Vertigo - a Distressing Wait

by Tracy Weston
^{(creative writers at www.morewriting.co.uk)}
Nine o'clock on a Monday morning. The surgery waiting room is full except for one empty seat which Mrs Duval flops herself into. She sighs and wipes her brow with a handkerchief.

MRS DUVAL: Thank goodness for that! I keep losing my sense of balance. I've terrible vertigo.

ALBERT: Vertigo? Giddy? Feeling sick? Aye. I get it most mornings. Low blood pressure the doc tells me.

MRS DUVAL: Mine won't be blood pressure. It only happens when I move my head. Yours would be best described as ‘dizziness’ or ‘light headedness’. Vertigo is much, much worse than that! You get a sense of rotation and it can happen even when you lie quite still. I was sick, not to mention exhausted.

ALBERT: Aye. Dizziness. Maybe you're moving too quickly? I get up slowly in the mornings to allow a bit more time for the blood to get to me brain. Doc's orders it is, on account of me low blood pressure. Suits me tho', cos it means my Mavis has to bring me a nice cuppa to ease me out of bed.

MRS DUVAL: Well, I've had this before and it turned out to be an inner ear problem. The ear can affect balance, you know.

ALBERT: Aye, Ménières, they call it. Old Doug, over there has it ... deaf as a post.

Albert leans forwards towards Doug.

ALBERT: Ménières ain't it, Doug?

DOUG: Heh, what?

ALBERT: MENIERES?

DOUG: Oh yes, my ears are bad. Can't hear the neighbour's music any more but they still play it loud! I can feel the vibrations through the floor. It's so loud that I get ripples in my mug of coffee and even bigger ripples in the fish tank! It's the vibrations you see ...

ALBERT: He's a clever fella, is Doug.

MRS DUVAL: It's not Ménières. I can hear perfectly well. It's something to do with particles in the ear canal being dislodged, BPPV the specialist called it. I was referred to the ENT department of the hospital ...

ALBERT: Sounds interesting.

MRS DUVAL: ... and they gave me Brandt Daroff exercises to control the symptoms. They also gave me Stemetil tablets to help with the nausea. Didn't make much difference and I was referred for a treatment called the Epley Manoeuvre. A specialist tips/rotates your head at angles to get the particles back to where they should be. Amazing! Well, it worked at the time ... but I’m wondering if it's come back. It can recur.

ALBERT: BPPV sounds like a blood pressure thing to me.

MRS DUVAL: Well it isn't. It stands for 'Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo'. One of the most common causes of vertigo.

ALBERT: Oh lah di dah!

MRS DUVAL: Viruses can cause vertigo too. Have you heard of labyrinthitis?

ALBERT: No, I aint.

A female student has been half reading a book and half listening to the conversation.

FEMALE STUDENT: Excuse me ... I had vertigo very badly last year. I suffered for months. I eventually had a scan and it turned out to be my neck.

ALBERT: Oh aye. Too busy sticking your head round corners where it don't belong?

MRS DUVAL: But was it vertigo or dizziness?

FEMALE STUDENT: Well, I felt dizzy but they called it cervical vertigo. And no, whiplash was the cause.

ALBERT: Whiplash? Oh aye ... say no more!

FEMALE STUDENT: Whiplash from a car crash. It was a fairly minor accident but we didn't have any headrests fitted at the time although we have since fitted them. Much more supportive for the neck in an accident.

MRS DUVAL: Ignore him. I asked because dizziness is not the same as vertigo. I think your condition would be dizziness and not vertigo. Can you describe your dizziness?

FEMALE STUDENT: Err ... well, some days I felt well and at other times I felt nauseous and light headed. The dizziness would only last a few seconds at a time but the sick feeling could last all day.

MRS DUVAL: But you didn’t feel as if you’d just stepped off a Waltzer at the fairground?

FEMALE STUDENT: Not that bad, no.

MRS DUVAL: Then it’s not vertigo.

FEMALE STUDENT: Oh.

ALBERT: Not serious like blood pressure or Ménières disease though is it? Me and Doug could be in our coffins this time next week.

MRS DUVAL: Don't be ridiculous! Blood pressure is manageable and Ménières disease although very distressing, is not a life threatening disease.

ALBERT: Can be if them buggers next door break his door down and murder him in his bed! How's he supposed to hear them coming?

MRS DUVAL: Oh yes. And my vertigo has been so bad at times that I could have fallen into the road and been squashed flat by a bus!

ALBERT: There's no need for sarcasm.

Silence descends across the room apart from the rustle of magazine pages being turned. It is an uncomfortable silence.

ALBERT: So, vertigo ... lots of different causes for it.

MRS DUVAL: So it seems.

ALBERT: : Most folk confuse it with dizziness. Symptoms are often worse than actual cause. Distressing though innit?

MRS DUVAL: Yes ... thank you.

ALBERT: Seems that many of us have it in our lives at some point or other. Different causes, different reasons. In fact its a bit like an ENT clinic in here.

MRS DUVAL: Yes, very true. But whilst it is interesting and informative to hear patient experiences, you can never assume that just because we have symptoms in common we have the same illness. I do not have high blood pressure nor Ménières disease!

ALBERT: It were just a suggestion.

MRS DUVAL: I still feel that I need a proper consultation with a GP.

ALBERT: Course you do. (SIGHS) Ah well, I guess it's been an educational morning of sorts.