A Dizzying Exchange About Vertigo

MORE KAFKA THAN HITCHCOCK –

June 7, 2022 – I drove to the Stony Brook Southampton Emergency Room. After a nurse took my vitals and asked if I had had anything to eat or drink (I had not), Dr. Michael Ameres asked me a series of questions. Aside from dizziness, there were no other symptoms. A battery of tests followed: blood, urine, Covid, EKG, head CT scan, chest X-rays. Everyone involved was polite and efficient. The tests seemed necessary and much appreciated by this puzzled patient, even if the results were not shared with me.

The dizziness kept me glued to the ER bed. Any ambulation felt as if I were walking down the aisle of a speeding bus, unsteadily, about to lilt either port or starboard. When I reached down for my phone, the emergency room spun three times. I reported this to the nurse. She thanked me.

Four hours later, Dr. Ameres, Emergency Medicine Specialist, returned to the room to say that the tests had shown nothing remarkable. “We think you have BPPV,” he said.

“BPPV?” I echoed.

“Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo. Something is going on in your inner ear. You should see a neurologist or an ENT doctor.”