No rapid twisty somersaults for me.
Interesting that you mention somersaults.
I had my first vertigo episode a couple of months ago. It woke me up during the night, from a dream where I was snapping my head back and forth. It was horrible--vomiting, cold sweats, unable to be upright and even lying down with my eyes closed I was spinning but I could survive that and sleep a little.
In a random conversation with a stranger in a pilates class a couple of months before that, the Epley Maneuver for vertigo came up, and I briefly looked it up at the time. But I remembered it and had my boyfriend look it up and he coached me through it about 10 hours into the episode and it fixed me. Delay was caused because he couldn't get to the computer because I was lying on the floor blocking the door, shivering and sweating and invisibly spinning, for a couple of hours, before I got the courage to crawl sideways back to bed. People sometimes say they thought they were going to die, but I was scared I
wouldn't die.
But that Epley Maneuver takes some balls, because I sat up in bed to do it, which was terrible enough, but the thought of lying back quickly and letting my head fall backwards had me screaming in terror. It's the LAST thing someone with vertigo wants to do.
So...somersaults. A couple of months before the vertigo, I got a mind to try doing a cartwheel, for the first time in probably 50 years, just to see if I could do it. It took some convincing to fling myself that direction, but I did it. Then a week or so after that, I decided to try a somersault. We had a trampoline when I was growing up, so I did lots of flips and spins and twists all the time, but as I crouched on the floor I was hesitant and had to talk myself into dipping my head and rolling over; it just didn't feel right and was certainly nothing like back in the day when I'd roll here and there no problem. But I did it, and noticed it made me a little dizzy, so I decided my somersault days are over. And I now wonder if doing the somersault broke some of the crystals loose.
FWIW, I'm quite sure my vertigo spell had nothing to do with dehydration, because I'm not a water drinker and I'm sure I'm dehydrated all the time, but it's how my body likes to be.
I've become an evangelist for the Epley Maneuver. I tell friends, unprompted, that if they get vertigo and there's zero reason to think it's a stroke or similar, try the Epley before going to the ER. I had actually considered going myself; I'm doctor-avoidant but it was that bad. However, I couldn't imagine how I could get to the car and ride in it (damn two-seater). I am so glad I had that idle conversation with a random person waiting for class to start.
I suppose I could also suggest to my friends that people our age shouldn't try somersaults, but it would probably never occur to them because they're smarter than I am.
My other evangelism involves getting your ass to an ENT
immediately if you have sudden hearing loss (discussed here not long ago) because permanent hearing loss can result if you don't start steroids quickly enough.
So...vertigo? Try the Epley before going to the ER. Sudden hearing loss? Get to an ENT for steroids immediately.
