7/28/2021 ~ Dizziness is becoming a constant. It’s worrying, especially during the night when I want to get up for some reason. A few times it’s tipped me over when I tried to sit up.
It’s not the kind of dizziness that happens when it’s dark, or you have your eyes closed. That’s different and can often be resolved by eating B12 rich foods, like Swiss cheese with it’s live B12 making bacteria, or by using methylcobalamin lozenges.
8/20/21 ~ I’ve put off working on this page because I haven’t found a remedy. I tried drinking more liquids, getting more sleep, using Turkey Tail and Lions Mane mushroom capsules in case the cause was a tumor on or near my brain. There was a worrying bump behind my ear that set me to thinking tumor.
The dizziness seems distinctly related to stress. There were a few instances of my left hand being so numb it was painful, and would not resolve. I know for a fact that when I play games like Bejeweled or Plants vs. Zombies my hands go very numb and I have to pause the game to relax so that my hands become useable again. If I could play without tensing it would be quite an accomplishment!
I also watched videos and read research. I did exercises to release pressure on nerves around my neck. I ordered a new pillow in case my neck’s angle while I sleep was a contributing factor.
My swollen ankles were a sign my heart wasn’t pumping oxygen rich blood efficiently. I’d been doing a few minutes of dancing every day, holding on to my walker, as exercise to help my heart. It worked great up until the dizziness. Once it no longer worked I decided to go for full rest. after about a week of major bed rest my ankles were no longer swollen, but I was still dizzy, but not as catastrophically dizzy in that I wasn’t tipping over when I tried to sit up.
I was drinking Bubbly Sparkling Grapefruit Water to avoid heating up my apartment during the summer by making tea. A few nights when I had some left I used it to water my plants. And, just like that my poinsettia that was promising a second year of flowers suddenly went downhill. Maybe sparkling water isn’t really healthy. Though, early on I’d researched drinking it and didn’t find any problems noted.
For a fact the water in my apartment isn’t ideal. I began filtering it after I took the little mesh thing off my kitchen faucet and found it full of murky brown stuff. That was another reason I chose Sparkling water. But, given that my poinsettia was looking sick, I ordered Ozarka Spring water. Nestle is cheaper but I can’t buy from Nestle when they are pumping many areas dry on leases that cost them $87/yr while local people have their water turned off because the charges are exorbitant, running into the thousands.
After a week of drinking spring water the dizziness is less frequent. (I’m also still taking the mushroom capsules.)
8/25/2021 ~ I think I’ve found the cause of my dizziness. Remember the bump behind my ear? Well, I now think it has to do with infection rather than a tumor. I’ve had an infection around old dental implants for a couple decades. At first I didn’t have the money to have a dentist remove them, then after vitamin C was working perfectly I relied on it and gave up thinking about having the implants removed, especially after Sly Stalone’s son, Sage, had 5 teeth removed and died. I think infection is well capable of killing us.
I think the vitamin C would have continued to work perfectly were it not for my apartment building’s sewer backing up into my apartment. Property management didn’t do anything until the backup was so bad the whole 11 building property smelled sickeningly of sewage.
I was really dizzy after that and got a horrible rash that was so itchy it defied sleep. I had to take a huge amount of vitamin C just to get the rash under control. So much, in fact, that I got horrible diarrhea, which is pretty natural with vitamin C if you exceed the saturation point. Only as soon as I took less, the rash and itching got horrible again. It took ages to get it almost balanced out again. But I couldn’t use as much vitamin C every day as I had been using prior to the rash.
Recently there was particularly bad, escalating stress. First I bought a new Dell XPS computer, top of the line since I’m old and was expecting it to last the rest of my life, only it was a dud and tech support was abusive, making Karen jokes and apparently ignorant of some basic answers. It played havoc with my heart and didn’t resolve until after a week in bed with no activity. There were actually a couple rounds of that, as the management techs from India were offended that I complained and threatened to have my hard drive wiped if I tried to get more support. I can’t help but feel they were treating me the way memes depict all Karens to be, ie deserving of extreme disrespect.
Then a month or so ago I made a WomanWithin credit card payment that was $15.16 more than I actually had in my account, and they refused to cancel the payment. So that cost me $50 in NSF fees and $10 to borrow $50 for ten days till I had my social security. That whole ten days was nothing but worry that something I’d forgotten about would go through my credit union and I’d be charged more NSF fees.
After that, the dizziness began that tipped me over when I tried to sit up during the night.
It seemed very possible that the bump behind my left ear was a tumor under my skull, pushing it outward, though I didn’t know if that was actually possible… pushing the skull so that it made a bump.
I was also having a very odd pressure feeling in my head, reminding me that my grandmother died from a stroke.
I happened to wonder what would happen if I soaked a cotton round in rubbing alcohol and pressed it against the bump. When I tried there was stinging. Stinging indicated that the bump was related to infection. So, I’ve been soaking cotton rounds in alcohol and pressing them against the bump and surrounding area, all of which reacted with stinging.
It’s been three days, and I’m encouraged. It does seem the problem could be infection pressing against the auditory nerve that has to do with balance.
Based on that theory I’ve decided I need to take quite a lot more vitamin C in the morning and early part of the day, so that its effects are not going to cause diarrhea at night. With that in mind, I had 4 1,000 mg vitamin C capsules with my morning coffee. That equals 4 grams. I had another 4 grams with a peanut butter sandwich for lunch… and I’d like to use another 4 grams but I’m hesitant because of possible diarrhea.
When I had a really bad tooth ache that caused the left side of my face to swell it took three days for the infection to be totally gone as a result of taking a LOT of vitamin C, I think I was using between 24 and 30 grams a day.
So, three days from now I should have an idea of whether or not this is the answer.
8/27/2021 ~ I think possibly it may take more than three days. One bump behind my left ear is about the size of a dime, maybe a quarter. Another is the size of a silver dollar. Having found them I’m a lot more worried in that an infection causing swelling so near my brain is, well… worrying.
I’ve been holding a cotton round soaked in alcohol against the different areas of swelling, and each one stings. I think that’s good. In times past stinging correlated to reduction in the infection. It took pretty long to entirely get rid of a saucer sized bed sore when I had tetanus, but in the end the alcohol won.
The other thing, besides alcohol, is vitamin C. I can’t use as much as I did before the rash from the backed up sewer, in fact my body only tolerates about 8 grams a day: 4 with breakfast, 4 with lunch.
Right now my neck feels as if I can’t turn my head smoothly because of swelling… the infection. But there’s no where on my neck that stings if I hold a cotton round soaked with alcohol against it.
On a more hopeful note, last night the dizziness seemed less severe.
8/28/2021 ~ I switched from two sets of 4 1,000 mg vitamin C capsules, one with breakfast and one with lunch, to four sets of two, about an hour to two hours apart. This way I’m getting the same amount of vitamin C, but in the more frequent but smaller doses my body seems to tolerate it better.
I used a total of 8 grams today, like yesterday, only today there’s no gastrointestinal distress. Happiness.
Tomorrow I’m going to try using 10 grams, at the rate of 2 grams every hour to two hours.
Now that I know the dizziness has to do with the swelling on the left side of my head I’m a lot more concerned. I’m actually scared. Scared and determined to relax as much as possible to defeat the stress. Being scared is stressful.
9/10/21 ~ Yesterday I thought for sure my days were numbered. The swelling behind my left ear, and elsewhere on my head, makes me think that there’s something serious going on, especially since using a lot of vitamin C has not made the swelling go away. That’s a first. Usually vitamin C cures any problem like that.
Yesterday I was really good about using 2 grams of vitamin C ever two to three hours with food and lots of liquid, and I used Ashwagandha to combat the stress from knowing something is seriously wrong. Plus, I used a 4 mushroom complex twice instead of just once. Today there seems to be less pressure in my head. So I’m continuing to stay in bed, which is what made the swelling in my ankles go away by relieving stress on my heart. It’s so weird that ordinarily some exercise is good for my heart, but if I’m struggling on a daily basis, then bed rest and no exercise brings improvement.