What did you do THIS time?!

"What did you do THIS time?!" That is something I have heard countless times. I have always been known to be clumsy. It usually resulted in an injury. I mean REALLY how many times can one person fall down the stairs or trip on their face? I just always thought I was a clumsy girl. 

It got to the point where I was teased for always falling and running into things. I always laughed along but it hurt and I got very tired of hearing, "We need to wrap you in bubble wrap!" I was failing to see the humor because I knew that no matter how careful I thought I was being I always was falling, running into things, or just dropping or knocking things over. I don't know how many glasses I have spilled just by trying to reach for them. 

I was sick a lot growing up, and I mean a LOT. I was teased in school for always being gone. Nobody believed one person could be sick or injured so much. I was known as a faker. Someone who faked being sick and injured to stay home or for attention. The truth is I never skipped school. I loved school and I hated feeling to crappy to go. Most the time I was feeling dizzy and just all around cruddy. Never enough to really need a doctor, but I was too dizzy to be moving around and focusing in school. I never thought much of it, I just thought I was sick! 

When I was 17 I had one of the worst dizzy spells I ever had. I had migraines and vertigo that lasted for weeks. I missed so much school I fell too far behind to catch up. When the headaches wouldn't go away we saw a doctor and he did an MRI. They found that my seventh and eighth cerebral nerves were tangled around each other. The doctors told me that this explains the vertigo and the headaches. He told me that these nerves are related to ears, eyes, balance, depth perception, and motor skills. He diagnosed me with "chronic vertigo" and basically said we could try meds but it might just be something to live with.

Lately I have been thinking about it and wanting to do some research to either see if others are suffering from something similar and if they have anything that helps. So far I haven't found a single thing that talks about tangled cerebral nerves. I did found some specifics on the nerves themselves though. 

The seventh cerebral nerve "Provides motor innervation to the muscles of facial expression, posterior belly of the digastric muscle,stylohyoid muscle, and stapedius muscle. Also receives the special sense of taste from the anterior 2/3 of the tongue and provides secretomotor innervation to the salivary glands (except parotid) and the lacrimal gland."

The eighth cerebral nerve "Senses sound, rotation, and gravity (essential for balance and movement). More specifically, the vestibular branch carries impulses for equilibrium and the cochlear branch carries impulses for hearing."

SAY WHAT? 

I am diagnosed as a clutz!

Hahahaha... 

Basically these nerves are tangled and causing inflammation and irritation of each other. Right now I say the eighth nerve is taking the bulk of the beating. I suffer from severe chronic vertigo. More days than not I feel like the room is swaying or things around me are moving.  It causes nausea, migraines, and exhaustion. I have very poor balance. I cannot stand with my eyes closed or I will fall over. If nudged I literally fall over. It is amusing and it is okay to laugh. Knowing the cause has really helped me. I also have a small amount of hearing loss caused by nerve damage. I will have to continue to get my hearing tested to be sure it is not getting worse. My depth perception is way off. It explains why I knock over glasses when I reach for them or why I run into doorways. Also, why I have never been able to hit or throw a ball properly. 

EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE NOW! 

I have not found meds that help me. However, I have discovered that the more I do the worse it is. I have good days and bad days. Some days I don't even notice it and some days I can hardly get out of bed. This is one of the main reasons I have decided to try to work from home. I have to balance out my productivity with quiet days. It might not always be easiest financially with us but it has been the best for me physically and emotionally. 

Living with chronic vertigo gets really old. It is some thing I have learned that I cannot just push through. If I do it just gets worse. Some days I have no choice but I pay for it later. You might see me running around doing crazy amount of things for days but you don't see the three days after I spend in bed recovering.

I am a clutz and it is funny when I run fall down, collide with, or knock over things. So laugh but remember this is my daily life and some days I might have been dealing with it severely for days already. 

Hope you understand a little more about me now!

Love you all!

Annie