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Iwas sitting in my pick-up at the McDonald’ s drivethrough,” explains Bonnie DeLauter,“ and it felt like it was moving. I knew my foot was on the brake, but I jammed it down harder.” She looked around and saw that all the other vehicles, including hers, were standing still. Bonnie was experiencing vertigo— an illness which gives one“ an illusionary sense of motion,” says Dr. Michael DeCriscio of the Center for Dizziness and Balance Disorders in Hagerstown, and it is much more common than people realize.
Dr. DeCriscio started his specialized practice in response to an increase in his patients with vertigo and a thorough review of the statistics.“ Over a billion dollars a year is spent treating vertigo,” he notes.“[ Dizziness ] is the No. 1 complaint of patients when they visit a doctor.” And, he adds,“ statistically the typical vertigo patient has seen four to five specialists over a 44-month period and has visited the emergency room of a hospital one to two times.” One of the most common causes of vertigo is benign paroxsymal positional vertigo, or BPPV, in which calcium deposits or“ crystals” in the inner ear become dislodged and float in a canal, causing the sensation of vertigo with certain positions. In some instances, BPPV arises from a blow to the head, and vertigo can occasionally be traced to a viral cause. But, more often both seem to occur suddenly for unknown reasons.
Bonnie managed to return to the Cascade post office, where she worked, but was“ afraid to get out of the truck and walk even though the distance was only about three car lengths. I didn’ t know if I could make it.” She managed to call someone to cover her shift at the Cascade post office and then headed quickly to the bathroom as a wave of nausea hit. Bonnie got a ride home, where the extreme nausea continued, and her daughter later took her to urgent care. Initially,
At the Center for Dizziness and Balance Disorders in Hagerstown, Dr. Michael DeCriscio( top) utilizes special goggles for VNG testing, which records patient eye movements to assess different aspects of the vestibular system and help pin down the underlying problem causing vertigo; Physical Therapist Diane Burgan works with a patient on a balance master system as part of the therapy process for vertigo.
96 March / April 2013 Hagerstown: The Best of Life in Washington County & Beyond