Over Thanksgiving my Mom, who is 80, had a dizzy spell. We thought maybe she had just gotten too interested in everybody and everything and not eaten correctly. Friday she had a brief spell at 5 AM, on Saturday she was better, on Sunday she had another brief episode, and this morning she was again unable to talk and very nauseated due to the dizziness. She caught me just as I was ready to go out the door to commute to work.
I remembered to take her blood sugar in order to make sure she was not having low blood sugar. Nope, normal. She didn't feel better after drinking some coffee and eating something. I gave her a choice - urgent care, emergency room, or doctor visit. She chose emergency room, and the one closest to us.
Once there we waited and waited and waited. There had been some ice or heavy frost that morning, and there were 4 different people there with falls. Mom's blood pressure was pretty elevated, and she was still dizzy by the time the triage nurse got to talk to her.
The end result of the visit is that #1) Mom is having an inner ear disturbance/infection. or #2) Mom has had a slight stroke in the vestibular area of the brain. The doc gave a script for anti-vert in case #1 was true. He suggested watchful waiting to make sure that #2 was not true. He said the only treatment for that type of stroke would be blood thinners, and Mom is already on those. If she does not improve in a couple of days we are to go to her regular doc.
I'm hiving pretty big time this evening and ready to go to sleep. Not sure what to do about work. I feel I need to wait until Mom wakes up and see how she is doing before I make any decisions tomorrow. Hoping the antivert will make her less dizzy, but not confident that it will.
