Day 295 - 152.0 Sophie's doctor report

We met with an Ears, Nose & Throat specialist yesterday about Sophie's dizzy spells. He doesn't think her dizziness is caused by something inner ear related, at least not a "big thing" like Menier's disease. They did a full hearing test, and she passed perfectly. And the doctor spent a lot of time with us, listening as I described her symptoms over the past year.

He said even if he did a bunch of tests and they found it was some kind of "smaller" inner ear thing, there was nothing they could do to fix it. He thinks it's probably brain related, and passed the buck back to the neurologist.

The past three mornings she's woken up dizzy. It's gotten better as she's stayed vertical, and she's gone to school every day and been okay (not perfect, as she has felt dizzy some at school, but she's functioning). This morning she told me that she felt dizzy when she rolled on her right side, then when she rolled back to her left side it stopped. That tells me it's positional, which could be a good thing because then we know a little bit what we're dealing with.

But basically, there are still no answers and it's probably something she's going to have to deal with for a long time.

I'm going to call her Pediatrician and see if we can lay out a plan for what to do when another big episode hits. The girl is now over 60 pounds and is quite tall for a 6 year old (the prednisone she was on for 2 weeks back in October totally made her go through a growth spurt) and I just cannot carry her around everywhere like I had been doing. We'll need a wheel chair the next time she can't walk, and I want to know in advance what we'll need to make that happen. And I want to know if he or the neurologist feels that another MRI should be done.

We were at the ENT's office for 2 hours; it took an hour before they even got to us. And we left just in time to pick up Luke from day care. So I didn't get to run, and felt completely drained and emotionally wrecked because I was hoping we'd have some kind of answer from the ENT.

And because apparently this time of year makes me unable to cope with such things, I took the kids to Sonic and I ate lots of deep fried junk and some ice cream. It was a knee-jerk reaction to soothe my pain, and last night I felt bad physically and emotionally. I honestly don't know if I will ever not run to food when I feel like I've been hit by a train. It's still my balm of choice

Today, my friends, is a new day. And even though I desperately wanted my Starbucks grande nonfat sugar-free vanilla caramel machiato extra hot, and a cinnamon scone, I skipped it. I'm forcing myself to contain the urges to drown in carbs and fat. I can't promise I'll be chocolate free, but I will keep the damage to a minimum.

I am planning a long slow run today--not sure how many miles. Mom picks up the kids on Fridays so I don't have to worry about a 5 p.m. stopping time, and I'm going to leave work early if possible and just go running. Hopefully it will be outside, but the weather is iffy (thank goodness we aren't getting hit by the snow/ice storm) and it might be cold and rainy. If it is, the treadmill and I are friends and things will be just fine.

I need this run today like I need oxygen. I wish I was out there now. Hope you all have a healthy & relaxing (HA!) weekend.