Saturday, December 19, 2009

The Custard Apple Syndrome

Last Sunday morning I had an attack of vertigo. I woke up that morning feeling very fine and went about my daily morning chores as usual. Then, just before breakfast at about 7.45 a.m. I began to experience a slight disorientation. I tried to ignore it but at the back of my mind I knew that I was about to get the attack. I have been having these attacks since 2003, so I know what to expect. True enough, immediately after breakfast it came crashing like a tsunami. The moment my head touched the pillow, the whole world was spinning madly. I had to close my eyes tightly to lessen the spinning effect. Through experience, I avoided moving my head since this would aggravate the spinning further. With my eyes partially closed, I groped for some left-over medicine in my bedside table drawer, prescribed to me during my last attack - betahistine 16mg.

Before I could swallow the medicine, I threw up everything I had for breakfast. Then, I hastily took the medicine and continued lying down quietly with my eyes closed. By 5p.m. I realised that I could turn my head and open my eyes! The spinning was gone. What a relief!  My previous episodes took about 2 days to go off.

I don't really know what triggered the "tsunami". My breakfast that morning and dinner the night before were pretty much the same as all the others before them. However, I did something a bit out of the usual that morning before breakfast. I have a custard apple tree (buah nona in Bahasa Malaysia) in my backyard and I happened to notice there were several ripe ones ready for picking. They were not within reach so I took out a ladder and climbed right to the very top of it to pluck the custard apples.I had to look up to get at the fruits. May be the triggering factor was my rather awkward balancing act on the ladder.

Well, for those of you  who have never experienced vertigo, let me try to describe it. It is a condition when you suddenly experience a severe headache accompanied by a spinning sensation. I know it does not sound very complicated but I tell you, it is simply TERRIBLE.

3 comments:

  1. Just read about your vertigo attack. I'm glad u recovered on the same day. But I hope it was not because of nona. Otherwise, your beautiful nona will go to waste... Please kirim salam to Mak Ngah and Abg Nor- read his blog too. Loved the photos... Both of you are PRO-bloggers. Congrats!

    P/s: I was truly, madly & deeply inspired by you blog. So I decided to create my own. I deleted my blog after the first attempt but I have a new blog page now. However, it has not appeared on the google search yet since it takes time for the URL to be registered by google after us submitting the site (or so i learnt). My current blog is called Forever Ikhlas at http://sitinurikhlas.blogspot.com

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  2. Hi Iki,

    I'm so excited when I noticed 1 comment for my latest posting. Now that you are a blogger too, I hope to see pictures of Warith and Zara soon. Glad to learn that I have inspired you to start your own blog. Looking forward to reading your blog.

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  3. Siti,

    ,,,just an old folk medicine plus what i picked up in India, please ensure that you drink lots of mineral water for any type of head aches. As much as 1 and 1/2 litres of h2o before breadfast in one sitting. This is part of the treatment using water as the medicine and to perform this for 7 days. But you should still drink glasses of water throughout the day, until you notice that your urine is as clear as water !.
    ,,,once this stage has been reached, it means the body has enough water and system been cleaned up too.
    ,,,do some exercise daily, walking or gardening to build up some sweat, mind you unless you sweat it out, the body will not remain healthy too !.
    ,,,after this 7 days of water treatment, you should feel much better and your facial skin will also glow fresh, you can see and feel it.
    ,,,cont. to drink much water and other than water, go for fruit juices and fresh green apple juice is the best, no sugar too. hehehe

    ,,,So water is just most of us are lacking, futhermore our human body is made out of 74.8% water, anything less by 2 % of water, your blood gets thicken and 1st sign of it, is an bloody headache.

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