A continuation of the story of how I found out I have vestibular schwannoma—aka acoustic neuroma—a not-so-fun vestibulocochlear head tumor. This time, things got more serious, and it finally hit me.
Well, the real fun began in
December that year (2024). It was right after dinner at a restaurant. I was
full to the brim. While driving through a tunnel on the highway, a very weird
feeling swept through the back of my head like a wave, lasting only a second or
two. Then it happened again after a while. It was one of those moments when you
think, “OK. What’s going on? Are these, by any chance, early signs of me
passing out?” But I got home safely, no mishaps. A few days later, a similar
situation. This time, my grandma had made a delicious macaroni moussaka with
lots of cheese. After a long, hard day of work around the house, I was
starving. It was so good that I couldn’t stop eating, even when I was full. And
while stuffing myself in an “I promise this is my last piece.” style, it hit me
again—same feeling, but more intense, and it even made me a little dizzy. Same
thoughts shot through my mind. The good thing was that it finally made me put
down my plate.
But the turning point came
on December 17, 2024. I was driving my girlfriend to a medical exam she had an
appointment for, and afterward, we were visiting her relatives. The drive was about
two hours long, plus the exam, so we started early in the morning. Similar, but
milder, symptoms of short wave-like dizziness began in the first half-hour of
the trip. It was a short night behind me, no time for breakfast, so I quickly jumped
to the assumption that I just hadn’t had enough sleep, or maybe for some reason
my blood pressure was low (I assumed wrong). So we made a quick stop, bought a
sandwich, chocolate, salty snacks, and an energy drink. I downed most of it,
and we went on. Well, that didn’t help—probably made things even worse. After
the exam and when we got to her relatives’, I had a few moments where I truly
thought I was about to pass out. You know the feeling—when you start to “zoom
out”, get cold waves, start sweating, and think, what the hell is going to
happen to me now and how not to make it too obvious. After a few such episodes,
I casually said I’d just lie down on the sofa for a moment because I felt a bit
dizzy. Later, we measured my blood pressure. OMG—it was through the roof. A
result of the energy drink, salty snacks, and sugar-packed chocolate. My upper
pressure was above 180 mm Hg. I spent the rest of the day on strict water
fasting, and it did drop—but it still stayed above 130 mm Hg (around 140, if I
recall correctly). On our way back home, I drove for about a quarter of the
way, but then asked my girlfriend to take over because I wasn’t confident in my
driving capabilities anymore. And although not used to driving my car with
manual gearbox, she did.
The very next day, I
decided to drastically reform my life. I started a diet focused on lowering my
blood pressure and improving my health in general. (My weight that morning was
101.4 kg.) Even though I ramped up my physical activity and was very selective
about what I consumed, the episodes of ultra-short (a second or two), wave-like
dizziness—similar to being drunk—didn’t stop. They became more frequent. In the
end, I could experience a few of those per hour. So there was definitely
something very wrong, and I finally decided to consult my doctor. And so, on
December 20, I did. At the clinic, they measured my blood pressure and did an
EKG. The pressure was slightly elevated, and the EKG was normal. The doctor did
the standard neurological examination (following his finger with my eyes,
tightly squeezing his fingers, checking pupil reflexes, balance, etc.), and
everything was normal. But in the end, he decided that, just to be thorough,
we’d do a full blood test and a head MRI. And so we did. That very same day, I
went to the lab for blood tests and made an appointment for the first available
MRI I could find.
I think the MRI, its
results, and the drama that came with it definitely deserve a chapter of their
own. So let’s cut it here and pick things up in the next post—Diagnosis.
Links to part one and three of this story:
Part 1 - Early signs
Part 3 - Diagnosis