Grateful To Be ‘Normal’

I never thought I would be grateful to be dizzy. Or at least just this dizzy.

Exactly one week ago I was lying in bed with a herniated disc. I could barely move because of the excruciating pain. The pain from the disc injury was bad enough, but then I started to feel dizzier than I normally do. A lot dizzier.

I’ve now learned that there is a term for this. It is called Vestibular Decompensation. Simply stated, it means that my brain had started to regress during my period of inactivity and I’d lost some of the progress I’d made compensating for my inner ear dysfunction.

But the funny thing is, in all the time that I spent wanting to feel better, I never once thought that better would be how I used to be. It never crossed my mind that feeling well wouldn't include dizziness. I wanted to get back to normal. And for me, normal is dizzy. Whoa....when did that happen?

I guess somewhere on the messy road to recovery, I became grateful for the smallest of things. The ability to move my head from side to side. To shift my body without pain. To sit up, then to stand up. To go to the bathroom unassisted. The list was endless.  I was so grateful to get back to the way things were before, and before was dizzy. I’ve actually forgotten now what life used to be like before Vestibular Neuritis. (although there are flashbacks from time to time)!
 Do I like being dizzy? No.

 But I've now learned, through painful first hand experience, that things could always be worse.