I never really knew what the word "vertigo" really meant besides the fact that it was the title of a song by U2 and that it was a feeling of dizziness, how dizzy, I couldn't fathom. And then it happened.
Last Tuesday, I woke up to find my whole room spinning. My head felt heavy and my bedroom felt like it was tilting to the left. I thought maybe it was just me still feeling sleepy so I dragged myself out of bed and I struggled to get up and walk. I couldn't walk properly but I didn't think too much about it and made my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Throughout the whole procedure the whole world was tilting to the left and my brain felt like it was spinning around like a top inside my skull. I found it difficult to stand still without losing balance and after I was done brushing my teeth, the urge to vomit came echoing through the depths of my esophagus and stomach. It finally hit me that I wasn't tired; there was something wrong with me.
I somehow made it to my mom's room and I told her that I wasn't feeling good but I was still determined to get ready for work. That was however brought to a full stop when I had to squat by the toilet bowl to get ready to expel the contents of my stomach. My mom checked on me as I vomited air and saliva and told me that I should take the day off as it seemed like I have vertigo, but it shouldn't be. But why wouldn't it be? Answers clicked as my brain spun like a ballerina on high amounts of caffeine.
The day before, my left ear was clogged, really clogged. Everything I hear with my left ear was muffled and I knew that it was definitely full of earwax. So when I got home, I asked my mom to help me get it out. That wasn't a problem but I was a bit worried about my left ear because the last time my mom helped me get earwax out, she had some difficulties with a hardened stubborn piece that was stuck in my ear and she accidentally hurt my ear canal and it bled. My mom looked into my ear and said there was a huge chunk inside. She cleaned out some of the outer ones and proceeded to get the huge one but disaster struck. While trying to get it out, she hurt my old wound in my ear and it started bleeding. My mom decided to stop at that and moved on to my other ear and cleaned it easily. I worriedly ask about my left ear and she said that it was bleeding just a little so we just let it as it is.
Back to me by the toilet bowl, I dragged myself back to bed and went to sleep after changing my clothes. My intentions were to sleep it off and then wake up later to go to see a doctor. When I did wake up about two hours later, my head felt a lot better than before but I was still dizzy as heck. I made my way down and told my dad my situation. I had breakfast and after that we headed out to the clinic near my house.
At the clinic, I registered myself and because it wasn't a busy day, I was quickly called to the counselling room. I was feeling mentally tired and my brain felt like it was gonna spin off my head so I struggled to tell the doctor my situation. He quickly dismissed my situation as "food poisoning". I was appalled. Food poisoning? I repeated myself that I am having a splitting headache and I want to vomit from my dizziness but he insisted that I have food poisoning solely because, one: I want to vomit, two: I have headaches, three: I will have diarrhoea. What kind of deduction is that? He didn't do any proper examination of any kind and he just passed off my situation as food poisoning just from listening to my statement. He started to show me the door and I quickly interjected by telling him about my ear. He had a quick look and said that I bled a lot in my ear. He then said he will issue me a medicine for my ear and once again quickly showed me the door. He didn't even think twice about my condition. I was aghast and greatly put off by his professionalism.
I went out and my dad was surprised at how quickly I came back out. We got the medicine and my medical certificate, paid, and left. I was very upset with the doctor's treatment but I was too dizzy to give any comment; the whole world was turning around and tilting, I just wanted to go home and rest. I was barely holding on when I got home. The moment I entered the house, I crashed on the sofa and went to sleep, the dizziness was too much to handle.
I woke up around 2pm but I was still too weak to eat so I had a small bowl of cereal before I went back to sleep. This continued on for a couple hours with me waking up feeling better and better with each time. Kathleen checked on me a few times I think, and it made me feel a lot better. By evening when my mom got home. I was feeling a lot better and I could walk around. My head was still spinning (or rotating) but it was like a slow moving gyroscope. If I moved my head too fast I would feel dizzy again so I had to keep my head still. I didn't vomit nor have diarrhoea so I complained about the irresponsible doctor to my mom. What a quack. By the night time, I confirmed that I didn't have food poisoning. I had experienced vertigo because of the imbalance in my ears. Certainly from this experience, I now know that my left ear needs proper care when cleaning. Maybe I need to see an ENT doctor (or an otorhinolaryngologist; after a quick Google search) for that.
The next day I woke up and sure enough, I feel a lot better. Quick movements in my head still make me dizzy and I can identify the pain in my left ear. All that convinces me that I really did have vertigo and not food poisoning (please close your clinic Dr. Hwa).
Today is the third day after my vertigo experience and it's still the same, I have small migraines when I move my head too fast and still no signs of food poisoning (please burn your doctor's certificate Dr. Hwa). Hopefully I can make a full recovery before this weekend as Quidditch will be pretty rough. (also, please reeducate yourself Dr. Hwa)
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Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Aroo?
Last Sunday Yati and I went to volunteer at Spartan Race Super. It might have been a bad choice.
We were sent a pdf file containing the general details about what we have to do as volunteers a few days prior to the race. Because the race was taking place in Klang, Yati put the night at my place as it was nearer to the location.
As we had to sign in at 5am, we woke up at 4am and had a light breakfast before heading out. We almost got lost along the way. When we got there, I parked the car at the directions instructed and we headed into the race area. We signed in and got our Volunteers t-shirt, breakfast and refreshments. The instructions said to wait for our manager named Helena or something like that but she wasn't anywhere to be seen. Later a lady in a blue "STAFF" shirt instructed us to go in and look for Douglas. Together with another three others, Yati and I headed in and we found a meeting area just in front of the Bag Check area. The Volunteers Guideline said that we can leave our luggage in the Bag Check but on the located we were told that we cannot do so, so we carried our bags with us.
After eating our breakfast, we were instructed to line up and we were assigned our positions. The guideline said that we would be briefed at 5am but we were not briefed about anything at all and by the time we were allocated our positions, it was already 6am and they were already flagging off the first wave of participants. Yati and I were put into Zone 4 but along the way we suddenly were changed to Zone 5. It appeared that there were not enough volunteers so one person was assigned to one station. Yati was assigned at the Tire Flip while I was put at this unnamed obstacle that looked like a joke.
The task on my obstacle was simple, there was a row of tires lined up in a row and the task was to take one tire from one end to the other. Easy enough. The problem was that some of the participants don't want to cooperate because when one side of the tires were "empty" they had to go to the other side to get it. In the end I just piled the tires and told the participants to pick one up and go around the row of tires and put them back in the pile. Why did this obstacle look like a joke? Compared to all the other obstacles, this was nothing. It was simply a product placement, evident with the huge Goodyear banner behind the obstacle.
The layout for the obstacles were barely planned out as well. Looking at all the obstacles we passed by, there was no shelter of any kind for us volunteers. We had to sit out in the sun and brace it's scorching rays. It was a lot worse as the current season was hit by El Nino and heat waves along with the start of the spring solstice and equinox whatever. Earlier in the morning it wasn't too bad because the weather was cloudy but around 11:15am, I was dehydrating under the sun in the open field.
Our shift was set to be from 5am to 12pm. We were to be replaced by the afternoon shift at 12:30pm latest. But it was 1pm and no one came to replace us. Our zone manager soon came by in his 4WD and apologised that they were extremely busy. He handed me a cold can of 100Plus and a cold bottle of water. I quickly gulped down the 100Plus as I was dehydrating under the scorching sun. After another two hours of scorching hot sun, another guy in a 4WD stopped by and called me over to his car. He wore the blue "STAFF" shirt but he looked like someone from the international team. He checked with me my shift and passed me a bottle of water and food and told me that if no one came to replace me in half an hour, I can just leave. I continued to watch over the station and about twenty minutes later, he came back with Yati in his car and beckoned me to get in. I quickly packed up all my stuff and got into the car. He told us that the management team had a major screw up and he's pulling us out because it was unfair towards us. He also mentioned, "it's their problem" so maybe my hunch about him being from the international team is right. He dropped Yati and I back at where we came from and the two of us made our way back to the entrance to sign off. After doing so, we ate our lunch and I sent Yati back home. The two of us were terribly sunburnt.
On Facebook, several other volunteers voiced out their respective problems they faced during the job. Turns out that Yati and I were considered lucky already as some other volunteers had a worse experience than us. We received a formal apology from the management a few days later and we were promised our race credits for the next race.
For me it wasn't so much of hell volunteering at this race. During my job, some participants showed concern for me being unprotected from the sun's heat and I also saw a bunch of my friends who participated in the obstacle course. Those were the small things that kept me going. A major downfall to this is that I don't get my second piece to the completion of this trifecta's set of medals.
We were sent a pdf file containing the general details about what we have to do as volunteers a few days prior to the race. Because the race was taking place in Klang, Yati put the night at my place as it was nearer to the location.
As we had to sign in at 5am, we woke up at 4am and had a light breakfast before heading out. We almost got lost along the way. When we got there, I parked the car at the directions instructed and we headed into the race area. We signed in and got our Volunteers t-shirt, breakfast and refreshments. The instructions said to wait for our manager named Helena or something like that but she wasn't anywhere to be seen. Later a lady in a blue "STAFF" shirt instructed us to go in and look for Douglas. Together with another three others, Yati and I headed in and we found a meeting area just in front of the Bag Check area. The Volunteers Guideline said that we can leave our luggage in the Bag Check but on the located we were told that we cannot do so, so we carried our bags with us.
After eating our breakfast, we were instructed to line up and we were assigned our positions. The guideline said that we would be briefed at 5am but we were not briefed about anything at all and by the time we were allocated our positions, it was already 6am and they were already flagging off the first wave of participants. Yati and I were put into Zone 4 but along the way we suddenly were changed to Zone 5. It appeared that there were not enough volunteers so one person was assigned to one station. Yati was assigned at the Tire Flip while I was put at this unnamed obstacle that looked like a joke.
The task on my obstacle was simple, there was a row of tires lined up in a row and the task was to take one tire from one end to the other. Easy enough. The problem was that some of the participants don't want to cooperate because when one side of the tires were "empty" they had to go to the other side to get it. In the end I just piled the tires and told the participants to pick one up and go around the row of tires and put them back in the pile. Why did this obstacle look like a joke? Compared to all the other obstacles, this was nothing. It was simply a product placement, evident with the huge Goodyear banner behind the obstacle.
The layout for the obstacles were barely planned out as well. Looking at all the obstacles we passed by, there was no shelter of any kind for us volunteers. We had to sit out in the sun and brace it's scorching rays. It was a lot worse as the current season was hit by El Nino and heat waves along with the start of the spring solstice and equinox whatever. Earlier in the morning it wasn't too bad because the weather was cloudy but around 11:15am, I was dehydrating under the sun in the open field.
Our shift was set to be from 5am to 12pm. We were to be replaced by the afternoon shift at 12:30pm latest. But it was 1pm and no one came to replace us. Our zone manager soon came by in his 4WD and apologised that they were extremely busy. He handed me a cold can of 100Plus and a cold bottle of water. I quickly gulped down the 100Plus as I was dehydrating under the scorching sun. After another two hours of scorching hot sun, another guy in a 4WD stopped by and called me over to his car. He wore the blue "STAFF" shirt but he looked like someone from the international team. He checked with me my shift and passed me a bottle of water and food and told me that if no one came to replace me in half an hour, I can just leave. I continued to watch over the station and about twenty minutes later, he came back with Yati in his car and beckoned me to get in. I quickly packed up all my stuff and got into the car. He told us that the management team had a major screw up and he's pulling us out because it was unfair towards us. He also mentioned, "it's their problem" so maybe my hunch about him being from the international team is right. He dropped Yati and I back at where we came from and the two of us made our way back to the entrance to sign off. After doing so, we ate our lunch and I sent Yati back home. The two of us were terribly sunburnt.
On Facebook, several other volunteers voiced out their respective problems they faced during the job. Turns out that Yati and I were considered lucky already as some other volunteers had a worse experience than us. We received a formal apology from the management a few days later and we were promised our race credits for the next race.
For me it wasn't so much of hell volunteering at this race. During my job, some participants showed concern for me being unprotected from the sun's heat and I also saw a bunch of my friends who participated in the obstacle course. Those were the small things that kept me going. A major downfall to this is that I don't get my second piece to the completion of this trifecta's set of medals.
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