The sensation that sidelines
Ex-Sox slugger Esasky knows what Holt’s going through
Former Red Sox player Nick Esasky is all too familiar with the debilitating dizziness that has utilityman Brock Holt on the 10-day disabled list.
Esasky, who had just played the season of a lifetime — finishing 1989 with 30 home runs and 108 runs scored — resorted to blindly holding out his glove, moving through games in slow motion.
“I couldn’t see things in real time,” said Esasky, now 57. “I’d just played a full year and was at the top of my game. Suddenly, it was almost like I hadn’t played before.”
Esasky and Holt suffer from vertigo, a sometimes baffling and unpredictable sensation of disorientation that can be crippling for people whose livelihoods depend on balance.
Vertigo can be caused by a range of medical issues, from inner-ear infections to neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis. Both Esasky and Holt have suffered concussions in the past, but it is unclear if that plays a role.
The feeling is hard to pinpoint, and the severity is sometimes impossible to capture with words. Holt could only say he felt “a little weird,” with “a little dizziness” and “a little lightheadedness.”
That is one of the most isolating aspects of the problem. It is invisible, and unlike a rotator cuff tear or a knee injury, it’s hard to explain to fans and teammates.
“I was in shape — I looked fine,” Esasky said. “You can’t see the stuff going on in the inside.”
Holt said he had been congested, which could be the cause of his vertigo.
But the process of tracking down the source can be scary and fruitless — Esasky went to a hypnotist, psychiatrist, even had his silver fillings removed from his teeth in case mercury exposure was to blame.
He stopped playing in 1992. His newly retired father had just been preparing to travel with his son, who had only recently seemed like a rising baseball star.
“It got worse to where I wasn’t able to function,” said Esasky. “For the first time, I was really scared to go out on the field.”
What can be a brief and mildly disruptive issue — which is hopefully the case for Holt — can also be lifechanging in certain cases, said Tufts Medical Center otolaryngologist Dr. Jonathon Sillman.
“It’s really a sense of movement of the environment that doesn’t exist,” Sillman said. “It can be pretty distressing, pretty severe and
intense. After a severe bout of vertigo you may have significant imbalance for sometimes days, weeks or even months.”
Vertigo can be treated with an over-the-counter nausea medication, meclizine, or physical therapy.
Holt hopes the rest will lead to a full recovery.
“Time is the biggest thing. We’ll see,” Holt said. “I’ve never gone through anything like this. I’m feeling better from the point that I was feeling the worst until now. ... The time off will probably help.”