I had an
appointment at the Royal Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital today - which is a subsidiary
of the Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes Institute - to look into my ongoing vertigo
(which is some kind of John Virgo / Alfred Hitchcock amalgam).
It was good to
finally have extensive tests to try to get to the bottom of something that
affects me almost daily. I first experienced this level of extreme dizziness
while working on Dreamboats & Petticoats in the West End, which literally
hit me mere minutes from curtain up. All of a sudden, I felt like I was going
to collapse, and had to be taken out of the show for fear I would faint
mid-performance (which was all included in the price).
My GP at the time
suggested it may be labyrinthitis, but they never quite got to the bottom of
it. The dizziness didn’t pass for weeks, which ultimately led to me leaving the
cast of Dreamboats to recover, and ever since then, I’ve suffered long bouts of
vertigo so often they’ve essentially become an accepted part of my daily life,
leading to regular dizziness, tiredness, confusion and anxiety as I try to
ignore the symptoms and get on with - well - the things I do.
Today’s
appointment involved hearing tests (I scored well for someone who’s consistently worked in noisy environments), balance tests, and close scrutiny
of my eye movements (which I'd describe as “shifty”) to try to get to the
bottom of the problem. To summarise crudely (you fucking shit) it’s
most likely a form of vestibular migraine that presents itself as vertigo,
which is the closest I’ve had to a direct explanation in the eight years I’ve
suffered from it. I’ve been given medication to ease the symptoms (it
would be truly life-changing if they did) and have been booked in for an MRI
scan with a view to ruling out anything more serious (presumably answering the question “do I have a brain?” in the process). I feel optimistic this will help; either way, it
feels good to be attempting to get to the bottom of something that's truly
debilitating at its worst; watch this slightly blurry space for news of hopeful progress.