Then September 23rd happened. I was watching T.V. with Jason on the couch and got up to do something and came back to the couch and sat down. Then out of no where it hit me. This insanely loud ringing in my ears and head. I turned to Jason to ask if he could hear the ringing, too, and he replied “no”. He got up to go to the bathroom and I went down the hall to lie down. I was falling over into the walls while trying to walk down the hall and I sat on the bed shouting to Jason through the bathroom door, “something isn’t right”. I was getting nauseous. I started drinking grape Gatorade and my stomach wasn’t settling. I shouted to Jason, “I think I’m going to get sick”. I raced down the hall the best that I could to try to reach the garbage… but didn’t quite make it in time. By this time Jason was out of the bathroom watching my in shock. I still felt sick and got to the bathroom. The room was spinning and my stomach wouldn’t let up. Every time I looked up the spinning was insane and made me get sick over and over again. While staring into the toilet I told Jason that something just wasn’t right and I needed to get to the hospital. There was no way I could get myself ready to leave without losing my stomach some more. There was only one choice…had to call for an ambulance. I’m not sure what really took place after this. I felt miserable. I remember the paramedics saying to me, “its probably just the flu.” I remember thinking to myself, “this is no flu.”
I was admitted into the hospital again and many tests were taken. At this point the nausea had stopped but the ringing and spinning was still present. I had then lost my hearing in my left ear and I lost all control of holding my head up. The spinning was horrible. The doctor came in laughing as if this was all a joke and that I was making this all up. The ENT doctor was called in to see me and he played it off as if it was nothing. The next morning I had a new doctor and this one took my situation seriously. He told me how my insurance company was pressuring him to release me and that I could handle this at home on my own. The doctor told me how he faught the insurance company and told them how serious this was and that I was not in a position to go home. When I was released from the hospital I was given medicine to help with the vertigo and nausea and was told to check with the ENT if nothing changes in a week. A week later and nothing had changed, if anything, things were getting worse.
I ended up seeing the ENT doctor and his attitude changed. He finally was realizing this was something serious. He asked me a series of questions and checked me over. One of his questions were if I had any changes with my skin. I mentioned how I had over 50 blisters on my left hand and a few on my right hand but I had thought it was just a bad reaction to the medicine I was put on from the miscarriage. The light went off in the ENT doctors head. I had shingles creating a Vestibular Disorder called Labyrinthitis.
Turns out that the stress of the miscarriage caused me to get shingles in my inner left ear which damaged my inner ear and turned into a vestibular disorder. I was out of work for many months and slowly got back into work part time. I had in home physical therapy and occupational therapy to help me learn how to do basic every day tasks. Later I was able to do out of home physical therapy and started speech therapy for my cognitive delay. I was released from physical therapy being told there was not much more they could do for me. At that point I was still glued to my walker and dealing with vertigo, tinnitus, and loss of hearing. Eight months later, May of 2013, I was finally able to walk again without the walker.
To this day I still suffer from a vestibular disorder, but now the disorder I have is called Persistent Postural-Perceptual Dizziness (PPPD). I am sensitive to fast movements, flashing lights, and different patterns (especially tiny polka dots). When in a car/vehicle I have to be able to see where we are going from start to finish. Looking out of a side window or turning backwards while in a moving vehicle makes me sick. I am not sure if I can fly in an airplane (due to ear pressure) or go on a boat (due to the swaying). I suffer from permanent hearing loss and tinnitus in my left ear, too.
Family Against All Odds 