The Daily Hailey

Since mid-last week, Brady has been having dizzy spells. This is out of character for him, but he’s continued on like normal, because life happens, and we don’t always feel 100%.

I, myself, regularly have dizzy spells. I have historically low blood pressure, so its not uncommon for me to stand up, walk across the room, and sit down on the floor. I’ve been told at times that I’m being too dramatic, but its either that or I hit the deck, so rather, I sit the deck (heyooo) and avoid injury. I’m a thinker.

Brady, however, does not have low blood pressure. He rarely feels dizzy. Only when he’s really good and sick, specifically with a big congested head cold.

Which he doesn’t have. Brady isn’t sick. But he is having dizzy spells bad enough to lay him out on the couch, or sitting in his wheelchair with his head between his legs. Its not ideal, and its definitely out of character for him.

The funny thing is that being off balance is WAY easier when you’re on your feet!!! I definitely thought the opposite – that Brady would be better off being dizzy in his wheelchair, but that is absolutely not the case. Now, there is the addition of motion sickness, almost, so its so much harder to manage because with it comes the nausea!

Today, he had a dizzy spell at work, first thing in the morning, and he was fed up. He texted Dr. Guselle, and she requested he come in for an exam. And she is not a “come in the moment you feel a feeling” kind of doctor. She said with his history, we have a low threshold for arranging imaging or consults. So Brady called in and booked the soonest appointment he could.

He texted around 9:05 that he had an appointment at 9:45. He immediately clocked out and got on the road, and I promptly bailed on my coffee with Cher (sorry, girly! 💜) and Wavy and I loaded up to go get in on that appointment.

Brady was hooked up for a five minute blood pressure test immediately upon arriving in an exam room. It was normal for him. The senior resident he was seeing came in and conducted some routine exams. He said there is a possibility of some fluid in one ear, but its so minimal that its hard to even confirm if its there, much less if its affecting him. Brady has no other signs or symptoms of being sick. Not one.

The doctor decided he’d like to check Brady’s heart, so he called in a nurse who got him all set up for an ECG. She left to give him “privacy” while he took his shirt off. Good thing, because he’s hella shy…

I’m totally kidding, lol! She was very sensitive to her patient, and that was really kind of her. We just had a little giggle in the meantime.

Once she came back in and was hooking up all his leads, Wavy whispered “She’s putting stickers all over him…” It was VERY cute.

The resident was super straight up when he came back in. He read the results and said there was nothing glaringly obvious that he could see, but he also is definitely going to send it to be read by someone who knows a lot more than he does, haha!

The doctor told us that dizzy stuff comes and goes, and he can’t really confirm what it is, but he is going to throw everything at us to confirm what it isn’t. Which made a lot of sense and we really appreciated! So we left with a blood requisition and the promise of follow-up on the ECG if any was warranted.

A quick aside. You may be worried about what we were most worried about – brain stuff! The tumour that grew in Bradys spine was technically a brain tumour, so he has occasionally had the brain included in his MRIs, just to check on things. With this, the brain was the first worry. The doctor quashed that immediately and reminded us how things wouldn’t fluctuate this much if there was a tumour growing. The same as when it grew in Brady’s back, he didn’t go back and forth between having no sensation and getting it back over and over. He lost sensation, and then it changed a bit here and there, but it stayed “wrong.” Bradys dizziness is just spells. If something wonky was happening in there, it would stay wonky in at least some capacity. So that was a relief to all of us.

We were out of there in just under an hour. Brady headed back to work, and Wavy and I hit Walmart.

We had a successful shop, and Brady made it back to work safely. He did try to pop in for bloodwork, but the wait was too long. Tomorrow is another day.

The morning was big. Productive. Full. Exhausting. Successful.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to turn on a mindless YouTube video and pick away at a meal plan for this coming week and weekend. I know its only Monday, but we’re back to the lake this weekend! And we have another birthday this week! And a few appointments. Whew! 😅