Author Topic: vertigo attacks  (Read 6770 times)

Patti UT

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 709
  • Keep On Keepin On
vertigo attacks
« on: October 22, 2006, 11:14:18 pm »
I am 2 years post op. I still have balance issues that I mostly can manage with, but every so often, and it is seeming more often, I get a sudden onset of severe vertigo, where everything is spinning and I can hardly walk. Usually the vertigo, depth perception, and pressure headaches are all intensified by a storm blowing in, barometric pressure changes.  But this one today, there was really nothing I could come up with that brought it on. The skies were clear, no wind, no clousd, no stormy weather. Out walking the dog, and BOOM. could hardle get myself home. Got the really bad nausea with it.  My AN ear and head in general on the AN side suddenly had a feeling of fullness, more that usual. It was about as bad as the vertigo directly after surgery. This was really weird. wonder what brought it on. Any thoughts?

Patti UT
2cm Rt side  middle fossa  at University of Utah 9/29/04.
rt side deafness, dry eye, no taste, balance & congintive issues, headaches galore
7/9/09 diganosed with recurrent AN. Translab Jan 13 2010  Happy New Year

BB

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 56
Re: vertigo attacks
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2006, 11:40:31 pm »
I AM ONLY 4 MONTHS POST OP, AND HAD THE SAME PROBLEM TODAY.  WENT TO CHURCH AND HAD A HARD TIME WALKING WITH OUT HOLDING ON TO SOMETHING, AND THE SAME WITH THE FULLNESS IN MY HEAD FEELING.  I HURT MY BACK A COULPLE OF WEEKS AGO, AND REALLY SLOWED DOWN MY WALKING AND GETTING AROUND AND SPENT A LOT OF DOWN TIME.  I THINK THAT IS WHAT SET ME BACK.  FELT VERY WEAK ALL OVER AGAIN.  WE DID HAVE A BIG WEATHER CHANGE HERE ALSO.  INTERESTED IN OTHER RESPONSES. 

LoriW

  • New Member
  • *
  • Posts: 15
Re: vertigo attacks
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2006, 11:46:05 pm »
Hi Patti UT,

 Ã‚  I also am 2 years Post OP.  I just had my yearly MRI and it came back clean.   I don't have the vertigo, but my balance is sure off.  It really changes with the weather.   It's nothing for me to fall on my butt a few times a month or slam into a wall or door.

 Ã‚  I have a horse that seems to know when I'm off balance and she can just nudge me the right way and I'm on the ground.   She doesn't do it to be mean.  I just hope it gets better.

Lori

Crazycat

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 799
  • Self-Portrait/ "Friends, Romans, countrymen...."
Re: vertigo attacks
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2006, 12:06:08 am »
Patti,

 Ã‚  With as  much as I have been through with the giant tumor and hydrocephalus, the shunt and three surgeries, I haven't experienced the vertigo  you're describing since 1987. I remember, by 1987, I was beginning to get a handle on controlling the spells. I lived in fear of getting one while I was driving. I could feel one coming one and stave it off by concentrating and focusing my eyes somehow and it would pass. The first time I experienced that was in 1968, as an eleven year old  playing little league baseball. I used to have these very short and powerful dizzy spells that would literally knock me off of my feet; there would be a buzzing  and an audible vibration and the world would turn green as it spinned . They were few and far between though. I remember being afflicted with an inner ear infection in 1983 when I was 26 that knocked me off of my feet for a week. I awoke one morning to find my room spinning while I laid in bed. It stayed that way for about a week! I remember that the condition had been building for weeks before with this subtle kind of double vision where things would swim around. I had gone out to see a live band the night before so it may have been the volume of the music that did me in. I somehow made my way to an emergency room where I was given one dose of "Anti-vert", told that I had "viral vestibulitis" and sent on my way. The dizziness eventually subsided. I knew a guy back then that had had an inner ear infection and reported having the same symptoms I had experienced. In fact, his daughter, who is four years younger than me, had difficulties with her hearing. She is entirely deaf in her left ear from a virus she had. No tumor, just a virus!
 Ã‚ 
 Why I had those dizzy spells as a youngster remains a mystery. I remember walking home from kindergarden across a big field near Tuft's
University in Medford, MA in 1962. Off in the distance, there was this guy practicing driving golf balls. Being only five years old, I didn't even know what "golf" was but could see very clearly that the guy was launching balls in my direction. I remember a having a bit of precognition
and thought, "I hope I don't get hit by one of those things". The next thing I knew, WHAM!!! I got hit on the left side of my head and ran home screaming bloodly-blue murder. All my mother could do was wash the side of my head. I remember everything was a blur as I ran home screaming. There was no bleeding or anything and I can't say for sure how I described what had happened to my mother - I scarcely even knew what hit me. But I often wonder if those dizzy spells and maybe even the genesis of my A.N. were somehow related to that
trauma I received to left side of my vestibular system. Who knows? When I first began seeing my doctors at Mass General for my A.N. treatment, I reported that incident to them and they didn't think that there was a connection.

 Ã‚    Paul
« Last Edit: October 23, 2006, 12:49:29 am by Crazycat »
5cm x 5cm left-side A.N. partially removed via Middle Fossa 9/21/2005 @ Mass General. 
Compounded by hydrocephalus. Shunt installed 8/10/2005.
Dr. Fred Barker - Neurosurgeon and Dr. Michael McKenna - Neurotologist.

ppearl214

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7449
  • ANA Forum Policewoman - PBW Cursed Cruise Director
Re: vertigo attacks
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2006, 09:56:03 am »
Patty, even from a radio-surgery standpoint, I get "wonky head"... especially at night, in darkness... like you.. when walking the dog (even worse when I have to lean down to scoop her "business").

I did try Antivert and it didn't do anything for me. Dr Medbery on the CK Support board noted low dose Valium (2mg) has been prescribed to help with the balance issue... so, my radio-oncologist (who initally prescribed the Antivert) had also heard of low dose Valium use and prescribed it for me.  I'm on it now (I take it in the am and as needed at night when the wonky head occassionally gets bad).  Since it's so low dose, I function fine at work, driving, etc. It has certainly helped me.  Maybe worth a thought.....

Hang in there hun!
Phyl
"Gentlemen, I wash my hands of this weirdness", Capt Jack Sparrow - Davy Jones Locker, "Pirates of the Carribbean - At World's End"

southjersey636

  • New Member
  • *
  • Posts: 12
Re: vertigo attacks
« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2007, 08:12:53 pm »
Ive had problems like this ever since I got my tumor taking out at 18 which im now 24 for those that are curious. I do know that a few things seem to mess with my balance and one is alcohol. While a few beers wont hurt sometimes the affects of this can be felt days to weeks later. Computers also seem to mess with my balance is im on them too long.

I feel my best when I dont drink alcohol at all and while I love to go out and have a few cold ones and watch the games it just sometimes aint worth the problems weeks later.