#barometric pressure

1. [I'm checking the weather on my tablet.] Blonde: Are you checking the weather again? Me: Yeah. Blonde: Why? Me: I have a vestibular disorder.

2. Blonde: What is that? Me: The vestibular system manages balance and spatial orientation. Me: It's in the inner ear.

3. Me: Weather changes can make barometric pressure mess with the inner ear and that can cause all kinds of problems. Me: Like dizziness, vertigo, nausea, tinnitus, migraines, light sensitivity, brain fog, and occasional hearing loss. [A barometer shifts back and forth between stormy and sunny weather, while a bunch of emoji style faces exhibit dizziness, nausea, tinnitus, light sensitivity, brain fog, and migraine.]

4. Blonde: Whoa, that sucks. Me: Yes it does.

5. [I hold in my fingertips a couple of blue and yellow earplugs.] Me: But I've got it under control, more or less, thanks to earplugs. Blonde: Earplugs? Me: Yeah.

6. [I put the earplugs into my ears.] Me: If I block my ears from the changes in pressure, it can ease some of my symptoms. Blonde: Weird.

7. [I hold my hands over my ears, blocking two floating icons of speakers emitting sound.] Me: Of course it also means I'm deliberately kneecapping my hearing, which isn't totally great to begin with. Me: But I would much rather have no hearing and no vertigo than yes hearing and yes vertigo.

8. Blonde: Kind of idiotic that such an important system in the body can be broken by weather. Me: What?