by Amanda Bakowski My journey with vertigo began when I was 17 with an hour-long car ride to a shopping mall and what I thought was carsickness. I threw up in the mall bathroom for two hours until my mom decided she had to get me out of there. She sent my sister to find a bucket to make the trip home. Several hours later I was feeling better and thought the incident was a result of motion sickness. It wasn't until four years later that I began to have problems that no one could seem to figure out. My sister and I were at Ole Miss standing in line for registration and I said, "I think I'm going to be sick." I evidently fainted on her and she managed to drag me to a bathroom where I began to vomit. These episodes continued and were becoming more frequent. My parents and I decided there was obviously something wrong and we began seeking medical advice. My family doctor put me through a barrage of tests: a full blood panel, EKG, echocardiogram, tilt table test, holter monitor, EEG and CT of the brain. He suspected that I may have a brain tumor and referred me to a neurologist who told me that there was nothing really wrong with me—I was just a female. He prescribed an anti-epileptic drug supposedly useful in treating dizziness. I returned to my family doctor who prescribed Dilantin to take in conjunction with the seizure medication. The medications caused two separate skin rashes. One covered my legs causing circular sores that would open and bleed and the other covered my entire upper body and was red and extremely itchy. I then was prescribed more medicine for my skin. At this point I decided to get off all the medicine but it took two months to wean myself from them. I was still attending Ole Miss and it was extremely difficult to manage the symptoms that I was experiencing everyday and trying to learn and study. I made a promise to myself to not allow this illness to interfere with my dream of becoming an occupational therapist. I also didn't want to feel I was missing out on my college experience. Yet my nausea was so bad that I lost twenty pounds because I was unable to eat anything but peanut butter sandwiches. In my junior year I moved off campus and had to drive to school. I had two possible routes: a busy street, which was faster, or a curvy road with four-foot ravines on either side. I actually took the curvy road because there was less traffic and less chance of hitting someone. I prayed that the Lord would keep his hand on my shoulder each time I got in my car. The day I decided enough was enough was the day a friend found me on my bedroom floor. I was trying to crawl from my bed to the bathroom and was so disoriented I wasn't even going in the right direction. From that moment I decided to take matters into my own hands. I went to our school library and began to research my symptoms. After weeks of searching I came across the term "Meniere's disease" and as I read the description, a rush of tears and emotions poured from me. I called my parents to tell them that I had Meniere's disease and I need to see an ear, nose and throat doctor. After a visit with an ENT, then heard about a doctor in Memphis who used a different approach to treating vertigo; seeing him changed my life forever. He performed an inner ear perfusion, giving me an injection of streptomyocin. I lie on my side for three hours while the medicine flowed into the middle ear and I received an IV steroid. This procedure was repeated three times. Even sitting in the waiting room talking with the other patients and hearing their experiences and having the opportunity to share mine was so therapeutic for me. I discovered that everyone in that room had almost the exact same story of trying to figure out what was wrong with them. I have had the procedure twice due to the severity of my case. It has been a year since my procedure and I am very pleased with the results. I may continue to struggle with symptoms but I am so grateful to Dr. Shea for restoring my quality of life. Vertigo may have limited me but it didn't stop me from achieving my goals. In 2005 I graduated from LSU Health Sciences Center with a Master's degree in Occupational Therapy. Even though this has been a treacherous journey, I have tried to be positive and find the humor in adversity. If it's true that in adversity you develop character, I should be quite a character by now. |
