I thought vertigo was just a movie

Over the past few days I have been experiencing symptoms of vertigo (which is also affecting my brain because it took 5 tries to write that sentence correctly). Never had I had symptoms such as these. They were so vague and random, I did not bother to go to the doctor earlier because they would have no idea what I was talking about. Actually, it scared me so bad that I really began to panic.

However, one of our good cardiology fellows decided that something was wrong with my ears so he did the ear exam (after I showed him how to turn on the light of the otoscope!). Probably not a good idea to let a cardiologist look at your ears! (Even if he is from my favorite town of Irbid, Jordan) Anyway, apparently there was fluid behind the ear drum on the left. No ear pain, no nausea, just dizziness.

Hmmmmm. Why would that be? No allergy/sinus problem at the moment. No airplane travel.

The vertigo did not go away with over-the-counter medication. And I finally decided to go to the doctor.

He said that my ears/ear drums were fine. OMG, it is not my ears, it is deadly disease. I knew it! Of course, this is what I thought immediately. Then he left the room and came back with the "tuning fork".

Tuning fork.....vibrating by your ears and on your forehead. The doctors goes "Aha, that explains it" .....but doesn't explain it to you. Excuse me...panic here!

"What??!! What!!!???"

Apparently, he diagnosed a hearing conduction problem. OMG I'm going deaf!!!!

He also did the "follow my finger with your eyes". I found that if I look from right to left--no problem, BUT if I look left to right--major dizzy! Too bad that I can't just read in Arabic.

I had already determined that turning my head to the left (such as merging into traffic) is not a good idea. BUT I was good when turning it to the right. Driving was OK as long as I kept my head straight forward. BUT probably not optimal driving conditions.

Here is what I found about vertigo:

"Although dizziness and vertigo are often used interchangeably, they are not the same thing. While all vertigo is dizziness, not all dizziness is vertigo."

WTF! I am getting dizzy just reading that! How exactly does that help me!? It is like one of those trick questions on the nursing exams.

So now I am on some good steroid medication for the next few days.

After carefully reading the symptoms of vertigo, I am pretty sure that I can still die of some dreaded disease, but hopefully it is just benign paroxysmal positional vertigo