About a year and a half ago, I woke up in the middle of the night and it felt like the bed was spinning.

There was no alcohol involved.

I fell back to sleep only to wake up woozy.

I made my way downstairs, but the dizziness escalated. In fact, my symptoms became so bad, I became violently ill. It was scary because I had no clue what was going on.

Hubby was also concerned so, with a garbage bag in hand, he helped me into his truck and drove me to the emergency room.

Once there, I was given a shot of something and then whisked off to have a CT scan. Poor technician, he was trying to get me to lay down so he could proceed with the imaging, but I could not stop retching.

When the heaving finally subsided, I was able to continue with the procedure. As we waited for the results, I became very drowsy —so much so that I barely remember what the doctor said when he came in with the results.

Fortunately, my CT scan came back normal, so it was concluded I was experiencing a bout of vertigo. I had heard of people having vertigo before, but never really understood what they were feeling.

I now know.

Ironically, the next day all was well and that continued until three weeks ago, when the vertigo reared its ugly head. At first, I just assumed it would last a day like it had before and all would be well. But this time, it didn’t go away.

I did, however, have some medicine in the kitchen cabinet that had been prescribed the first go-round, so I popped one of the pills in my mouth.

It worked, but it also made me very sleepy, so for part of a week, I was sofa bound.

When my symptoms didn’t seem to be clearing up, I made an appointment with a doctor. They recommended I see a physical therapist. Apparently, there are different types of vertigo, one of which pertains to crystals in your ears.

Who knew we had crystals in our ears?

But somehow, these crystals can get out of whack causing vertigo, and there is a maneuver a physical therapist can do to help correct the problem.

It sounds hokey, but guys, it worked.

I returned the next week to the physical therapist for another maneuver, and it was decided since I was feeling better, we would let sleeping dogs lie. But before I left, the physical therapist gave me his personal cell number and told me to call him if my vertigo returned.

Let me just say how nice it is to live in a community where a medical professional really cares about you, enough to even share their cell phone number.

But folks, it didn’t stop there. This young man has texted me every couple of days to check in on my vertigo symptoms. I have shared with him that there are days when I am still experiencing some dizziness, but not to the level as before.

Some have said vertigo is caused by stress, so perhaps I am improving because of the reassurance from this caring physical therapist.