vertigo

The last time I had an attack of vertigo, it was a few years ago, and I was in my buddy Mike's house. I don't think Mike or the rest of his family even noticed that I was spacing out; I tried to maintain a stoic mien. Tonight, for the first time in years, it happened again—not once, but several times, and truth be told, my head is still spinning a bit even as I type this.

This evening, I was standing in the subway, on my way to Itaewon to buy some ingredients for the Middle Eastern chicken that I'll be making again and serving at the office on Thursday. I was busy rereading A Song of Ice and Fire on my cell phone (I'm currently halfway through the series, according to my Kindle) when the world began to tilt, and my mind started to unmoor itself. It was a weird-but-familiar feeling, given that I'd experienced the same phenomenon back in Virginia. This time around, however, the vertigo was accompanied by a wee bit of nausea—nothing I couldn't manage, but I did start thinking wild thoughts along the the lines of Do I have a brain tumor? I performed neuro checks on myself, flexing my fingers individually and in tandem; closing one eye, then the other; shifting my weight from foot to foot; shuffling my feet to make sure I still had some level of coordination. If this was a brain tumor, it wasn't depriving me of any functionality.

It goes without saying that, with vertigo in the picture, balance goes partly or wholly out the window. I had a couple wild moments during which I wondered whether I would keel over and slam meatily into the floor. That didn't happen; the world spun, but I kept my grip on the subway's cold metal railing and rode through each wave of dizziness as it hit. My next worry was whether I'd be able to walk upright and in a straight line once I left the subway. I did somehow manage not to make a spectacle of myself, but I also walked much more slowly and carefully than usual. I was dizzy as I headed down Itaewon's main street (and I'm dizzy again now, as I'm typing these words), but I made it to High Street Market, found everything I needed to buy, and managed to get to a cab. I closed my eyes for much of the ride back.

So instead of prepping my Middle Eastern chicken tonight, I think I'm going to call it a day, slip into bed, try to read A Song of Ice and Fire, and hope that a few hours' sleep will be enough to get rid of the last traces of vertigo by morning. This is more annoying than anything, especially when the cause isn't obvious. I've never suffered from motion sickness; I used to read in moving cars all the time, so I'm not quite ready to say that reading on the subway was what triggered the vertigo. And when I had the attack at Mike's house, I was talking with Mike and his family while seated; I wasn't reading anything.

A mystery. One I hope I won't have to solve.


MORNING UPDATE: All better. No symptoms at all. For now. And on top of that, I now have, thanks to commenters, several theories I can bring to the doc when I see him next week.

From Henry: a drop in blood pressure.
From John Williamson: Ménière's Disease.
From Bill Keezer (via email): "...a middle-ear infection, it could be the onset of a neurological disease that does not show up on the usual stroke/tumor quick tests. It could also be a problem with the otoliths in your middle ear."

We'll see what the doc comes up with.

Oh, before I forget: it got bad last night, right before I flopped into bed. I did discover, however, that shutting one eye greatly lessened the whirling effect. I gather that binocular vision makes it worse. Walking very slowly also kept me from doing something silly like stubbing a toe or overshooting a handhold.