You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em.

Today, I fold.  I give in.  I'm asking for mercy.

I had a great weekend.  Sean and I had a date on Saturday night.  I knew ahead of time that I would be exhausted afterwards, but I wanted to go anyway.  We went out to see our friends' band.  A great group of guys that we don't get to see very often, awesome musicians, and a lot of fun.  I had a great time, but I forgot what it was like to stand in a loud bar all night.  When we walked out of the bar, my ears were ringing louder than usual and they felt really full.  I chalked it up to the loud music (next time I'll have to bring ear plugs!) and figured it would go away after a little while.

I don't think I got to sleep until around 3AM - on the floor at my parents' house (they babysat the kids while we went out).  Obviously, waking up at 8 on Sunday morning left me a bit exhausted.  My left ear was still ringing louder than usual, and with the fullness it was actually starting to hurt.  But we went through the day as planned.  Drove to NJ to visit my cousin and had a very nice "family day" at his house.  By the time we left there, I was starting to get occasional sharp pain in my left ear.  It would last for about 10 seconds and then be gone.

The drive home took a lot longer than usual thanks to traffic in Philly due to the Philadelphia Marathon.  On the drive I started to get dizzy.  At first I thought it was just because I was so tired, but I'm now realizing that it's related to my ear.  The dizziness and stabbing pain got worse as the evening went on.

I went to sleep last night at a decent time, hoping that a good night's sleep would help everything go back to normal.  I still had a lot of trouble getting out of bed this morning, and I realized as soon as I got up that the dizziness hasn't gone away.  I went about my morning as usual and made it to PT in spite of being dizzy.  But still, it continued.  My PT actually wants to see the test results from Friday to see if there's any way she can help with the ear issues.  Of course, there's only so much that can fit into one PT session when you're still trying to work full time!  And today I needed to focus on my neck and upper back.

Toward the end of my PT session, the dizziness got even worse.  I even had to stop doing some exercises because of it.  Driving home was no picnic.  Glad it's only about 5 minutes away.  I took my time coming home.  But that was it.  I emailed my boss to tell him that I wasn't going to make it in today.  I can't keep pushing myself through things like this.  It's one thing to be dizzy when you turn your head, but an entirely different story when the waves come on for no reason when you are not moving.  I can not see sitting at my desk all day feeling like this.

So that's it.  Today I will let my body rest and try to heal itself.  One day at a time is all I can do right now.  The ringing is back down to the usual volume, so maybe that's a start for everything else to return to normal.

And for the record, I'm still glad we went out on Saturday night!