SLIPPERY ROCK — It comes on suddenly.

The spinning. The nausea. The anxiety.

Amber Osborn has to scurry for a place to lay down to wait for the vertigo to pass.

It usually takes between 10 and 15 minutes for the world to stop whirling as if the Earth was knocked off its axis.

As quickly as it starts, it ends.

But it leaves a lasting impression on Osborn during the three to four times a week it occurs.

“I just want to be able to look back at this moment in time and say, 'Wow, I went through that and I got through that,'” Osborn said.

That moment hasn't come yet for the Slippery Rock High girls basketball coach, who has had to learn to deal with what she calls “episodes” while trying to get her young Rockets ready for the season.

“Everyone has something they have to deal with in their lives,” Osborn said. “This is just mine.”

Osborn was a standout basketball player at Grove City High and Slippery Rock University as a point guard. Back then, Amber McFeely, Osborn took more spills and bangs to the head than she can count with no ill-effects.

But it was a soccer ball booted hard against the right side of her head that sent her ordeal into motion.

Osborn was attending her eldest son's soccer game in late September of last year when she was struck hard in the head by an errant soccer ball.

The vertigo started the next day.

Eventually doctors diagnosed her with Miniere's Disease, a disorder of the inner ear that causes vertigo, fluctuating hearing loss and ringing in the ear.

Doctors think a concussion caused by the blow to her head by the soccer ball caused her Miniere's.

“I can't even go to the grocery store,” Osborn said. “I'm afraid to drive. It puts a damper on life.”

Her biggest fear is having an episode in a public place.

Because of that trepidation, Osborn has found herself avoiding activities that others take for granted.

“I'm always thinking, 'What if I have an episode here or there?'” Osborn said. “Anxiety is a big part of it.”

Osborn is in physical therapy and also goes to the UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program to try to find relief.

It's coming. Slowly.

“I'm way more functional now than I was,” Osborn said. “I remember last year going to practice and telling my assistant coaches that I couldn't focus. I was in a fog.”

This year, Osborn has a very familiar face on the bench with her as an assistant coach: her husband, Doug, who played high school basketball at Fort LeBoeuf.

He drove Amber to and from basketball practice every day when she was first stricken with Miniere's.

“I was at all the practices and at all the open gyms and at all the camps,” Doug said. “I wasn't doing a lot of coaching, but I got to know the team well and built a relationship with them. And, obviously, Amber is comfortable with me.”

The Osborns are also getting a big assist from Amber's mother, Sally McFeely, who is often at practices and games or at home with the couple's five kids — Maddie, 8, Kyle, 7, Bri, 6, Jude, 4, and Willa, 1.

“I've said this before, she's a saint,” Amber said. “I'm probably most happiest and comfortable as I've been.”

Because of her Miniere's, Amber contacted the PIAA to get a clarification on what to do should she have an episode during a game.

The PIAA told her Doug could assume the role as head coach for as long as her symptoms persisted.

The players have also handled their coach's episodes well.

“We all understand that every team goes through adversity and challenges,” said junior Emma McDermott, who went through her own adversity last season when she suffered a torn ACL. She's been cleared to return. “It's a good life lesson that there are things you have to overcome and how to handle it.”

When Amber is stricken with an attack, the team knows what to do, McDermott said.

“We stay calm because if we stay calm, coach will stay calm,” McDermott said. “Our seniors (Macy McCall and Jenna Heitzenrater) really step up and I do, too, if I need to. We keep practice moving and Doug has been great.”

Amber has made light of her Miniere's at times.

“If they do something wrong, I say, 'Don't make me have another episode,'” Amber said, chuckling.

McDermott said it cuts the tension.

“She says that stuff all the time,” McDermott said, laughing.

Amber Osborn hopes one day her Miniere's will no longer be an issue.

For now, she's dealing with it the best she can, with her family and understanding team by her side.

“It doesn't freak the girls out,” Amber said. “It's easier when people know about it.”

“She's much more aware of the triggers,” Doug said. “She's definitely come a long way.”