It looks like the source of my dizzy spells may have been found. I had a referral to a neurologist about a month ago, and after checking my previous results and doing the usual tests said that it could be a form of migraine. Although this doesn’t really explain the earache, he said it would be worth trying anti-migraine medication and see what happens.

The medication he suggested was propranolol, an anti-hypertensive. After the first couple of weeks with only a very mild (positive) effect, I increased the dose. Since then, the dizziness has been significantly better – no nausea, no nearly falling and I can have more than a few beers and not feel like the world will never be still again! The anti-hypertensive effect has been noticable, particularly on a couple of occasions, but overall it’s fine and just a little low.

Not long after I started taking it, I was feeling a little light-headed so I went down to one of the clinics at my work to have my blood pressure taken. The nurse was quite obliging and it came out as low-normal. However, while she was taking and recording it, she was asking about what investigations I’ve had. As I’ve found with many people since this started, everybody seems to know what it could be.

Once people found out I was seeing an ENT last year, they would ask if he had checked for vertigo and Meniere’s disease. It was only with a lot of self-control that I didn’t give a sarcastic response about an ENT not knowing about any of that! Of course, these were the first things he investigated, being some of the most common causes of dizziness and earache.

Over the last 18 months or so that I’ve had this, I’d had that same response many times. People may have the right intention, but they need more common sense (and perhaps a little less ego).

The nurse took a different approach though, and asked what the problem was, what investigations I had had, and I’d already let her know I was on propranolol for suspected migraines. Being a nurse, I expected her to have a little more common sense than the others I’ve been referring to. However, she took a very strange approach and suggested that I needed to visit a cardiologist, as the low blood pressure could be causing dizziness!

I decided not to explain that I was actually just experiencing light-headedness due to the low blood pressure, caused by the anti-hypertensive. The dizziness was entirely separate and my blood pressure was fine before I started taking anti-hypertensives (surprisingly enough!) I decided to leave her with her delusions of medical knowledge and common sense and have since been taking my blood pressure at home. I only hope that she doesn’t try to give her patients advice.

Anyway, it seems that I might finally have found a cause for the dizziness, if not the earaches. Even after just a few weeks I’ve noticed a great improvement in my quality of life, fingers crossed that it continues to work!

The weekend just past got off to a bad start.

Due to my dizzy spells and ear ache, I had Friday off to go to the Alfred Hospital for a balance test. They extensively test hearing and balance, in the hope of finding the cause. Despite the many warnings, I was optimistic that I’d feel OK and wouldn’t be too put out by it.

The hearing tests were harmless and other than an instrument to check my ear drum going in slightly too far (briefly), there was no problem. Hearing is fine, I still have mild tinnitus and the ear ache but there was nothing showing up which we should be concerned about.

Next came the balance tests. These were the parts I weren’t looking forward to! There were several different parts – all designed to induce dizziness while my eyes were being monitored by a little camera. I believe the basis for this is that in vertigo, the body is trying to right itself, displayed by movement of the eyes trying to find a focus.

The first part of the test involved sitting in a small booth with a light on the wall in front of me. while the light moved to different positions, I was to follow it with my eyes while keeping my head still (strapped to the chair, this was easier that you’d think). The next part involved being in darkness, the chair would move at different speeds while I focused on the light (keeping my eyes open for the recording). This is one of the most unpleasant experiences I have had – being in complete darkness and spun around at unexpected speeds and direction is not my idea of fun. At least with a roller coaster you know you’ll be going forward.

The next part wasn’t too bad and involved sitting on a bed with goggles on (for the camera to attach to) and dropping from sitting to lying at different angles.

The last stage was almost as unpleasant as the dark booth. Similar to when excess wax is syringed from your ears, both hot and cold water are pushed into your ears (separately) and again, eye movements are monitored. Both temperatures were equally uncomfortable in temperature and both induced dizziness (wearing blacked out goggles).

The outcome of all of this was that there was evidence of eye movements while I was dizzy. This means I’m not imagining it! The results will be analysed by the otoneurologist at the Alfred before they’re passed on to my ENT. I’ll be seeing him in a couple of weeks to discuss the results.

After that, I could only have a relaxed afternoon involving TV shows, knitting, editing photos and generally trying to mentally stop the room spinning! Unfortunately I also tried to go to a concert – Daughters of the Rich and Burn The City, but only managed to stay for Daughters of the Rich before I was too dizzy and needed to go to bed.

Saturday morning dawned raining and miserable, which of course was a good time to go shooting in Docklands. Only an hour and an early pint later, we were off to Armadale to see an exhibition of rock and roll pictures – including photos by Pattie Boyd and paintings by Ronnie Wood. A very impressive collection, worth a lot of money and altogether very interesting.

After that we headed down to Prahran to the Borsch, Vodka and Tears bar. There we indulged in some food (the Big Breakfast with Polish spiced sausage!) and some vodka (subtly ginger infused) which was quite delicious!

The Railway Inn was our next port of call, where we settled in for the rest of the evening in their delightful rooftop bar. Many beers and G&Ts later, we disbanded and had food and a relatively early night.

Sunday being Mother’s day, most of my friends were busy, so I had a quiet day for a change. It was a chance to catchup on some photography editing, watching True Blood and knitting a baby cardigan. I also processed the first roll from my new folding Dacora. It was successful (well, judging by my first scans) and I’ll upload some soon.

Home safe

As was stated in the last post, I came home safely and thankfully had the Friday (13th!) off work too, to recover from my holiday. Most of my day was spent unpacking, organising photos and doing some washing.

In the evening however, I managed to get out the house and went along to Rankins Lane in the city, to see the exhibition of a vague acquaintance from Flickr – Velco. The Absinthe Dream/Conversations” exhibition was simply beautiful and I highly recommend going along (yes in the next two days) if possible! The opening was a nice evening, although I was getting a cold so I stayed away from the absinthe on offer!

The weekend following was quite uneventful. I saw The Watchmen, which I thoroughly enjoyed despite not having read the graphic novels. The soundtrack was especially good, the highlight for me being Bob Dylan at the start!

After that it was struggling back into work after a week and a day off. Of course there was catching up to be done, as well as taking on my full load again, but thankfully I got through it all! I had Wednesday off, which involved seeing the ENT about my dizziness, the physio about my knee and visiting Ted’s in the city to drop off a couple of colour films to be processed.

The ENT is still at odds as to what is causing my dizziness. He suspects that mals de debarquement is not the cause, but having ruled out the other main suspects, he is unsure as to what is the cause. I’m being booked in for a CT scan and a balance test before I go back to see him, so perhaps they will reveal something. I can only hope, as it does seem to be getting worse.

The physio was all fine thankfully. Even if it is not ITBS, the deep tissue massage on the ITB and the knee-cap tape is definitely working, and that’s all that matters! The deep tissue massages aren’t the most pleasant, but it seems to help. The taping I can now do myself, and did so throughout New Zealand and since. I notice it helping particularly when standing or walking – for example I went to a concert on Friday (see below) and I could stand without issue for most of the night. At least something is going well for me!

On the Friday night, I had a few friends over for drinks and nibbles (I whipped up a couple of potato pizzas, delicious) before we went down to the Corner Hotel. Although I didn’t know the bands particularly well – Nancy Vandal and Frenzal Rhomb, – I did enjoy the show, and have had Nancy Vandal in my head since then! I’ll be copying their CDs from a friend so that I can continue to enjoy them. It was a great night, if a little intoxicating, but I was home safe and sound and tucked up by 2am.

Saturday was mainly in recovery mode. I went to the Vegie Bar in Brunswick St for lunch with a friend, which was delicious, and picked up the films from Ted’s. Later in the afternoon I went to see a friend who is in the Royal Melbourne Hospital after a bad fall on her knee which required an operation. Three of four tendons had gone, but she seems to be getting on with things and we all have our fingers crossed for her.

Sunday morning dawned unusually early and brought with it the Camberwell Photographer’s Market – a highlight of the film-shooting-community. This was my first year in attendance, and also the first year the Melbourne Silver Mine had a stall there – for members to sell their gear. I hadn’t planned on making any big purchases, and had set myself a nice low limit of $50 if I did see anything. Thankfully I stayed well underneath that and bought only two things. The first was a film squeegee, to help with water marks when I process my own film. The second was a plastic camera – Cheungyun Minitech 3D-05. It shoots four half-frames at once (35mm) and I can’t wait to see the first roll out of it!

While I was there there was much discussion about medium format gear, as a lot of people were after certain items. It’s started to tempt me into buying one too (peer pressure is hard), although I will have to do some research first obviously. I have several friends who shoot with various makes and models, so I will have to investigate, but it’s something new which does appeal to me, especially now that I can process my own black and white film.

Not that I need any new cameras at the moment though, as last weekend I was also given a plastic panorama camera. Instead of having a high-tech method, it’s a matter of flipping a lever on the back and some plastic shutters lower over the top and bottom of the frame so that the negative isn’t fully exposed. I went out with it on Wednesday and found it far too easy to shoot with, the roll was almost done after a couple of hours. I will hopefully process that this afternoon and get scanning!

This week coming also holds some excitement for me in the form of a Scottish band. I’ll be seeing Biffy Clyro, who I haven’t seen since their first support slot with InMe after their first album all the way back in 2003! They’ve changed quite significantly since then, but still have a distinct sound which I love. I can’t wait! I also plan on trying to get out and shoot with various cameras at lunchtime and after work.

In the mean time, here are some more shots from NZ, both film and digital.

Answers

After having so many sessions of physiotherapy and doing so much research as to what could be causing my knee pains, it looks like I might finally have an answer.

A couple of weeks ago my physiotherapist had a suspicion that it could be caused by the iliotibial band causing friction and misalignment of the knee cap – it’s too strong so it draws the knee cap to the outside of my leg. A short deep tissue massage later and it seemed that this could be what is causing the pain. So after some more mobilisation massage on the kneecap and deep tissue massage on the ITB, I had the kneecap taped towards to pull it over to the inner side of my leg, in an attempt to help my leg to heal itself.

I’ve now had it taped twice, with a massage each time, and it seems to be helping – while the tape is on, my knee isn’t aching as much, and after it comes off, I feel much more mobile. I’m having it taped again next week and learning how to tape it myself so that I can do it myself while I’m away in NZ – which is crucial if walking is to be my main for of transport!

The strange thing about this is that the pain in my knee is based around the back and inside the leg, whereas my physiotherapist has said that the pain with this injury is usually on the front of the knee – hence her not suspecting this being the cause. Since I’ve had the massage and tape, it seems to bring the pain to the front of the knee as well, but thankfully not as bad as the usual ache. Also, with some new exercises to strengthen the VMO muscle to help bring the knee cap into the correct place again, this could be the solution to the endless ache I experience!

Euthanasia

Ok so one of these entries came sooner that I had expected.

The case of Italian Eluana Englaro has been on news world-wide as Italy struggles for and against the reasons for euthanasia.

As she had been in a coma for over 15 years, her father has struggled to persuade clinicians and parliament that his daughter should be allowed to die as per her wishes while alive. The prime minister had ruled over the courts that she should be allowed to die, but the president ruled otherwise. However, before this case could be debated and ruled on further, her feeding tube was removed and she died within three days.

Although this is an abnormally short time according to many critics of euthanasia, the subject of dying with dignity is different.

I support euthanasia, in certain cases, to allow for people to live and die with dignity, as their wishes dictate. I believe that it is reasonable for somebody to request when alive that they are left to die, or have do-not-resuscitate orders in medical notes so that they do not potentially cause excess heartache and suffering to loved ones, a financial burden on those who cannot afford ‘good’ care and a strong likelihood of legal difficulties if a loved one decides to act on their wishes independently.

The last point raises the case of a British man who was arrested upon return from Switzerland after travelling with his terminally-ill partner to a clinic where patients are allowed to die with their dignity in tact. Thankfully no charges have been pressed and followed through on, but not only has he lost his partner, he also has to face this on return.

I understand that legalisation of assisted suicide could lead to some exploitation, but there could be further legislation brought in to minimise it – something similar to a donor card or living will.

Overall I believe Eluana Englaro’s death was morally right, and if people have made the choice, they should be allowed to die rather than live in a persistent vegetative state or coma. Personally, I would want the same should I be in an irreversible coma or in a state where I had no quality of life.

Health.

So after nearly 5 years of problems with my knees and hips, and over 10 with my ankle, it’s possible that the root has been discovered.

I’ve seen three physiotherapists (including my recent one), and each time they’ve pinned it on problems with my legs themselves. The first, in England, stated that the muscles were weak (despite doing up to 6 sessions of sport a week, plus conditioning exercises), and after doing some different conditioning exercises, there was an improvement. Unfortunately, whenever I would try to continue with running or hockey, there was pain again.

After I moved to Melbourne I saw another one last year. After explaining the history, he also said that it was weakness – especially as I hadn’t done any exercise other than starting to swim. So again, I did some different conditioning exercises and continued the swimming, but still the aches in my knee would still get to the point that I was taking the maximum dose of ibuprofen in a day.

So, about a year later, I made another appointment at the same clinic, and am seeing somebody else (by coincidence). She’s checked the strength and flexibility and confirming I have hypermobility in my knee joints; that could be causing some pain. In addition, she gave a deep tissue massage last week when I went – which hurt while it was being done, but had no effect otherwise. This week she checked my back alignment and strength and concluded that my core muscles in my abdo and gluts need strengthening. So I’ve been sent away to do this, which will hopefully put less strain on my back and loosen the sciatic nerves down my legs.

Besides this, I’ve been doing regular deep water running and laps in the pool. I feel I actually have a level of fitness and although I know it could be increased, I can never seem to get far before I cramp up in my feet! This then renders me all but crippled until I get into a hot shower and hope it loosens up.

I doubt I’ll be running any time soon, but I might look at doing some hockey training come winter, depending on my time restrictions. I’d love to get back into it, but the cost and the time features are an issue when I take into account swimming, photography, work and a social life, and I don’t feel like dropping any of those just yet.

“Bit warm”

This week has been a bit warm. And by that, I mean stinking hot to the point where even I don’t enjoy it.

Usually I enjoy the heat and summer – sunshine and lollypops and whatnot. Sure you sweat a bit (or in my case, a lot) and you need to use a fan or aircon, but it’s just so bright and fun. No need to wear layers of clothes, it puts most people in a better mood (definitely true in my case) and lastly, it gives me a chance to wear a pretty dress.

However, when it reaches the stage that my bedroom is 35+ degrees and stuffy even with a fan on, the water coming from the cold tap is 32 degrees and public transport breaks down so much that I have to listen to people complaining non-stop anywhere I go – well, it’s not fun anymore.

I guess I’ve done not too badly. The aircon did go at work and most of the staff were sent home, but it was still bearable and we all coped; we have aircon in the lounge and so spent a little more quality time with my housemates; I did manage to sleep like a baby the first night before my room became a personal sauna and, most importantly, I don’t take trains anywhere. Sure, I’ve felt like I’m going to melt when I wake in the middle of the night for a fifth time drenched in sweat to move the fan closer to me, but now it’s comfortable 30 degrees (which has always been a good temperature for me) and I’ve stopped sweating out any liquid as soon as I drink it.

The bushfires were the main concern – we haven’t had any power cuts in my area thankfully, but once they started rolling blackouts in Docklands and Port Melbourne, and even Crown, I was feeling the pressure. Even more so when I read on The Age website that bushfires were threatening the powerlines which provide two-thirds of the power for Melbourne. Thankfully they’re under control, it’s cooled down and we’re nearly all still alive.

One thing I did notice during this ‘heatwave’ was that although it’s around the same temperature that it was at last year when I visited Adelaide (35+ for a fortnight I believe), I found it much more bearable there. The wind was either not there or cooler, so it didn’t feel like a fan-forced oven and the humidity was much lower. I find the heat here overbearing and suffocating at times, and, as disgusting as it is, sweat much more. Perhaps I should move to Adelaide?….Nah!

So last weekend held excitement for me. On Saturday I managed to get down to Vanbar in North Melbourne to get all I need to do some black and white processing. I’m starting to shoot more and hopefully soon I’ll have my first results! I’ve gone for ID-11 and Tetenal Superfix Plus to start with, but I might jump on the Rodinal bandwagon that most of the Melbourne Silver Mine group seem to be on. I’ll have to check out the results I get from ID-11 first.

Later on on Saturday, the Melbourne at Night group on Flickr went on a photo-walk in the evening around Docklands to take some photos. I went along and although I felt very uninspired at first, by the time we were heading down to the Bolte Bridge at sunset, I had my camera out and was taking some photos. For our entertainment, Vermin Inc did a little bit of swimming down at the bridge, which had all of us with our cameras out.

This was one of my first night-shoots, and I’m fairly happy with the one shot I’ve uploaded of the bridge.

Perhaps this is the start of many more to come.

Since then, it’s just been work and swimming really. I’m happy with my swimming progress – running half-laps in the deep end, focusing alternately on arms and legs. I do feel the need to mention how much I hate the pool at the moment though! Obviously, the beginning of the year is busy as people decide to lose weight, pay a membership and attend for a few weeks. So most of the lanes are full of people who are quickly learning the etiquette.

The other group of people who have invaded the pool are kids. Obviously it’s school holidays, but do the kids really have to come at the peak time after work when people are trying to do lengths? Because the lap-lanes are full, I use the ‘aqua play’ lane (essentially just for leisure), and although that wasn’t a problem before Christmas, apparently the more kids there are, the more selfish they become. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen kids dive-bomb into the pool directly next to mature, well-groomed women who are content just paddling around. I understand that the women and the children can’t avoid each other entirely, but it seems that they could just a few seconds until the woman is out of the way, or move up further.

I had my first encounter with a group of kids today. There were 3-5 young boys who were in the deep end, holding onto the wall and pushing off then holding on the lane ropes, then back again. After my first 2 lengths I noticed that they’d only do it in front of people. So without goggles and expecting it, all these people, including me, were getting face-fulls of water, as well as a child in their way. It strikes me as ridiculously discourteous, and although I told them to watch out a few times, it took until the life-saver told them to return to their parents watchful eye in the children’s pool that they stopped disrupting people who were enjoying themselves.

It takes me back to the days when I used to swim at the Adelaide Aquatic Centre with my brother and dad at the weekend. Although I was a couple years too young, I’d swim in the ‘big pool’ (2-5m deep, diving and swimming). If a lifesaver asked, I’d have to prove I could swim 25m into the middle without assistance and back again – thankfully never getting asked to go back to the crowded and warm ‘kids’ pool’. Oh the good days.

Summers have changed too much – the amount of times I’d frolic under the sprinkler in our backyard when I was young. I also have vague memories of my dad filling our sandpit with water – perhaps to make up for not having a pool? Our paddling pool, once it had a hole, was destined to cover the compost heap. These days though, kids have to come to the public pools and cause a nuisance for everybody else.

I’m looking forward to when school goes back and people give up on their gym and pool memberships!

Vicdeaf Christmas Rally

This Sunday just past dawned bright and early for the annual Vicdeaf Christmas Rally. As my housemate works for them, she kindly volunteered both Travis and me for the day’s events down in Chelsea.

Living with Kat, it’s hard not to learn little bits of Auslan (Australian sign language) from her using it constantly. The basics of thank you, food, I want/don’t want, where, what etc. have been quickly picked up by us, as well some of the, let’s say, slang terms! However, when it came to attending this event, we needed a little more than that. As I was photographing for most of the day, I found the most useful sign was ‘I can’t sign’. It was used several times when people asked where my photos were going, or one of the staff tried to tell me that Santa was coming – and was always received kindly – at least I had made an effort to learn that! Of course, the sign for thank you also came in handy frequently.

This is was my first experience, that I can remember, with deaf people. I’ve seen people signing in public before, but to actually approach them, take a photo (for Vicdeaf) and have a short chat, was something new. Don’t get me wrong, Kat has told us all about the culture associated with being hard of hearing – people get straight to the point, they are more visual to pay attention if anyone is signing and in some cases, are much closer physically.

There were two people in particular I noted that were closer than most – they were both deaf and blind. The tshirts they wore stated ‘Hear by touch, speak by sign’ – and that is exactly what they did. To hear, they followed the other person’s hands with their own, to ‘feel’ what they are signing. It was simply fascinating to watch, something so simple as communication becomes very involved when you have two senses damaged or lost.

The other main thing that I had noted and discussed with Kat throughout the day was children. Deaf children with deaf parents or hearing parents, or hearing children with deaf parents – it seems overwhelming for someone like me who has had little first-hand experience with deaf people. If a hearing parent has a deaf child, there is a sudden need for the parent to be able to communicate with the child. Likewise, if a deaf parent has a hearing child, there is a need to communicate. Both cases can leave a child lacking in communication skills if they don’t have it provided for them. Thankfully, many charities are set up to help in these cases, and cochlear implants can often help in the first case. However, the interesting subject of a ‘deaf implant’ came up yesterday. If a deaf parent has a hearing child, they may have little ability to communicate with the child vocally, and as such, the child’s speech can be impaired. However, if the child could be brought up as deaf, then the parent would be much better prepared.

On the one hand, you would be taking a sense away from the child, which in principal seems wrong. However, the parents would feel ill-prepared to bring up a hearing child in an almost separate culture to their own. It would enable them to do what they do best, what they know. Also, as I’m sure many people can attest to, it is completely possible for deaf people to lead a full and happy life – so would it really be ‘depriving’ the child of something?

All in all it was a great day. I genuinely enjoyed myself, got some great photos and feel I learnt a lot. Photos to come!

Where are all the normal people?

So in the current state of the world, normal is difficult to define, but I’m sure everybody has those moments when they wonder if everyone else has gone crazy. When I got on the tram yesterday, it was one of those moments.

First of all, there was the difficulty of getting onto it. Everybody congregated at the doors, but plenty of room down inside the carriage. Coming from the Tube in the London, this is still alien to me. It’s normal for me to get on and go straight down to the middle – regardless of whether it’s busy. But anyway, I managed to squeeze myself in and off we went. Then I notice the phones. There were 2 mobiles which kept receiving text messages – at least 10 each in the short trip I was on there for. Instead of turning their phones to silent as some do when they are having a text conversation, they let the phones beep the whole jingle before reading the message. Every time.

The next noise I noticed was a small child, perhaps 14-18 months old, on her mother’s lap, whinging away. Now, I dislike whinging kids at the best of times, but this one was worse. The mother was against a window and the kid kept looking out the window. Then when the tram started or stopped, she’d bang her head on the window or wall, making her cry more. But the mother, instead of sitting her down properly so she wouldn’t do it the next time, just left it. So there was a constant noise of ‘bang WAAAAHHH’ for the journey.

So while I considering which to throw out the window first, the phones or the mother, I realised there was more stupidity to be seen. At a tram stop I noticed a group of people waiting to get onto the tram, and standing in the middle of the carriage on my own, I wondered why they could not get on. Then I noticed 2 girls standing near the door, who had probably straightened their hair so much they’ve lost their last brain cells, chatting away oblivious to their discourteous behaviour. Not only were they in the way, but they had those fashionable Country Road bags slung over their shoulder, blocking anyone who wanted to get on or off. When I left the tram, I said excuse me as I usually do but to no avail – so I simply pushed passed and judging by the exclamations behind me, I think her hair was caught in the zip as the bag was pulled off her shoulder by my trying to get through.

The subsequent swim and trip home was uneventful, but for that brief 15 minutes or so of my day yesterday, I thought I was the only sane person aboard that tram. I was reading and had earphones in, but was attentive enough to see if somebody had to get through, and my bag was out of the way at my feet.

Speaking of swimming and fitness, I seem to have finally got the hang of this swimming thing. I’m more consistent in how I feel when I swim, which is generally better. I actually feel relatively fit in myself, and have even started overtaking some people in the slow lane! My physio isn’t as exciting or successful, but I am definitely in less pain that I was. I can walk distances without being in agony, and I’ve all but stopped limping. My conditioning exercises are doing well too, but having only started them 2 weeks ago, I still have a while before I’ll see or feel results.