benign vertigo

[nofish95]

I have rcently been expieriencing these bouts of what haas been diagnosed has benign positional vertigo. Has anyone else ever gone through this????, if so, how did you cope with the symptems???.

[EricNY]

I have rcently been expieriencing these bouts of what haas been diagnosed has benign positional vertigo. Has anyone else ever gone through this????, if so, how did you cope with the symptems???.


Hmmmm Interesting. I have never heard of it (HERE IS A DEFINITION for those like me, that do not know what it is) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benign_paroxysmal_positional_vertigo)

I look forward to reading some replies, and hope you get the answer you seek

[NCguy49]

My wife had vertigo a couple of years ago. We were at the local fair that day and she enjoys the rides. On the way out they were offering helicopter rides and she went for a spin. Later that night she needed to use the bathroom and fell to the floor. We went to the hospital where the attending physician said it was vertigo.

She followed up for 2 weeks with her doctor prescribing drugs and such with no relief. She then went to an ear specialist that did the positioning maneuvers right in the office. While I had to help her into the office, she walked out on her own unassisted. He repositioned the crystals in the maneuver and she was fine almost immediately.

She still gets a little "woozy" now and then, but otherwise is OK. It was a little scary at first until we learned about it and its treatment. Apparently the effects of gravity cause the crystals to move to areas of the inner ear to cause vertigo and it took gravity to correct it.

I hope you can gain relief as easily as my wife did. Take care.

[A Bay Marty]

I feel for you and NCguy49's wife. I have had vertigo occasionally since I was about 10. Closing my eyes and lying down to keep my head still made it easier to cope with the terrible nausea I would get from the sensation of the room rotating, then very quickly snapping back, then rotating.... The effect would slowly wax and wane, and then it would slowly pass after 12–24 hours. I would get it once every one or two years, but sometimes twice a year. Eight years ago I was prescribed Stemetil and this worked very well at the time.

The older I've gotten, the less it happens, but last year I had a major episode where it made me so nauseous I couldn't stop retching. I spent the night in hospital and they gave me Stemzine (the same thing as Stemetil) and that made it go away, but it was replaced with the horrible side-effect of akathisia. It's an unbelievable restlessness caused by some anti-psychotic drugs, Wikipedia has a good description. I had had akathisia in the past, so I wasn't too happy. It had been caused by the medications Zyprexa and Risperdal that I took after I was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia, but that's another story. It's the same thing that makes the mental patients rock back and forth. Funny thing was, I didn't get akathisia when I took the Stemetil eight years ago, even though it's the same drug.

It's been slightly unpleasant to write this. I wish I knew a way of preventing vertigo, so I never get it again.

[Boreas]

Vertigo scares the crap out of me on one level. My mother had a severe bout of it that lasted for a solid two weeks or so with no relief. The doctor originally thought it was an inner ear condition, Meniere's disease. When she had no relief after a couple of weeks, she was referred for further tests including things like MRI and whatever. Sadly, it turned out that she had brain tumours from metastacized breast cancer.

My point in writing this is not to scare you. It is a way to say make sure you do have a proper diagnosis and a good relationship with your doctor. If it is coming and going, it is not the same as my mother's case.

I had a bout of vertigo one day that came out of the blue. I have no clue what caused it. It crept in, I crawled onto my bed and slept for a couple of hours and it crept out. I suspect I had gotten some kind of wierd bug. I was glad to see it move on and out!

Good luck in your quest.

[smoothm]

I suffer from vertigo as a result of nerve damage to my inner ear. But recently I have had it worse as a result of the flu. Get antivert, prescription only, but it works pretty good.

[DoctorSurferDude]

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, or, BPPV (GOOGLE TERMS)

Usually it is caused by an endolith breaking loose. Those are small stones on the end of hairs in your inner ear that help us tell which way is up and which way is down. When one side doesn't match the other....or a mixed signal is going out, that gives us the feeling of spinning, dizziness, vertigo.

Medicine doesn't really help too much.....preventing the spells is one trick.

The recommended treatment is Physical Theraphy. They put you in a tilt contraption and put you through these maneuvers that either helps desensitize or settle the stone. It's not a 100% cure, but most people benefit noticably.

Most promising.....it usually goes away with time. But if you want to speed up the process....talk to your doctor about the physical therapy option.

[Nude in the North]

My Wife has suffered from it for well over a decade.
Dispite taking her to 19 different doctors,Including the Infamous Mayo Clinic, the cause is still a Mystery. We know all the things it is NOT caused from. But they have no clue what is causing it. It's always there, but sometimes it's much worse than other times.
She has learned to avoid things that often trigger the worst of her symptoms. Over exertion, Fatuge, and Sudden movements with her head often can trigger the stronger symptoms.

It's not fun to live with, but she manages just fine 90% of the time.

[DoctorSurferDude]

What the heck is an "endolith"? I don't know where I got that name....but I doubted it, so I looked it up, and sure enough.....I don't know what the heck that little buger is.

Otoconia is the correct word for what I was refering too. But when I'm explaining it to patients....I just say "little stones".....I don't like obscure words.

[DoctorSurferDude]

BPPV is pretty close to the symptoms of Meniere's disease. But....a little different.

BPPV is usually more of a temporary thing (hopefully)

Meniere's disease is more of a chronic picture, often accompanied by ringing in the ears or fullness, loss of hearing, and at times "attacks" can be out of the blue and have nothing to do with movement. Some think it is an auto-immune process, but nobody knows for sure, or else we could cure it with one pill, right? The best researched treatments are diuretic pills and antihistamines. Both are sort of second-hand....but to specifically treat a disease you have to know it's process, and right now "autoimmune" is still a mystery. So things like arthritis, lupus, crohn's, meniere's.....limited understanding, therefore limited therapies.

BPPV....in contrast. It doesn't usually affect hearing. And "attacks" of dizziness are usually brought on by specific movements, such as turning your head to the left, looking up, etc. Physical therapy seems to help better than any pill to treat symptoms. And the condition usually has a time limit.

[smoothm]

My first attack of vertigo was coupled with severe hearing loss. But my ear/throat/etc doctor told me it wasn't menier's because the range of hearing i lost was all high pitched and he explained that with menier's you loos from the other end of the spectrum. I have had recurring attacks of vertigo since 2000, ringing in the ears, and even PT didn't help. Meclazine does, but only to some extent.

I hate being dizzy, but my life is still pretty normal in spite of it,

[sliver]

I also suffer from vertigo. It took two years to understand it was my (work) hearing protection that was causing the problem. After only a few days away from work, reinsertion of the plugs would trigger it. The only solution was to start wearing ear plugs to bed when I'm on vacation. To a degree, this works.