Andrew Olle Media Lecture 2006

I didn’t expect to be eating hospital food today. I didn’t expect to be eating anything at all. From Monday’s breakfast until this morning, I haven’t been able to keep anything down, due to an extended bout of vomiting. I’ve thrown up at least half a dozen times.

It all started on Monday morning when the first thing I did was vomit. It was after waking, and a dizzy experience where “the room went spinning round”. Thankfully, I didn’t follow in the footsteps of the great song “The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan” and “climb to the rooftop when all the laughter grew too loud”.

Further bouts of dizziness followed by vomiting continued throughout Monday, as I wrote about in my previous blog post. On Tuesday morning, my friend Andrea read the post and dropped me a quick message, checking in on my welfare. I replied quickly, asking if she could visit.

“I think we need to call the ambulance,” she said as she arrived at my apartment. By the time she had arrived, I was in a pretty bad state. I had already vomited in both bedrooms, the bathroom, and the lounge room. I was also unable to get up off the floor, as I was instantly dizzy, and vomiting followed shortly after. When I opened my apartment door for her, I was flat down on the ground, and without my prosthetic leg.

We called the ambulance, described the situation, and they offered to send a team of two people as soon as possible. While we waited, we chatted, and I also called a few people at work to explain the situation.

When the paramedics arrived, they were quick to diagnose the possible cause – Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo – though noting neither was a doctor.

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is a disorder arising from a problem in the inner ear. Symptoms are repeated, brief periods of vertigo with movement, characterized by a spinning sensation upon changes in the position of the head. This can occur with turning in bed or changing position. Each episode of vertigo typically lasts less than one minute. Nausea is commonly associated. PPV is one of the most common causes of vertigo. BPPV is a type of balance disorder along with labyrinthitis and Ménière’s disease. It can result from a head injury or simply occur among those who are older.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benign_paroxysmal_positional_vertigo

The diagnosis was later affirmed/confirmed by the doctor at St. Vincent’s Hospital Emergency Department. As with my previous experiences at the hospital, I can’t speak highly enough of the speedy, careful treatment I received. There was even a friendly, recognizable smile from one of the medical staff who recognized me from my time at Sacred Heart Rehabilitation. “James, I thought we had told you to go home and never come back,” she said with a laugh.

The doctor gave me some medication and performed a number of physiotherapy-like exercises on me to reduce the dizziness. Slowly moving my head from side to side, there were moments when I thought I might vomit again, but thankfully did not.

In the “short stay” area of the Emergency Department, there was only one other person, so we were well looked after by the staff. Our part of the department was incredibly quiet, in stark contrast to what must otherwise be quite a busy area. The peacefulness of the space was also an observation shared by a woman I was sharing the room. The discussion which later revealed I have worked (distantly) with her daughter for over a decade. We chatted briefly when she came to pick up her mum. Small world, eh?

Today I had further visits from a physiotherapist and a doctor who also confirmed the diagnosis, took me through some exercises, and gave me a sheet to take home with things I will need to practice.

I also had a CT scan, which confirmed nothing unusual except for the “expected impacts of aging.”

When you have a computer that takes, literally, ten to fifteen minutes to boot up every day, you need something to pass the time. I check my mail, I check my voice-mail, and I take a swig or two on the coffee I’ve picked up on the way to work.

My favourite shop for coffee is “Coffee Trails” at Railway Square. I’ve been going there for almost as long as they’ve been open. I even follow them, and they follow me on Twitter. The shop has a good vibe about it, and they make good coffee. Clearly, however, I’ve been extolling their virtues far too much, as they’ve become more and more popular. Lately, the queue has been, literally, out the door. How I long for the days when they had just a loyal, but small customer base.

But I keep going back, because they known my name, they’re lovely people, and they make good coffee. But from time to time, lately, I’ve become a little promiscuous when it comes to purchasing coffee. If the queue there is too long, I’ll go to another “hole in the wall coffee shop”. And if it’s too busy there, I’ll try another. Just the other day, though, just about everyone in Sydney seemed to be purchasing coffee, and everyone had such a long queue, that I was forced to go to work without a coffee. I know, I know. First world problems.

We certainly seem to have embraced the coffee lifestyle in Sydney, or perhaps it’s just more and more people living in the city?

Also, I have a slightly weird theory though that we’ll see health problems emerge in a couple of years time, as people come down with a mystery illness due to the “leached plastic” in their systems due to the coffee cup lids. Seriously guys, it’s time to take the plastic lid off the paper cup.