What is making me dizzy? The inner ear or the parietal lobe
Early this morning, from about 2am on, I slept fitfully, dizzy even in my dreams.
IMAGE: The inner ear is associated with balance and proprioception—the awareness of one’s body in space. The parietal lobe in the brain is also in charge of proprioception.
With my eyes closed my world was spinning and I could only compare the sensation to three other situations I've experienced.
When I was on Temodar, near the end of a treatment week, I felt dizzy in my sleep. But I am two months out from chemo and there is no logical reason for me to feel this way.
About two years before my tumor was discovered I was dizzy for an entire weekend. I lived alone and I didn't know what to do. I stayed indoors. At one point I got in my car and drove to a coffee shop only to pull over after a few minutes and call the Kaiser advice nurse line. They told me to call 911. I didn't. I drove home and watched DVDs for the rest of the weekend. After seeing my primary care doctor I was advised to take meclizine. That seemed to do the trick.
For the past five years I've experienced motion sickness from elevators. After more than one floor of motion I am wrecked.
After my alarm went off I got in the shower, dizzy still. I held myself up with the walls. I leaned on the counter as I brushed my teeth. I wrapped myself in a towel and watched Brett do his morning push-ups.
I called in to work “dizzy.”
My boss advised me to not tell people I was dizzy; I sounded silly. "Dizzy Lizzy," he said. He's probably right.
I didn't trust myself to drive.
It is now mid-afternoon and I am not as dizzy, but I have a headache.
I never know what is 'normal' and what is brain tumor-related. My world is forever connected to neurology.
