The 1st hundred years are the roughest



Yours truly there ( on the left) really isn't doing very well. The other day I told MP that I'd been lucky in that I'd not had one of my vertigo attacks for many years, I must have felt a twinge of it then because within two days later I had it. I was alone downtown when I had the first spinning spell and it sort of scared me for wondering how I'd get home. I sat still and finally the spinning fatigued like it will and I got back...but, it's terrible since then. I have the most common type, BPPV- benign proximinal, positional vertigo. The otolith in your ear releases crystals that fall into the ear fluid that keeps your balance and walla...pure hell. The spinning episodes happen when I turn my head just right and this morning it was brought on by the sounds and sights of the surf rolling up and down the beach. Once again I was several miles from home and struggled to get back....but I had to go fishing...I had to, we only have a week left and I can't squander the mornings.  For all of you that know me so well this will give you give you an idea...I missed 4 mornings in a row of fishing including an  invite to go south with Slah where Team X caught over 20 corvina.

 

Perhaps the worst part of these vestibular events is that after the spinning stops it shocks your brain so much and your brain works so hard to compensate that it creates what my doctor calls ' brain fade'. It's just a lousy lethargic feeling underlined by forgetfulness. Wow...I struggle through life on a good day, running on 3 cylinders ain't easy....I mean....how in the world can a guy forget the words to Brown Eyed Girl ??? So I just stay close to home I guess and wear my ear plugs so the wind doesn't make the situation worse. I can tell MP is worried about me and that bothers me... The good news I guess is that although this episode seems to be a real bad one Dr. Zirrul told me that the fatigue works this way, the more spinning the better your brain gets at stopping it. If I'm not better soon or at least when I'm back in Alaska I'll go to the Dr. and have a thing called the ' Eppley Maneauver' done which is a head manipulation designed to use gravity and centrifugal force to get those pesky crystals out of the ear canal. Wish me luck, I could use some.

 

But in between spinning the other day I had a moment of clarity when I saw the tide so ultra low that it exposed rocks I'd never seen before. I think I was born for life on the sea as I kinda saw a buffet table. MP and I started out gathering oysters which I got enough of for a nice oyster stew lunch when I kind stepped into a hole next to a rock. I could feel lobsters brushing my legs as they skittered away. So I reached about arms length into the water and yup....I got em but the darn things wedge themselves into the rocks so tight it's almost impossible to muscle them out. BUT, as I'm at water level I notice these stone crabs.

Now it takes a certain type of guy to feel around under rocks where you can't see whats there. In fact as I fished this morning a guy named Ricardo told me about all the Moray eels we have around here... mmm...but it's risk reward. These crabs and the few lobster I had made a wonderful cold salad with avocados as we watched the Academy Awards last night...I might be running a quart low right now but I'm making do, great appetite and muddling on.  No worries, I'll blog something fun as soon as I feel that way....soon I hope.