Umair Yasin

The inner ear is best known for the cochlea, which converts sound into nerve impulses, for our hearing. But it also contains the vestibular system, which is crucial for balance. The vestibular system is responsible for detecting your head’s orientation in space and its motion. Angular acceleration, or rotational motion, is detected about 3 separate axes by the semicircular canals. Linear acceleration, as well as gravity, are detected in the forward and back direction as well as the side to side direction, by two “otolith organs”, the utricle and saccule. These sensors both directly trigger various reflex movements and provide information to the brain. The semicircular canals in the figure, together with the Otolith organs and associated nerves, form the vestibular system I’ll describe how they work below, but first a brief overview of their purpose. If you lean forward or to the side, the otolith organs sense gravity pulling down on your head. This triggers reflex action in muscles...

Now that I’m on the mend I’ve had time to reflect on my recent medical escapade and see what I can learn from it. Here are a few things that spring to mind. Be careful what you wish for- A couple of days before my severe vertigo incident, I remember thinking to myself that my blog was getting boring and I needed some more fuel for it! You’re not in control as much as you think you are – I had the weeks leading up to my birthday in January planned out in exquisite detail. Needless to say that plan is out the window now. I remember hearing the saying somewhere that “when we make plans, the universe laughs” (I’m sure various cultures have their own versions of a saying like this). Keep Training Balanced – The purpose of the training I do is healthy aging. I’ve discussed previously that I think there are multiple aspects of this. Physical training is only one part, there are also nutrition and mental and spirituals aspects. Physical is the most fun for me so I sometimes emphasi...

Last Thursday I was able to get into see my extremely talented physician, Dr. Smruti Nalawadi, for a follow-up. I had talked about working with a preventive medicine specialist previously . Unfortunately, having Dr. Moayed as my primary care physician was awkward because she is way up in Campbell. So I was happy to find another doctor here in Morgan Hill that also believes in preventive medicine, and now she is my PCP. But Dr. Nalawadi is also an internal medicine specialist, so it’s that expertise that really comes in handy now. From what I was told in the hospital and all the reading I’ve done, I thought I was on top of what to do next for follow-up. But there was still doubt buzzing around in my head about what specialist to see first, how do I choose a good ear doc, etc. Then I saw Dr. Nalawadi and it was an incredible relief to just turn it over to an expert. I went in with a whole sheet of typed-up questions and related symptoms I thought might help with my diagnosis. She came i...

I’m still improving day by day. A major advance was on Monday afternoon when I got a home PT visit from Nichine, who agreed it’s fine for me to use two canes or two hiking poles instead of a walker. I have to use the former when my wife is with me because she says people will think I look like a dork with the latter. See this post for my opinion on what people think, so I’ll use the poles when I’m alone. Either choice is, for me, vastly superior to a walker. Those are a great short-term solution for keeping the mobility challenged (which has included me recently) safe. But I don’t like them because you can’t swing your arms so the gait is unnatural, and you are always fussing with bringing the back legs forward. The four-wheeled ones shown below are better, at least they roll continuously and are more impervious to obstacles like uneven sidewalks. And they are still safe because you can squeeze the brakes. My mom was on a walker for years and did well with one of these. https://sen...

My previous post expressed my sincere gratitude to the medical profession and all its representatives who have helped me through my most recent health adventure and all my previous ones. I still stand by that. But there is one area in which I’d like to offer some constructive criticism, in the face of our modern prevalence of chronic lifestyle diseases: sometimes “average” symptoms are confused with “normal”. What brought this up is that I was incorrectly diagnosed with bradycardia , or abnormal resting heart rate, during my recent hospital stay. No harm was done, it was just something incorrectly noted in my record. My personal physician, who understands my situation better, will I’m sure correct this tomorrow when I see her. I was reluctant to show this picture because I’m not trying to make fun of the guy on the left. He may be a great guy, a first responder, the world’s best grandpa, or he does a lot of volunteer work. But his appearance is more representative of the average o...

I’m on the mend since my last post. My vertigo has recovered from everything seeming like it’s spinning fast 360 degrees last Thursday, to everything being normal now but a little “glitch” every once in a while where my vision seems to wiggle back and forth slightly. Unfortunately, that can result in a misstep and slight balance loss to the left or right. The walker is my safety net if that happens. I’m hoping I can also use two canes instead because that allows a more normal gait, the walker suppresses arm swing. I get an at-home PT visit tomorrow and hope she’ll agree. First I want to thank all readers who expressed support. Second is to all the great care I received. The modern medical system gets a lot of flack. It’s true that it struggles with chronic conditions that are caused by poor diet and lifestyle, but it is superb at emergency medicine like this. The paramedics who showed up and transported me were great. The initial evaluation that made a diagnosis of stroke unlikely ...

The short version of this story is that I have been diagnosed with a benign and treatable inner ear condition called “ benign paroxysmal positional vertigo “. But diagnosing it required 911, transport by ambulance to our local St. Louise County hospital, lots of tests, and a 2-day stay. Care was wonderful, but it’s great to be back home. I have to temporarily use a walker for safety until we clear up the vertigo completely (which may just require PT, the next step is to go see an ear-nose-throat doc. https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-q-and-a-bppv-dizziness-caused-by-inner-ear-crystals/ Long version: On Thursday night I woke up around 1 pm with severe vertigo and nausea. The room was spinning. I decided to go take some Pepto Bismol for the nausea, but when I got up I almost keeled over. I was unable to walk. Nausea and dizziness are on the list of stroke symptoms so I became concerned and (literally) crawled over to my bp meter, and it read high, (171/80)...