I’m all over the place – but I’m going nowhere!

Double Vision with Charlie Adley

Sometimes, looking after your body feels like such hard work. After over two years on a waiting list for physio for my back, I’m eventually awarded an appointment at a local clinic, where the very excellent physiotherapist gives me a programme of 10 exercises to do each morning.

Along with my everyday warm-up, the whole caboodle takes only a half hour, and after a few weeks I start to feel amazing. My body is moving as one unit – apart from the more wobbly bits – and after full-speed walks with Lady Dog, I feel no pain in my back.

Fantastic! My spirits are finally lifting. After a long bout of that coughy flu bug everyone had this Winter, it was wonderful to feel once again the spiritual and emotional boost of good physical health.

Whispering Blue is out visiting for the weekend, and I’m finishing my stretches in the living room before we take Lady Dog out for a good long ramble. The sky is cloudless and blue, a heavy frost encrusting the land, and I’m very much looking forward to heading outside when . . .

Wooooaaooohhhh . . . my legs collapse under me and I fall into my chair, clinging onto its arms as my lounge suddenly spins round and around, up and down, just like a carousel.

With my eyes facing the fireplace, I watch with pure horror as the windows arrive in front of my eyes and disappear behind me, below me, above me, and then come round again. This was not your average dizziness in the head. I felt stationary (as I was), but the world around me was whirling and dipping and rising, as if I was sitting inside a raffle barrel.

Finally it dissipated and I wobbled into the kitchen.

To read Charlie’s column in full, please see this week’s Galway City Tribune.