October 23, 2003
vestibular system
I've got a strange feeling. Today I got out of class early and had ridden my bike back to my house. I put my bike away and walked into the other room only to promptly think of somewhere else I needed to go. So I rode my bike down to Harris hall to turn in my graduation application. I made a couple of other stops while I was down town and went back to my house. After ten minutes or so, I realized that I needed to return some books to the library, where I am now. I decided to drive my car. I drove down to O-house, where I parked and walked the distance to the library. During my walk I got this slight confused feeling. My head was spinning a little bit and my balance seemed impaired. None of this affected me enough to cause any real concern.
While this is more likely the result of dehydration or a bad diet and exercise, I think it might come from something else. The three different types of transportation movement that I had just experienced had been very different. I experienced each one for at least ten minutes at a time. I also went through them nearly back to back. For a third similarity, I went through very similar parts of town in each, if not the exact same places. My idea is that my body had become acclimated to each one of those movements. The abrupt switch between them may have confused my body. I don't think most people would notice things like this. People ride out to the mall all the time, but you don't see people stumbling out of their cars too often. The only common event I can think of that is similar is getting out of the car after a several hour car trip. The reason why I feel it now is that recently I've become extremely in tune and aware of how my body responds to movement and balance. This constitutes about half of my research for my current work. First hand knowledge is working out quite well for me. This particular event seems to affect my sense of balance the most. That makes the most sense actually. It's probably some sort of residual effect of the liquid that provides you sense of balance in the inner ear. Like the same feeling you get from spinning around in circles and getting dizzy and sick.
