Vertical or Vertigo

2 Corinthians 5:4

 New Living Translation (NLT)

 ⁴ While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.

In May 2013 I woke up about 4:00 a.m. with the world spinning around me. The dizziness went away rapidly, and the rest of the day went just fine. The next morning the same weird thing happened. I got up and discovered that I couldn’t walk straight. It, too, went away but left a strange feeling in my head. On the third morning things were really spinning around. Sylvia phoned a neighbor who also happens to be a doctor. She urged me to go down and get some tests done. Since these symptoms went away again, I procrastinated.

 I went to my chiropractor, Dr Greene. She felt my neck and stated that a particular vertebra was out of line. She popped it back in, assured me things would be better, and I went on my way. Sure enough, I had no more problems. None. Nada. I rejoiced in the powers of Dr Greene.

 Three weeks later I awoke at 3:00 a.m. and found myself clutching at the wall as I wound my way into the bathroom. It was almost as if I were constantly falling toward my left. Again I visited Dr Greene. Sure enough that pesky vertebra had popped out again. She popped it back in. The next two mornings I again had the world spinning around for brief periods of time.

 I began to imagine a tumor pressing down on my balance mechanism somewhere in my skull. Or maybe I was experiencing small strokes. I had taken my blood pressure, and it seemed normal, but maybe my heart was conking out on me. I was retiring in a few days and could imagine myself being a total invalid the rest of my miserable life. What kind of justice was this?

 Finally I went down to the university health clinic. The doctor looked very concerned and forbade my driving. He sent me down to the emergency room in the hospital. I lay in there for six hours. They did attach me to a heart monitor right away. They sent me down to have a CT scan. When the radiologist finally read it, he remarked that there might be something “irregular” in my head, so the ER doctor admitted me into the hospital for more tests.

 Over the next 18 hours or so they hooked me up to an EKG and an EEG and finally took an MRI. By this time I was about “alphabetted” out. They awoke me every half hour or so throughout the night, very politely of course, but that ruined my whole next day. Of course my head felt really spaced-out all the next day. It felt like the same old vertigo but was much more likely the sleep abuse I was getting in the hospital.

 Finally the neurologist came in to see me. He told me that he had looked at all the results and they all looked normal. He felt I undoubtedly had Benign Positional Vertigo (BPV, another alphabet soup). I enquired as to what that might be. He remarked that a lot of older people get this kind of vertigo and they can’t find anything systemic that causes it. So the term is simply what doctors use to indicate they have no clue what I really have. At least he was honest with me. He wanted to keep me in another night. Dreading another routine of being woken up every half-hour, I begged to go home. He suggested another test, an MRA this time, but he felt that it was only a long shot so sent me home.

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I wrote the above more than a year ago, about a month after it all happened. Needless to say it had me scared. With the passage of time and a few more visits to my chiropractor, the symptoms have long since disappeared.

Yes, Lord, I long to get into my new body that You have promised me, but I don’t believe that You want me to leave the old one yet. Thank You, Lord, for Your promises.