SEVERE VERTIGO :(

[stoneaxe]

Hello Gloria,

Hopefully this will just be a short term issue for you. I've had occasional severe vertigo ongoing for the last five years. It's not very frequent and there doesn't seem to be anything in particular that causes it. It comes and goes...sometimes more frequently and more severely than others. I fortunately haven't had an episode for at least a month and usually it will just come on quickly and then go away. I did have a brief period about two years ago when it was very bad, keeping me awake at night. Especially difficult to put my head down on a pillow so I often would sleep sitting up in a chair. Fortunately that period only lasted a few weeks. I've noticed a big decrease in episodes since i started focusing my efforts on getting lots of vestibular exercise. Still not perfect but they seem much less frequent and shorter in duration.

Hope this doesn't last long.

Bob

[Arasha]

Hi everybody,

First of all thanks to all of you for your support.  Finally I went to the ENT, I just came from there.  I got all the exams and everything is going well with me.  I had vertigo for 9 days, now it is gone.  What I had is called BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo), which is common after AN surgery and could be last for weeks.  It will occur maybe every 2 years, there is nothing that I can do to get better while I am having those episodes, just wait it out and avoid sleeping on the "bad" side, get up slowly and sit on the edge of the bed for a minute...stuff like that.  I am happy to know that it was only that!!! I was thinking the worse!!!. The doctor said this is the "best " among all the types of vertigos.  whew!!!

Again, this forum is the best!!!

Have a great day
Gloria

[kathylittlejohncobb]

Dear Gloria,
So glad you received the diagnosis & are feeling better!  Thanks for letting us know; your information will probably help someone else, as well!
Kathy

[reg]

i had the surgery in dec 06 and am still having severe vertigo problems, the ent doctor did a balance test to see if there was anything wrong and the results where that my good side was working just not compensating fast as i wanted i guess its getting better  like i said in another post i have a harley and this really blows.... (i had ent appt in feb 09) so again dont feel like the lone ranger

[stoneaxe]

Glad to hear it. That sounds similar to my experience. The vertigo I get now is just quick "spins". When I had the problem like yours life was horrible. I couldn't do anything. Thankfully it hasn't happened like that since. Hope yours is gone for good.

[jazzfunkanne]

hi gloria did he say why this would happen every 2 years or so?

[Arasha]

Bob, I think my vertigos were similar to yours, I could not get out of the bed or roll over in bed, tip my head back, things were spinning like crazy, besides I felt dizzy all the time.

jazzfunkanne, ENT told me that 2 years is the average for me, some people can experience this more often. BPPV follows surgery, our brain is readjusting to the loss of balance but it is also associated to the age, the older we are the more we get because of degeneration of the vestibular system of the inner ear.

Reg, unfortunatelly there is nothing we can do with vertigos, doctors describe BPPV as "self-limiting" because sypmtoms often subside or desappear , so just wait it out.

Have a nice day,
Gloria

[Tumbleweed]

Hi, Gloria:

I am so relieved that it's only a nasty case of BPPV you've got, and not regrowth of your AN. That is fantastic news.

FWIW, I had BPPV several years before I had my first AN symptoms and I stumbled by mistake on a remedy for getting over it (the BPPV) faster. My work at the time entailed working underneath some equipment and repeatedly looking up to make an adjustment and then looking down. You can imagine what a nightmare that was for me; everytime I looked up, the room would spin and I thought I was going to lose my lunch! But what's interesting is that the repeated positional changes forced my brain to adapt much quicker than it would have had I just sat still. As a result, my BPPV episode was virtually over within about 72 hours.

I'm not necessarily recommending you do something like this without first consulting your doctor, but you might want to ask your doctor if "provoking" your BPPV in a similar fashion might speed up your recovery.

Best wishes,
TW

[Arasha]

Hi TW:

You are right, the doctor asked me to do exercises (always with help). Well, I am scared about feeling vertigos again, I can lose not only my lunch, but all I have eaten the last days!!! 

Take care,
Gloria

[southjersey636]

I got my AN removed at 18, and to this day I have only had 2-3 bad vertigo moments that I can recall that had me scared to death when the room wouldn't stop spinning. I do have days that are worse or better then others as in my case for the last 3 weeks now I have been just off balance feeling, but I do know it comes and goes with certain situations. I usually get a little bit off balance if I look up or down but never totally dizzy. The best thing to do is just go about life everyday without trying to worry about it, I feel better myself if I walk alot at my job and just keep my balance system in check, my balance system gets lazy if I get lazy, thats how I look at it.