Last Thursday, I went out to the campus cafeteria for lunch with my new coworker (let’s call her A). After lunch, we were getting ready for our big 2:00 meeting and I started to feel a little bit dizzy. It wasn’t significant and I figured it was a reaction to something at lunch or just because of the craziness of getting ready for the meeting. Sometimes I forget to breathe deeply enough.
Anyway, we went to the meeting and it just got worse, until I was sitting there, eyes closed, holding my head, trying to get the world reestablish which way was UP. It didn’t help much, but it did make it look like I was falling asleep during the meeting.
Afterward, a couple people had questions that I helped answer, and then I said I was going to “stumble my way back to my desk.” They looked at me quizzically. One of them said “Stumble?” And I said “I’m really dizzy.”
I started to make my way back to the other side of the building to my desk, leaning up against the cubical walls in order to keep my balance, eyes focused on the floor 3 feet in front of me. One of my coworkers (we’ll call her B) came up to me from the direction I was headed and asked if I was okay, because apparently I really didn’t look well. I told her that I was super dizzy. My plan was to walk to my desk, drop off my laptop, and ask my new coworker (A) to walk with me to the nurse’s station. Coworker B said she’d take my laptop to my desk, let coworker A know what was going on, and then come back and walk me to the nurse. I said that would be great and just leaned up against the wall until she came back.
We walked to another corner of the building to the nurse’s station, where the nurse took one look at me and told me to go sit down in the exam room. (Coworker B had to run off to a meeting at that point, but coworker A showed up shortly after, having told our boss what was going on.) The nurse took my blood pressure (177/103!) and asked the standard questions and looked into my ears, where she established that I had fluid behind my tympanic membranes. She told me that I needed to go see my doctor.
So we called my doctor from the exam room (one of the few phone numbers I have memorized) and was told to come right in and they would find time for me. My doctor’s office is awesome. Coworker A ran back to her desk to get our purses and phones and I called Justin from the exam room to let him know what was going on. His mom was still at the house, so they both hopped in the car (my sister-in-law’s car) and started to drive to me. I told them to meet me at the doctor’s office. (I have my doctor’s office located close to work.)
Coworker A walked me out to her car and drove me to my doctor’s office. Once she was sure that I was going to be okay and that Justin was on his way to get me, she ran back to work.
Justin eventually made it and sat with me in the waiting room and came in when the nurse called me back. I was still leaning to the right because that was the way that felt most comfortable and had to hold onto walls or his arm in order to stay on my feet. The nurse took my blood pressure again – it was a much better number now that I’d been sitting still for about 45 minutes. And when the doctor made it in, she confirmed that I had fluid in my left ear.
She told me to get some Dramamine (or a couple other ideas that I can’t remember anymore) and called me in a prescription for an antibiotic. So I’ve been taking 875 mg of Amoxicillin two times a day since Thursday. My last pill will be tomorrow morning and I have a follow-up appointment with my doctor tomorrow afternoon. Those pills are ENORMOUS, by the way.
Leaving the doctor, Justin’s mom drove us to the nearest grocery store, where Justin ran in to get some Dramamine and ginger ale (thankfully, I didn’t have any nausea with the dizziness, just a whole lot of disorientation). Then we drove to my work to get my car, and I very carefully walked into the building to go grab a couple things from my desk. I ran into a couple people who asked if I was okay, and I told them that I was dizzy, but I’d be okay.
We went home and I found a comfy spot to just sit still and wait for things to be less sideways.
I’d already requested Friday off, so I didn’t have to worry about going to work that day, and I mostly just took it easy. The dizziness was already much reduced when I woke up that morning.
I’m feeling much better now. For a couple days, I couldn’t make any sudden turns. Turning around in circles was right out. My desk chair at work was problematic because the swivel made me dizzy. And my ear would throb a little bit, but I never had any hearing troubles and the pain was never very bad.
Anyway, I’d never had an ear infection before so this was a whole new experience for me. And one that I hope to never repeat.
And that’s the story of that.
The random tidbit for today is that Justin woke up this morning because a wasp was repeatedly stinging him in the arm. While Justin was in bed. In a house that hasn’t had open windows for several days because of all the pollen. What’s up with that?!