Williams continues to battle vertigo

By ROBBI PICKERAL
Raleigh News & Observer
Thursday, August 16, 2007

Four and a half weeks after a nauseating vertigo attack, North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams was still feeling the effects as he juggled calls, paperwork and meetings on Wednesday.

"Right now, I'd say I'm 85-90 percent, but I can still feel it," he said. "... But I'm going to be fine. I don't think there's any doctors laying awake at night about 'Ol Roy, and I don't think they should."

Williams said that over the years, doctors in Chapel Hill and Lawrence, Kan., and at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., have diagnosed him with what's termed "benign positional vertigo."

The condition "usually results from a problem with the nerves and the structures of the balance mechanism in your inner ear that sense movement and changes in the position of your head," according to the Mayo Clinic's Web site (www.mayoclinic.com).

Vertigo is characterized by intense dizzy spells but is "rarely serious," according to the site.

But it is bothersome.

This is Williams' sixth bout in 11 years, and it's a separate ailment from the "head rushes" he sometimes suffers when he moves too quickly during games. (That, too, has been checked at the Mayo Clinic, he said, and is not serious.)

Williams' previous five vertigo episodes were brief -- he'd vomit five times in an hour and a half, then be fine the next day, he said. This time, however, he stayed in bed all day July 16, started vomiting July 17 -- and when he left to go recruiting July 21, he had friends drive him around for five days.

"There's no question that the travel has not helped it," Williams said. "Since the end of May, I've gone to Hawaii and back and across the United States five times."

And that doesn't include his April trip to London and Ireland.

Still, Williams said he hasn't canceled any recruiting trips and has been doing everything he normally would if he were feeling 100 percent, except playing golf. He is back behind the wheel and down to taking one low dosage of medication per day -- compared with two medications plus some nausea pills a month ago. He also has been inundated with suggestions for home remedies from fans.

But he said doctors here tell him the same thing as the doctors at the Mayo Clinic, where he was tested while coaching at Kansas: Don't make sudden motions with your head, take your medicine and, eventually, you'll be fine.

"I'm not as comfortable as I'd like to be, and when I get up, I get up slower," Williams said. "Early in the mornings, I'm a little more light-headed than I'd like to be.

"... But I'm still more fortunate than 99.9 percent of people in the world. That's the way I look at it."

(Robbi Pickeral can be reached at robbi.pickeral@newsobserver.com.)