Vertigo

I'm not talking about the Hitchcock movie, I'm talking about room spinning, nausea inducing vertigo.  I'm having it again....yes, again.  I've been having it off and on for a couple of years.  The first time I had it was severe, I was nauseous and could barely stand.  I went to the dr. and he put me through a battery of tests and determined that it was an inner ear infection, wrote me a Rx for antibiotics and told me to also take a Claritin to help drain the fluid.  Within a few days I was fine.  Since then, I've had small incidences of spinning, but nothing that wasn't fixed with some pseudoephedrine.  When the Dr. looked in my left ear, he stated that there was a lot of scar tissue within the ear and asked if I had any surgeries.  His statement has bothered me since then because I do notice that my left ear is weaker and I don't hear very well with it.

For the last 5 days, I've been suffering with spinning again.  This time, allergy drugs are not helping.  I've researched vertigo online and tried the "exercises" to reset the "stones" in the ears - no help.  It's time to find out what's wrong, I have an appt with an ENT on Monday.  I really want to know why it keeps happening (is it stress induced, infection, defect), what's up with my left ear, and get my hearing checked.  I'm DONE with feeling like I'm falling into a hole.  There are times this wakes me from sleep because I roll over and feel like I'm falling out of bed, when I'm not.  

Quality of Life

1 year ago today, I wrote about Oreo and thinking that she was going to die...any day Oreo .  Well, 1 year later and Oreo is curled up on the couch snoring loudly.  I may have written your eulogy a year ago, but how was I to know that you'd defy the odds and still be around!?  And Happy Birthday!  You're 13. 

In the last year, you have become slower, whinier and gassier.  MAN, you can clear a room!  You're funny when you fart loudly and scare yourself.   It's generally the silent ones which are deadly.  You can no longer walk the 2 blocks to the bus stop, the 1 block walk to the dumpster is about all you can handle.  However, you are spunky when you want to be.  You get excited over seeing people, you will run...trot really and you are happy.  Your age is catch up as you like to lay in front of the heater when I turn it on, you sleep more often and you're a bit grayer in the face.

Yes, you still have cancer- although, I really wonder if it's cancer.  Your mammary tumor us HUGE, but it doesn't seem to bother you too much.  We get some funny looks from people when I take you outside and I'm sure that those people are thinking I'm cruel to have this tumor hanging from you, but even the vet says that it's fine to stay and the risks of surgery are just too great. 

You still LOVE to chew on rawhide bones.  Sure, you have your good days and bad, but the good still outweigh the bad ones.  I'm not going to predict the future or whether 2012 is going to be your last year because every time I think that you're a goner, you just prove me wrong.