You might think, from these postings, that I have the greatest ataxia attitude ever. But I have my days. Today I can’t stop crying. This is an incredibly difficult thing to deal with. Everyone with ataxia (unless they’re in complete denial) has days like this. Today all my advice about meditation and exercise is out the window. It’s a grieving day. Some of you may have gotten annoyed with my happy talk. Please read my posts on Rage, Suicide, Depression. Happy talk? As Sheryl Crow said, “No one said this would be easy.” I have no advice for days like this. They happen. I just need to ride this out. I bought black-out shades for my room so I’m going to my dark hole.
I’m back, bitches! I’m much worse and have lots to say. I was diagnosed with some type of cerebellar ataxia in 1988. I was confirmed as SCA6 in 1998 by genetic bloodwork. Here’s a cute dog picture. The big one is Dasher and she is a trained service dog 🦮. The puppy is Jax and she is a service dog in training 🐾. I will have much more to say about service dogs for ataxians later.
I just read a post on Facebook asking if dizziness is a part of ataxia. She was told no, it had nothing to do with her condition. That post was quickly met with an avalanche of posts, most of which contained dizziness stories and all but one affirmed that it was certainly associated with their ataxia. There is no cure for dizziness. I have been through the positional head exercises to no avail. You learn how to avoid getting dizzy but sometimes you just do. In that case I sit for the dizziness and drink a Coke for the inevitable nausea. My experience with dizziness is that sometimes it is so bad that it progresses to vomiting. I’m 67 years old and have never been carsick in my life but am now with an accompanying worsening of symptoms. This is one of the many burdens of ataxia. August 7, 2023 @ 1:30pm (EST) via zoom David Rastall , DO, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurology. Dr. Rastall is a Vestibular & Ocular Motor Oto-Neurology at th...
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