by trying to adjust to the wrong signals sent by my body due to the problems in my inner ear). I've been trying to do Epley maneuver once a day, so hope that also helps.

BPPV

Last Friday was a rough day for me. Felt like I was having an extreme case of sea-sickness (I do have bad sea-sickness so I'll probably never go on a voyage trip). My head felt like floating over the waves. I could walk and move around freely, but if I moved my head quickly or if I moved it to certain positions, the dizziness started (or the room started spinning around) and I'd feel nauseated. I threw up five times that day.

On Saturday I was scheduled for work, so I called in to say that I couldn't come. Had an appointment at the health centre, but there were emergency cases that day, so I had to wait for almost 3 hours before I could finally meet up with the doc. The doc asked me questions and then ran some tests on me (mostly I had to do things like move my arms or legs certain ways).

The dizziness (the feeling that the room was spinning around) had actually started a few days prior to the crazy Friday. I went to bed and turned around on my stomach and it started. Just once, though. The next day I was brushing my teeth and again it happened and I had to hold on to the sink in order to keep my balance, but nothing else happened (didn't feel any sea-sickness-like symptoms other than that) so I went to work like usual and it went fine. Until Friday happened.



The doc then gave me my diagnosis and printed it out for me. It's called "Hyvänlaatuinen asentohuimaus" in Finnish or "Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo" or BPPV in short. Basically speaking it's really a benign form of vertigo, induced by certain movements. I wouldn't need any medication other than some anti-motion sickness medication in case I got too nauseated.

The doc said that it wasn't dangerous, but bothersome, because on average it'll go away by itself in TEN weeks. TEN?!?!?!?! I sure hope it'll go away faster because at work, I need to be able to move my head around freely and fast, especially during rush hours. In the meantime, though, I've asked R2 to buy me some anti-motion sickness medication in case I need it at work 'coz I'll only start work tomorrow after this diagnosis and I still feel that every now and then I get dizzy/nauseated.

I don't really know what caused this, but I think it may have something to do with genetics, as well. My Mom started suffering from vertigo after she got older (over 50), though it isn't a frequent incident. I also read that lack of sleep and stress can induce it. And head trauma may also make you more prone to it. I fell down head first when I was young, so maybe the combination of different factors make me more prone to experience something like this at an earlier age.

One thing I'm now wondering about is...how can I exercise before I get over this? I want and need the exercise, but I can't really do vigorous exercises that'd move my head around too much hmmmhhhh...we shall see about that then. I've already done the exercise written on the link above to help speed up the process of healing, so we'll see about that, too.

Helsinki vs Sodankylä

1. I found out that -26'C in DRY Sodankylä feels BETTER than -13'C in MORE MOIST Helsinki (esp. when it's windy, too). Why? Because in Helsinki it felt that the cold air just seeped inside my jackets straight into my bones. Even R2 said it was cold!!! So I'd rather have cold weather in Sodankylä 'coz at least the coldness stays "outside" your body provided that you have enough layers of clothing.

1st pic: There are some Christmas lights left in Helsinki.

2. One thing I forgot about the big cities is the travel time to go from one place to another (plus the cost to travel from one place to another). Here in Sodankylä whenever I have to go "downtown", it takes but a few minutes (either walking or by bike) he he he he...

3. LOVE the fact that there are so many bookstores in Helsinki with an incredible collection of books (including English books) HA HA HA HA HA...whereas in Sodankylä there's only ONE small bookstore. Ahem.

2nd pic: More Christmas lights downtown Helsinki.

4. In Helsinki, everywhere you hear English and different languages spoken daily, whereas in Sodankylä you'll hear mostly only Finnish. They're definitely two different worlds apart!

5. Went to two museums in Helsinki (Kiasma Art Museum and Tennispalatsi Museum). In Kiasma they displayed contemporary art and we felt that many of them were way too contemporary for us ha ha ha...but we were both SO impressed with one particular art form.

This art form is located in one corner of the huge display room. The corner is VERY dark and it's an L-shaped. So from outside, you can't see anything but a plaque stating the title of the art form, the artist, etc. Anyway, the title of the art is: Foam. Then you have to walk inside the L-shaped corner (which is REALLY dark - I had such an ominous feeling when I entered) and then about 2 metres ahead of you there's a huge screen. When I entered the site, the screen showed a round-like figure (which is actually a red balloon) and some foam (like when you've spread some foam to shave a guy) and then you notice someone starting to shave that round-like figure, but before you realize what it's about, the balloon pops out (obviously) with a LOUD bang! I was SO shocked ha ha ha ha ha...so I told R2 about it and told him to go see it. And he was also SHOCKED by the loud bang HI HI HI HI HI...

We both agreed that it was the best display in the whole museum, though we also like two others. The other one is a gorgeous picture which I can't describe (believe me, it's just GORGEOUS!) and the other one is a replica of a WAVE. It's SUPER cool! :-D

In Tennispalatsi Museum there are two displays, but we went only to one of them. It displayed mostly Russian paintings. I LOVE many of them, though I found that there were too many melancholic faces portrayed there. In some pics they look SO real (like photos instead of paintings) so that we had to get as close as a few centimetres away to find out whether they were paintings or photos HA HA HA HA HA HA...We just had to make sure!!! ;-D

3rd pic: Light display which changes colour every errr...few minutes or so?

6. We also went to watch Avatar 3D movie in Helsinki, but alas...something horrible happened. My eyes couldn't take them. The special effect of the movie was such (hard to explain, but those who've seen it must understand what I'm talking about) that 10 minutes into the movie, I started feeling dizzy and SUPER nauseous already! I had to shut my eyes for almost the rest of the movie (which was about 2,5 hours long, imagine that!) so that I wouldn't puke. Note: Even R2 said that in some scenes he felt a bit dizzy 'coz of the way the movie was made.

I wanted to go to the toilet to puke, but we were sitting in the middle of the row and I didn't want to bother other people. So the only trick I could do was just shut my eyes - the nausea subsided only after 45 minutes of doing this, can you imagine that? It felt like a HORRIBLE case of sea-sickness. Ugh!!!

I wonder if anybody has experienced something like this? Or am I just the weird one out?

7. What did I buy in Helsinki? One Finnish novel on a discount (only €2), one Finnish Exercise book, and some chocolate he he he he he...

4th pic: The Indian food we had at Tandoor Resto in Salomonkatu (near the Tennispalatsi Cinema). We had lunch buffet for €8.50 each - the red meat is chicken and that's the BEST thing ever! ;-D

OK, I'll blog-hop either later today or the day after today 'coz I'll be busy tomorrow. My new passport is done and the Indo Embassy employee even sent it to our hotel the same day, can you believe it? I'm REALLY impressed and thankful for their help! ;-D But tomorrow I have to go to the police station to move my residence permit to the new passport and I need to cook and clean up the apartment, as well.

Out of Sorts Yesterday

Everyone, sorry since I haven't been able to blog-hop since yesterday. Yesterday evening after I woke up from my nap, I felt really out of sorts. It was really strange for me as I woke up feeling angry and cranky. Then I started feeling the onset of a headache and then I started feeling nauseous. It felt SO nice to lie down and close my eyes. Then I decided to drink some ginger drink with sugar, which helped me burp over and over again...but I still didn't feel like a human yet. So I asked Arttu to coin me (scrape my back with a coin and some balm) and only after that I could fart and I could feel more human again.

Thus the hiatus from the blogosphere. I'm DEAD tired again now, so I'm going to take a nap first and then I'll do my homework and blog-hop if I have more time. If not, then I'll blog-hop tomorrow, OK?

Don't worry, though, this morning I felt GREAT when I went to the course he he he...