The Mortal Dangers of Vacuuming

I am pretty sure I am not just "dizzy". I have: "Benign Paroxysmal Postitional Vertigo". In interest of time and space, and reader fatigue, I will refer to my malady as BPPV. When my nurse friend heard my symptoms, she sent me an article on BPPV.
"Do you think you might have this?" she asked.

 The article was highly illuminating. Basically, BPPV occurs when an otolithic crystal in the vestibular apparatus of the cochlear structures dislodges and becomes relocated against a nerve, sending impulses of movement when movement is actually not happening. Now, for those of you not in med school, I will give you the low down on BPPV.  We detect our body position and thus are able to balance, walk in a way not reminiscent of drunken sailors, and know where our head is because of tiny crystals that balance atop little hairs in our inner ear. When our head moves, the crystals are pulled towards gravity, bending those little hairs, and sending nerve impulses to our brain that tell us, "Danger- she is heading for the chocolate fudge brownies again!" Depending on which way the hairs move, we can tell which way we are moving. This is a subconscious, involuntary activity that most of us don't even know we have...until it goes awry, like in my case. Either from head trauma, or in some cases, aging, which is of course not possible in my case, those little crystals fall off their motion detecting pedestal and roll around till they get stuck against a nerve. Then they tell the head that it is moving when it is not. The world flicks back and forth, and round and round, and we describe ourselves as "dizzy".

The good news is that the crystals eventually (usually) roll away from the nerve, and symptoms subside. And even better, in severe cases, a single session of Physical Therapy and then a week or so of careful head positioning can completely relieve the symptoms in 75% of victims. The trauma that dislodged the crystal may have been in the distant past, and symptoms come and go as the crystal rolls to a less than ideal place in the labyrinth of nerves.  The classic test for it is lying the patient down, turning the head, and if the eyeballs flick back and forth like windshield wipers, and the patient clutches the bed while crying out, "Tsunami!", then BPPV is conclusive. Since I performed the test on myself, being a highly trained Occupational Therapist, I now am pretty sure this is the fancy cause of my dizziness.With aging, those crystals and hairs deteriorate, and thus, many older folk find their balance compromised, but they don't usually have the severe symptoms I had. Head trauma is more often the likely culprit.

Since I am not old, at least not by biblical standards, I presume my crystal got dislodged during my concussion a few years back. 
"Concussion?" asked sister Wendy, when I relayed my diagnosis to her.

I realized this is an important alert that should have been posted on my blog, filled with safety tips for the neurotic and anxiety ridden friends that follow me. Vacuuming caused my concussion, and should never be attempted by anyone without proper safety gear and precautions. Unless you want to end up like me, with BPPV, and a head that is always a foot ahead of the rest of your body, I urge you to read the following information carefully.

I, like most people, had begun vacuuming the living room with little concern for protective armor before engaging in this activity. I had come to the corner of the living room and noticed spider webs inside the window. Wanting to be as efficient as possible, I did not pause in my vacuuming, but with one hand deftly wiggled the window open, forgetting the pointy, heavy, crystal prism that sat on the windowsill. Unaware of the impending danger, I was stooped over vacuuming the spider webs in the corner of the floor as I forced open the sticky window. With no warning, the heavy, pointy crystal prism clanked down on my head with surprising brutal velocity. I was instantly felled. Flattened, I regained consciousness a few seconds later, with a dent in my skull and a throbbing headache. I had the classic symptoms of concussion- wailing, nausea, headache, and crossed eyes. Little did I know that the dangerous activity of vacuum cleaning would lead me down the dizzying road to BVVP.

Not being able to walk a straight path and staggering is a good symbol to meditate on. Psalm 107 mentions staggering and stumbling several times. In that Psalm, the inability to find and stay on a straight path stemmed from rebelliousness, disobedience, despising God, sin, fear, lack of faith, lack of trust, and quaking in the face of trials. The unfaithful stumbled at least as much as we unfortunates with BVVP do. But then, He also provided a simple cure. When humbled, flattened, unable to rise on their own, they cried out to God. And in a single session, He rolled away the crystal of affliction, and set them upright, on steady feet, on a straight and hopeful path again. God is so dizzyingly obvious in the symbols of life.

Psalm 107:26-28, 39-43

²⁶ They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths;
   in their peril their courage melted away.
²⁷ They reeled and staggered like drunkards;
   they were at their wits’ end.
²⁸ Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
   and he brought them out of their distress.
 ³⁹ Then their numbers decreased, and they were humbled
   by oppression, calamity and sorrow;
⁴⁰ he who pours contempt on nobles
   made them wander in a trackless waste.
⁴¹ But he lifted the needy out of their affliction
   and increased their families like flocks.
⁴² The upright see and rejoice,
   but all the wicked shut their mouths.
 ⁴³ Let the one who is wise heed these things
   and ponder the loving deeds of the LORD.

Glimpses of God

I love the rare, the unusual, the under-dog, the shy, the elusive, the mysterious, the miraculous. I equally love the thing so common that it is overlooked. I think God is both.

When we lived in Syracuse, NY, we had a home right on the Erie Canal. The part we lived on was pretty decrepit, but you could still walk along the tow path and see the old locks that used to raise and lower the water level. If you listened very carefully, you could hear the tow mules bray amid the shots of hunters who thought it was great sport to hunt deer along the canal, shooting towards the neighborhood filled with small children. I once demonstrated my mind boggling lack of common sense when I confronted one of those hunters with his gun dangling towards me, and told him didn't he know he was not allowed to shoot on state park lands and that there were little children playing just beyond the tree line? he didn't answer, and his gun lowered slowly, but he turned and walked away. (whew)
The path went on for endless miles, and most of it was parkland, so it was filled with nature and largely deserted. On snowy winter days of which there were approximately 300 a year in upstate NY, I would cross-country ski on the tow path. That, in and of itself was enough to make my toes curl with delight. But as though a peaceful winter wonderland with the sounds of skis swishing and the soft snow hushing the moans of troubles were not joy enough, I would invariably catch a glimpse of my favorite bird, the Great Blue Heron. It would be quiet and beautiful, and I would be contemplating deep and significant thoughts like whether I should get my hair cut.... when I would see something move out of the corner of my eye. I would look for it, whatever it was, and it would be nothing, just a shifting of snow from the bridge of my nose. And then, as I would swish off again, the heron would suddenly flap its enormous six foot wings, and it would glide down the middle of the Erie Canal. It would settle a hundred feet ahead, until I caught up, and then sail off to the sky again, leading me further down this path of peace and elusive silence. Every single time it happened, and it happened many times, I thought of God. Every time I see a Great Blue Heron, I feel the presence of God.

I am not saying that God is a Heron, mind you. But the qualities of the Heron always remind me of God. They are magnificently large and yet it is rare to see them as they are masters at blending in to their surroundings. You can pass them by and never know they are there. But if you draw close, they will always show themselves with their awesome presence bursting heavenward. I always wonder how this huge bird can be so hard to find, but so unmistakably present. If I hike while make a lot of noise, I will almost never see one.... but if I enter the forest sanctuary and still my chattering soul, and look with quiet but searching eyes, I almost always see one.

I think that is the way God reveals Himself. You can't hear Him if you are busy talking yourself, and you can't see Him if you aren't ardently looking. And just when you think you have it all figured out, like how to submit a post without underlines appearing at the most inopportune moments, He is hiding again, and all you get are glimpses from the corner of your eye. So much of the Christian life is a walk of faith, but it is not blind faith. Like the Great Blue Heron, God is there and at times His presence will manifest itself in such a dazzling life-altering way that all you can do is shield your eyes from the blinding light of the sun and watch Him draw with wings of mercy and grace the path to Heaven.

I had a glimpse last night, right before we went to bed. We had just prayed for a dear family who had been without work for a year. He had had an interview that morning, one of many he had had over the hard and draining year. I went to my computer to shut it down, weary from all the demands of the day, and of Wii Yoga which is harder than you would think.... and there was an email from my friend. Her husband had gotten the job in a most unlikely way. I could hear the beat of a heron's wings, rising like a miracle into the sky.

2 Corinthians 4:18
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

PS_ One dog is only a few votes ahead of Honeybun in the contest. You can vote every day when you first log on, and the steps are below. Please vote for Honeybun, and help win dogfood for a year for Hollow Creek Farm.

click on this little link below and skip to step 8.
http://tinyurl.com/voteforhoneybun


1. Click on this link:
http://www.petco.com/content/storiesListheartChampion.aspx?bvcategoryid=1-9
2. In upperish right side, select "sort by OLDEST STORIES FIRST"
3. Scroll down to bottom and select page "5".
4. Scroll down to bottom and select page "6".
5. Honeybun is the second story (picture: doge sleeping on pillow,
covered with a blanket. title: A Last Chance Dog.
6. Click on "Read my story and vote"
7. Click on the 5th (rightmost) gold medal (it will say "5 stars" when
you hover over it.)
8. On the Righthand side of the page enter your/an email address and
click the continue button.
9. You will be returned to Honeybun's story page.
10. Close your BROWSER program (not just the window).
11. Repeat steps 1-10.