Vertigo

We have two birthdays coming up in our family. Our two granddaughters will turn 2 and 5 in the next couple of weeks. Since their birthdays are close to each other, their parents planned a joint birthday party which was held yesterday. Through the gift of modern technology, we were able to see pictures of the party as it was in progress. The older sister has had a love for turtles for several years, having seen and touched a pet tortoise when she was a toddler and enjoying seeing turtles and tortoises many times since. We’ve picked up toy turtles for her when we have traveled and other family members have given her stuffed animals and other turtle items. It came as no surprise to me that the party for the two girls had a turtle theme. There wee turtle cookies and stuffed turtles and a homemade turtle piñata. The weather was cooperative for the party and the children were able to play outside and share the piñata on the back deck. Later they all went down to the lake, which is near their house, to wade in the water and play in the sand at the beach. The pictures showed a group of happy children having a good time. It was one of many occasions when I wished I could have been there to enjoy the fun and perhaps to help the parents just a little bit, though the prints seem to do a wonderful job of planning and carrying out parties for their children without our help.

One of the pictures that we received shows a line of about 10 children waiting for their turn to take a swing with a plastic bat at the piñata. Our eight-year-old grandson is swinging the bat and the piñata is swinging wildly, In the background, a younger girl is holding her hands over her ears as if she is expecting a loud explosion when the piñata is broken. I laughed at the picture when I first saw it, but something invited me to take a second look and what I discovered is that the children weren’t wearing a blindfold. Looking back at the pictures, I see that they didn’t blindfold the children when it was their turn to swing the bat.

The images reminded me of something that I hadn’t remembered for many years. When I was a child, I didn’t like any of the games that were played by putting a blindfold on the child and spinning the child around and around. I don’t remember having a piñata when I was a young child. I think we made one for a Mexican-themed study unit in school, but I was an older elementary student at the time. But pin the tail on the donkey was a very popular birthday party game when I was a child. I hated that game. I don’t remember any instances of a child being hurt with a thumbtack, though we were warned about the dangers of that part of the game. Mostly I remember being incredibly bad at the game and not even being able to pin my tail even at the right height, let alone the right end of the donkey. Most of all I hated the sensation of being blindfolded and spun around.

As a teenager, as part of my ground school flight training, we each took turns in an exercise with a vertigo simulator. The device was very primitive. These days they have virtual reality goggles that can be programed to induce vertigo very quickly. No such devices existed in our time. We used a simple office chair that could be spun around. One by one, we were given a piece of broomstick to hold between our knees and move as if it were a control stick in an airplane. We sat on the chair, had a blindfold placed over our eyes, and then the chair was rotated slowly. Our job, as we rode the chair was to keep the stick centered. If we felt that we were leaning in one direction or the other, we were to move the stick as if correcting the attitude of the plane. One by one we watched our classmates become confused and unable to tell which direction is up. When it was my turn, I did no better than my classmates. The point of the exercise was for us to understand how quickly a pilot could become disorientated when flying in clouds without outside visual reference. Once disoriented, a pilot could input incorrect flight control actions with fatal results. A doctor explained how the fluid in the inner ear cause nerves to send signals to the brain about head and body movements relative to gravity. Those signals help us keep our balance in normal circumstances.

In cases of severe vertigo, the victim can become nauseated and vomit. In the case of our simulation with an office chair and a blindfold, it took just a few seconds after the blindfold was removed to regain our orientation and our balance.

I’m relieved that at least some parents have come to the conclusion that inducing vertigo as a party game isn’t all that much fun for children. Add to that the benefit of having the child with the bat swinging at the piñata instead of another child and I suspect that the birthday party was more fun for everyone.

As my flight training continued, I learned exercises to decrease the effects of vertigo. Being careful about head movements, developing a consistent instrument scan, learning to trust the instruments available to the pilot and other practices can lessen the sensation of vertigo. Well-trained pilots can fly for hours without visual references outside of the cockpit and without the sensations of vertigo. Learning to recognize vertigo is also important in learning to fly safely. Understanding vertigo probably would hav made me slightly more skilled at the games from my childhood. Short of that training, however, I simply disliked the exercises.

Knowing that my grandchildren were escaping the experience brought a smile to my face as I looked at the pictures. It is amazing to me how brilliant their parents are.

Copyright (c) 2019 by Ted E. Huffman. I wrote this. If you would like to share it, please direct your friends to my web site. If you'd like permission to copy, please send me an email. Thanks!