Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit cancelled a trip to Tromsø on Thursday, with the Royal Palace reporting that she’s suffering from what the Norwegians call krystallsyke (Crystal Sickness). It’s a form of vertigo triggered by certain head positions or movements that cause dizziness.
That’s what palace officials, in a press release on Thursday, claimed is ailing the crown princess, who’s earlier suffered various other ailments from neck and back pain to severe sunburn. The palace said she was “receiving treatment” for her condition and was improving.
The palace stated that Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s doctor nonetheless advised her against traveling to Tromsø, where she was supposed to take part in a charitable event in cooperation with the humanitarian organization Kirkens Bymisjon. Crown Prince Haakon was thus making the trip alone, according to the palace.
Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s next sheduled engagement is attendance at a memorial ceremony on Sunday for Jewish Norwegians who were arrested and deported by Nazi German occupiers and Norwegian police and later murdered in Germany during World War II. It’s been 75 years since Norwegian police participated in a final wave of arrests before the Jewish Norwegian were shipped out on the German vessel Donau on the morning of November 26, 1942. Only a few survived the war and were able to return to Norway.
The palace stated that Mette-Marit still planned to attend the ceremony on Sunday despite the bout of krystallsyke, which occurs when certain movements of the head loosen some of the calcium carbonate crystals in the inner ear. The condition is also referred to as Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) and can create a false sense of spinning or rotational movement. It’s known to come in sudden, brief spells and is not life-threatening.
Mette-Marit’s illness marks the second case of official illness within Norway’s royal family this week. King Harald V was hospitalized last weekend for an infection, but was released on Monday and reportedly recovering at home.
newsinenglish.no staff
