Hello to my bilateral oscillopsia friends! What started 6 months ago as a fever, turned to a cold, to a sinus infection, to an ear infection, to some hearing loss (1 ear only), and left me with permanent inner ear nerve damage and the HELL we all live in called “Oscillopsia”. Also, I have no […]
There is a terror that freezes you stone cold when you realize that your world and how you predominantly interact with it, could be taken away from you. And there is nothing you can do but watch it happen. It’s like watching a car crash in slow motion. Except in my case it looks like […]
Today is my Remembrance Day. It’s been two years exactly. Every second of it is etched in the landscape of my memory, because it changed my life irrevocably. I remember that curious feeling of stepping into the world and realising that it’s not the same place anymore nor I the same person. I remember feeling […]
I’ve been following the Medical Medium Protocol for around 4 months now (first post is here). Seeing as I think, breathe and live this protocol I thought I’d give you a little update, share my passion, and for any other devotees out there, share my tips for how to do normal life whilst on a significantly limited […]
In January 2014 I was heading for a shopping trip with my daughter in her car. It was a normal day and we were chatting away. However, in a second things became very different. Completely out of the blue I became dizzy. This is a bit of an understatement because it was more like being […]
I’d like to open up a space on this blog for other people to share their experience with vestibular issues, labyrinthitus and hearing loss. It can be so isolating as the people around us don’t understand what we are seeing, feeling and hearing. Personally I so appreciate connecting with others who have had similar experiences and […]
Last week I had my final intratympanic steroid injection. I’m glad that’s over as neither me nor my family enjoyed travelling an hour to hospital to sit there and wait for 5-6 hours each time. It was exhausting and it’s not exactly a comfortable thing to have a needle pushed all the way through your […]
Yesterday I had my first Vestibular Rehabilitation Training session – hallelujah. I was eager for this appointment as so many people have told me they started getting better once they started VRT exercises. I gave up waiting for the NHS because life is just too short to be waiting so long for these essential appointments. […]
My family wanted to take me out last weekend so I agreed to brave a restaurant to see them. I searched out a place that would be carpeted, spacious and quiet to lessen the impact of background noise on me. Luckily I chose well and the restaurant was quiet and empty. But even still it felt […]
This is what the world looks like through my eyes, unless I am sitting very still. Thankfully its no longer a spin (like in the acute stage), but its still very disorientating. Its horrible to not see in focus around you.
I can’t tell you the relief I felt to finally get my appointment at University College London Neuro-otology Department. Despite all the effort of travelling into London on the underground with vertigo and new hearing aids, it was all worth it because finally I was being seen by people who knew what they were doing and […]
By the end of the next week I just couldn’t cope without a hearing aid and decided it wasn’t an option to wait a minute longer for the NHS to provide me one. Over the last few weeks I’d gone for free consultations with a few private hearing aid centres in my area and had […]
By now I had got myself a Sonido Listener to get by in the world. This is a handheld electronic device which amplifies sound. It has an inbuilt microphone at one end which you point at people to make them feel important, and a headphone connection the other end which you hear them through. Whilst […]
I don’t know how to describe the feelings you have as you begin to notice all the ways in which you can’t hear; all the ways in which you’re now excluded from life which is lived interdependently with others. It’s like permanently being the one who didn’t get the joke whilst everyone else is laughing. […]
This week I found out that any sudden, noticeable reduction in hearing should be treated urgently as a medical emergency. It should be treated with the same importance that sudden blindness would be. So how come this is not the case in the UK’s NHS? In order to have a reasonable chance of saving someones hearing, […]
The second bout of Labs was so horrible I didn’t care as much about being medicine-free and I pretty much begged for the anti-dizzy pills. Only I couldn’t hold them down this time. I was desperate for help but since my GP had told me there was nothing anyone could do, I didn’t think there would […]
For the next few days I carried on laying horizontal . I slept a lot, researched a lot and found innovative ways of functioning without moving my head from the pillow. Those days that I had to make a bathroom visit, were traumatic because I’d get myself there with my boyfriends help, but then get […]
This is my very first forum post ever! I’m glad I finally got round to doing this and getting my head round WordPress. I’ve been recovering (or not) from bilateral (bloody unlucky) Labyrinthitus for 3 months now. I’ve learnt so much whilst travelling the tedious, process-driven, time-consuming NHS path and I want to share this […]