I had a medical event recently where I was feeling dizzy and on the verge of passing out. I tried to shake it off by lying down, taking in fluids, cooling off but I left work early and drove home. Started feeling super weird like the ground was falling away and pulled into a gas station thinking I might be having a heart attack or low blood sugar episode. I have no medical history in that regard so I didn’t know.
Long story short, I went to the ER got IV fluids and everything else checked out ok, better than okay really good, bp, blood sugar, ekg all fine.
Got into see my primary doc the next day who reviewed the tests and said huh, let me look in your ears. Impacted ear wax pressing up against the ear drum. This we believe was affecting my balance and stuff. She Irrigated my ears and balls of wax tumbled out. Immediately I could hear better and the foreboding heaviness I felt subsided. I had an ENT follow up ( took weeks for apt) they sucked out more wax, discovered some hearing loss and saw my ear canal was a twisty tunnel that liked to collect wax. No Q tips for me anymore.
I would hate to have to deal with vertigo, that’s rough.
I get dizzy spells that are not related to BPPV or the originally-diagnosed Meniere’s. Because I have developed workarounds, the doctors don’t seem to want to get worked up about it. My main workaround is using EarPlanes, which helps block wind while allowing me to hear. Yes, it can look odd, but as long as I’m not falling out of my chair when I turn around or getting dizzy while driving (yes, it happened but only once), I can deal. Worried about the falls I take as I get older though. Perhaps I should move from an icy climate.
I’ve had several BPPV episodes over the last 15 years. Definitely not fun.
I’ve found the Foster maneuver much easier to do by myself than the Epley. It’s too hard to memorize the Epley steps while dizzy!
I’m also bradycardic, which means my doctor tends to defensively send me for a cardiac workup. She agrees it’s just defensive, but doesn’t feel she has a choice. And the incidents are always far enough apart that it’s reasonable to check. (Bradycardia+dizziness COULD mean bad ticker, see … even though I’ve had the bradycardia forever!)
Maybe I’m wrong, but I was under the impression that the canaliths don’t get stuck, but move around in the inner ear, and that causes the vertigo. Either way, we agree that the various maneuvers move them to a harmless location.
I saw a new ENT a few days ago, and he insisted that what I have is not BPPV, because, he said, BPPV caused by canaliths doesn’t last for hours, like my vertigo does. Does this agree with what you’ve heard, read, or experienced?
He also seemed skeptical that the Epley could have had much effect for me, even though it is my experience that is has helped at least half the time.
He’s ordered an MRI and some blood work to eliminate some of the more serious possibilities, e.g., brain tumor. And I’m having another hearing test in six weeks to see if the discrepancy between my left and right ears changes.
Interesting. Mine also lasts for days and therefore BPPV was ruled out. Maybe that’s my issue. But then why does it often show up at the same time of year? Hmm. Maybe combined with annual allergies. Thanks!
I saw the ENT a few weeks ago, had another hearing test, and he said I definitely have Meniere’s Disease. I didn’t give it much more thought until this afternoon, when the very mild tinnitus that started in one ear back in July, and was barely noticeable most of the time, was suddenly in both ears, and quite a bit harder to ignore.
This sucks. And I don’t suppose it’s likely to get better.
And now, a few hours later, I’m back to status quo ante: the tinnitus in the left ear has gone away, and the right is about the same as it was before. So that’s good.
But it may be a preview of what I can expect in the future: tinnitus worsening, or coming and going, and/or my hearing slowly getting worse. I’ll try to be stoic about it, and deal with it as it comes, as I have done with most other things, but it is a bit depressing.
About the only thing I can do to prevent the vertigo episodes, is to wear earplugs when it is windy. I either wear Earplanes, or use ear muffs in winter. When episodes appear, I take meclizine before I go to bed at night and if traveling, along with blocking the ears.
I had vertigo maybe once every couple of months (when everything was spinning I’d think "Ooh la la, I have La Vertige!"; it sounded so much cooler in French).
So the docs were all positive I had BPPV, and I did my Epley maneuvers religiously. Then I had a bout after which my doc set me up with a vertigo specialist. Who, after three minutes, said “This is not BPPV. You’re having migraines.”
That was news to me, because my episodes didn’t come with any headaches. But some “Take This When A Migraine Might Be Coming” medication seems to do the trick, now that I’ve learned to notice when an episode is coming.
Yes, the Epley maneuver did help, which does make me wonder… the mini-migraines do pass in anywhere from 1 to 6 hours. Could the Epley have been a placebo?
Or, do I have both? I do get motion sickness VERY easily; could I have pesky crystals floating around AND a propensity to “Mild migraines with some auras but not headache pain”?
The Rx that helps is Sumatriptan.
But last time I had a migraine suddenly come on, I was downtown shopping without any pills. In that case, I downed a huge, strong (Nepalese) coffee. That helped it pass in an hour (and a Gatorade chaser during the following “I just got hit by a train and I’m a little spacey” stage).
I’ve had very, very sporadic episodes of vertigo over the past few decades. As in, suddenly my brain isn’t too sure of which way is up, and the thought of attempting to walk is… daunting. The time it happened while driving was rather alarming…
Luckily, all my episodes have been very brief, less than 5 minutes (the one while driving was likely less than 1). And I don’t recall any particular nausea from any of these; while I do get carsick if I try to read in the car or on the subway, I’m otherwise not prone to hurling, which may have saved me.
The first time I mentioned one of these to an ENT - 30ish years ago, he said that unless it became more frequent or the episodes lasted longer, it was likely not worth pursuing. And since it’s typically years between episodes, I didn’t bother until the one while driving. THAT got me a referral to an ENT.
He did a couple of tests including having my lying down, turning my head to one side, and sitting up - which failed to evoke anything. He also had me close my eyes and march in place - and I moved to one side as I did so, which I gather means something but he didn’t see anything that required followup.
The other oddness, and I don’t know if this is “normal”: Sometimes when I’m drifting off to sleep, my eyes tend to look upward, hard, and I feel as though I’m spinning head to toe - as if there was an axis drawn from one hip to another. When that happens, I do feel queasy, and have to force myself to waken slightly. No clue whether it’s ear-related - I kind of think it is not. Luckily, it’s just an annoyance, and fairly rare.
As I’ve noted in a tinnitus thread, I developed roaring tinnitus and a feeling of pressure in my ear a couple of weeks ago. Then, just as I arrived at my PCP’s to see about it, I had an episode of vertigo. I’m to see an ENT on 9/13.
And I’m having an episode of vertigo right now. The worst has passed, though, but here’s a funny thing. Both with the first vertigo episode and with this one, the tinnitus changed afterwards from a ringing roar to a mild background hiss, and the sensation of pressure is gone. It’ll come back, I suppose, if it’s just like the first time.