Recap - Part 1

(Posting of email I sent on 10 December 2008)

For those who may not have known, I've been having headaches for a month+...all the time for the last several weeks. For the last couple of weeks, I've also been having some dizziness problems off and on. My regular doctor couldn't discover the problem and a CT scan of my head showed no abnormalities.

So, today I saw an ENT. He said he's not a "headache guy" but he did tell me it appears I have "Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo" which apparently means my inner ear isn't regulating stuff properly so I get dizzy. He's going to try physical therapy to fix it (I envision little treadmills for my ears!), but he did say it usually corrects itself eventually. So, at least there appears to be a name for the dizziness. He thinks it may go back to a virus I contracted some time in the past and ventured a guess that the headache may be related to the same virus. He's also going to check with my doctor about some elevated bilirubin levels that have showed up in my past couple of blood tests (since June). They're just a little over the max number, but he's wondering if there's something possibly going on with my liver/gallbladder, also.

So, I still have headaches and dizzy spells, but I'm working on getting to the bottom of it. The problem is, I'm so dizzy that I am afraid to drive, and when the headache's bad, I can't concentrate at all, so work is almost impossible. Of course, I have no more paid leave for this calendar year, so I've missed a lot of work and it's all uncompensated. I am going to complete paperwork so I'm covered under FMLA so, hopefully, my job won't be at risk while I figure this out.

Other than that, things are going ok. Except that Bobby may starve to death - I have problems cooking due to the headache/dizziness and he's just going to waste away to nothing!