Anyone ever have Vertigo?

B

bdorman

Dead money
Silver Member
I'm a little scared that my pool-playing days may be over...after just 18 months of learning and loving the game.

On Friday afternoon I got up from my desk and felt a little dizzy. By Friday evening it was difficult to walk. My wife performed the basic "Stroke" test and was able to rule out having a stroke (No, not the pool kind; the medical kind!).

My symptoms all sound like subjective, peripheral vertigo. It takes a lot of effort just to shower, shave and get dressed. Thank goodness I work from home and can be in my office today. I certainly wouldn't drive a car in this condition and haven't played any pool since Friday morning.

I've got a doctor appointment tomorrow. Hopefully I'll find out more and lay out a plan for recovery.

Anyone else ever have vertigo?
 
I have a friend who worked on the railroad all his life.
He has hearing problems from his job...tin ear.
Vertigo is one of his symptoms...he's undergoing treatment.

How is your hearing?
 
bdorman said:
I'm a little scared that my pool-playing days may be over...after just 18 months of learning and loving the game.

On Friday afternoon I got up from my desk and felt a little dizzy. By Friday evening it was difficult to walk. My wife performed the basic "Stroke" test and was able to rule out having a stroke (No, not the pool kind; the medical kind!).

My symptoms all sound like subjective, peripheral vertigo. It takes a lot of effort just to shower, shave and get dressed. Thank goodness I work from home and can be in my office today. I certainly wouldn't drive a car in this condition and haven't played any pool since Friday morning.

I've got a doctor appointment tomorrow. Hopefully I'll find out more and lay out a plan for recovery.

Anyone else ever have vertigo?
Click to expand...

I have for sure. For me it lasted maybe 4 months, all of a sudden I would feel that way you feel when you have completely drank way too much. Closing my eyes didn't help, laying down helped only slightly, puking didn't help at all. I went through all the balance tests (the tests they do for your ear are tricky, they actually mostly check your eyes and interpolate from there) and months of Drs. scratching their heads and a couple of mis-diagnoses (Menieres is a common one).

After a few months of this, my wife driving me everywhere etc., it just went away. Later a Neurologist I was seeing on a different issue said "rogue crystals" and laughed when I told him about the batteries of tests I had gone through. Your brain knows where you are in relation to the world by some crystals that float around in your inner ear and bump against some little cillia in there. Sometimes the crystals get trapped or go haywire and then your brains gets real confused as what the eyes are saying doesn't match the info it is getting from your ears. Drs can actually "shake" them lose. Like I said, my Neurologist was very amused that none of the experts I had gone to had a clue.

Fell free to call me.

Kevin
818 317 0207
 
I was worried once that I had this but it turned out to be a severe inner ear infection. Antibiotics and time was all I needed to get back on my feet so to speak.

Get to the doc, I hope as turns out well for you.
 
pt109 said:
I have a friend who worked on the railroad all his life.
He has hearing problems from his job...tin ear.
Vertigo is one of his symptoms...he's undergoing treatment.

How is your hearing?
Click to expand...

Hi pt, my hearing is fine. I did a lot of audio recording work in the past so I'm pretty sensitive to how my hearing is doing, and I haven't noticed any change. Some minor tinnitus but I've had that for 20 years.

Kevin, thanks for the offer. I might call you when I know more after seeing the witchdoctor.
 
More than likely, this will be a self limited event. There are many things that contribute to vertigo and dizziness. Basically, anything that can mess with middle/inner function can lead to this. Some of the usual suspects are ear infection, viral syndromes, allergies and something called benign positional vertigo which is also usually self limited. How is your blood pressure? Probably time to see a/your doc for an evaluation.
 
Yes I have had two attacks of Vertigo. The first one scared the living hell out of me I honestly thought I was dying. I awoke in bed early in the morning as usual, upon opening my eyes my brain felt like it was spinning inside my head. I tried to sit up but was unable to and then started to throw up from the spinning. I tried to get up to go the the bathroom and was not able to walk,then I stumbled into the wall and collapsed on the floor. My wife helped me get back into the bed and if I laid perfectly still I could control the spinning to some degree. I was completely disoriented but OK sort of. She had to go to work and I assured her I'd get to the docs or die trying. About 4 hours later I was able to drive to my doctors office about a mile away from home. He was stunned that I drove and gave me some prescription sea sick pills and called in a prescription for more. Two days later I was Ok and back to work. Approximately a month later I turned my head in an odd direction and BAM it hit me again. The second time was not as severe and I was back to work in a day. Vertigo is NO JOKE they do not know exactly what causes it but suspect it has to do with loose particles in the inner ear. Supposedly they affect your balance and causes the attacks of Vertigo. If you look online there are some different head positional movements that may or may not help. A friends Mom had it so bad she was hospitialized for over a month and they had to keep her alive with an IV and feeding tube, she could not hold any soild food down for over a month. I REALLY wish you all the best I wouldn't wish Vertigo on anyone. The good news is once it's gone you'll be fine but it is scary as hell the first time through. I suffered my incidents over five years ago and have never had any since so there is hope... GOOD LUCK!!!!
 
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Like Mark V mentioned above, mention Alergies to the Dr. tomorrow. Tis' the season, and even if you've never had allergies before, they can develop suddenly in adults. It's happened to me, and it sucks, there's nothing fun about being dizzy, but a decongestant can help deal with it.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
Mark V said:
How is your blood pressure? Probably time to see a/your doc for an evaluation.
Click to expand...

My blood pressure has had a significant change which I will mention to the doctor tomorrow. I'm usually in the 110-115 range but it's been pretty steady around 145/80.

Quesports said:
I suffered my incidents over five years ago and have never had any since so there is hope... GOOD LUCK!!!!
Click to expand...

My episode hasn't been anywhere near as severe as that. More like the kind of feeling you get when you get up too fast...but in this case the feeling doesn't go away. I hope you never experience another one!

Kobachi said:
Like Mark V mentioned above, mention Alergies to the Dr. tomorrow. Tis' the season, and even if you've never had allergies before, they can develop suddenly in adults. It's happened to me, and it sucks, there's nothing fun about being dizzy, but a decongestant can help deal with it.

Good luck and keep us posted.
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Great idea. I've never had allergies (unlike my wife who has every allergy known to science and religion), but thanks for pointing out that they can suddenly develop in adults. I'll make sure to mention it to the doc.
 
My wife suffered with this for a while. Find a chiropractor that does VRT. I think it's vestibular rehab therapy or something like that. Basically they reset those inner ear crystals by putting you through some motions. After watching them do it on her, I can do it to my wife now if she has an attack but she hasn't for about 1.5 years. I think it works. All the meds do is prevent the nausea, they do nothing to cure it. Good luck.
 
Physical therapy has some treatments that can be very beneficial.

145/80 isn't too bad, but acute elevations in BP can be a harbinger of some events. I'm glad you're electing to see a physician instead of letting Dr. Google diagnose and treat like many do.

<-- friendly family doc.
 
i woke up a few days after a car accident and the room was spinning, i called my friend who was an e.n.t. ear nose throat doctor. he put me through some steps over the phone, like laying down and turning head to the left and the right to get the crystals back in balance. it worked pretty well.

happened again a year later, forgot the steps and couldnt reach my friend, had the spins real bad, was tipping over as i was racing and crawling to go vomit in the bathroom.

went to a local e.n.t., he told me to take bonine (motion sickness over the counter) and also provided the instructions my friend had given me over the phone on paper.

go to a ear nose throat specialist, as vertigo has to do with the crystals in your ear as others have mentioned.
 
Yes. The rougue crystal thing is called BPPV and can be fairly easily remedied, often without a doctor. Google that or Eppley Manuever.

Mine was related to something less pleasant. You don't have one ear that constantly rings or have diminished hearing on one side, do you?
 
bdorman said:
I'm a little scared that my pool-playing days may be over...after just 18 months of learning and loving the game.

On Friday afternoon I got up from my desk and felt a little dizzy. By Friday evening it was difficult to walk. My wife performed the basic "Stroke" test and was able to rule out having a stroke (No, not the pool kind; the medical kind!).

My symptoms all sound like subjective, peripheral vertigo. It takes a lot of effort just to shower, shave and get dressed. Thank goodness I work from home and can be in my office today. I certainly wouldn't drive a car in this condition and haven't played any pool since Friday morning.

I've got a doctor appointment tomorrow. Hopefully I'll find out more and lay out a plan for recovery.

Anyone else ever have vertigo?
Click to expand...

I had similar symptoms for nearly 5 years, before it was discovered that I had a broken neck and shifting vertebrae in 3 levels.
After the fusion, these symptoms have disappeared.
Not saying this is your cause, but was in my case.
 
My wife has had two(2) bouts with Vertigo & she came out of both a winner. I hope that gives you some encouragement.

The Dr. basically gave her the rehab type exercises. She barely did them & it cleared up.

Regards,
 
I know someone who has had vertigo on several different occassions. It was caused by stress/tension headaches. Cure seemed to be relatively easy once the root cause of stress was found. Maybe something similar is causing it for you. Hope the doctor is able to help.
 
StrokeofLuck said:
My wife suffered with this for a while. Find a chiropractor that does VRT. I think it's vestibular rehab therapy or something like that. Basically they reset those inner ear crystals by putting you through some motions. After watching them do it on her, I can do it to my wife now if she has an attack but she hasn't for about 1.5 years. I think it works. All the meds do is prevent the nausea, they do nothing to cure it. Good luck.
Click to expand...

This only works if the vertigo is Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo. Vertigo can come on from several different causes. He should see his Dr. and let them diagnose the cause, and get the appropriate treatment.

That being said, the OP might like to know that many causes of vertigo are treatable and not permanent. Hopefully that will be the case for you.
 
I had it real bad a couple years ago when I came down with Lyme Disease. It attacks your cranial nerves and can cause a multitude of neurological problems. The eight cranial nerve affects your sense of equilibrium.

Driving was out of the question, and it also affected my seventh cranial nerve, resulting in the complete paralysis of the right side of my face (Bell's Palsy). I looked like a stroke victim for a long time.

I was a wreck for weeks. Just moving slightly in bed had me grasping at the bedsheets so as not to fall off the face of the earth. After I started to recover, I was still walking in circles, and talking pretty funny as well. My wife took me to HD to get some washers for the garden hose. I staggered into the garden department like a drunken monk and went up to a clerk on duty and asked, "Pahd'n meh, ked you teh me whah da wubber wassers for gahd'n hodes ah?"

Wish I had a camera to catch the expression on his face. lol

Good luck, vertigo is a b**** to deal with. I had residual effects for a long time, and I'm still not 100% back according to my neurologist. May never be.
 
I'm almost 70 and for the past 5 years or so I get dizzy in the dark... have to have a flashlight or I'd fall down.
 
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