I'm dizzy and scared!

[gypsy]

Im going into my 4th week of having vertigo. Its been relentless. I cant walk without stumbling (and I use a quad cane) and I vomit constantly from being so dizzy. My pcp gave me Meclizine which doesnt really help and I dont see my neuro until the 20th. I cant drive. Its hard to sleep.This has been terrifying. Everyone keeps telling my its not MS related, but I never had this prior to my diagnosis.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make this go away? I can barely function and this is exhausting me!

[sunshine008]

hi i'm sorry your going thru that, i can't imagine how hard it is to cope thru your day.

If i were you i'd begin with yoga. a simple beginner video on utube you can pull one up. now that might seem insane while you can't stand but you have to calm your body down somehow to get it to realign.

than start taking ginger it's supposed to be a natural cure for what your going thru, and add in ginkgo hope i spelt that right if you don't get any relief from the yoga and the ginger.

sorry i hope what i suggested works. i'd give it a try. yoga helps greatly with my dizziness and balance issues.

[wrest53]

vertigo

Gypsy

Has anyone taken a look at your eyes. Are they moving--like extra beats--either up and down or side to side?
Nustagmus ( eye movements) are common with MS, and can be due to a active lesion on the brain stem.

My daughter can usually see the movements, so you don't have to be an MD. Sometimes steroids will help. The dizziness is bad enough but the nausea can make you crazy.

Have someone check, and call the doctor. You may need to be seen sooner. Any doc that thinks dizziness is not a symptom of MS--is really off base.

Look up nystagmus and MS on Google--so you have some info.

This could or could not be your problem--but it's worth a look.

Hope you get some relief soon.

[gypsy]

Nystagmus! After tons of research last night, I came across this and I'm convinced this is what I have. My eyes are doing the bouncing thing! I made an appointment with my pcp for tomorrow. I read that Baclofen may help to relax the ocular muscles...anyone have input on that?

I dont know what I would do without the wealth of knowledge I get from this site! I just dont understand why it always comes down to me doing the research and bringing the info to the docs before they do anything!

[jk]

Try closing one eye and see if it helps your vertigo, which works for double vision also.You get some of your balance from your eyes and most of it from your inner ears,(soft legs do not help either) I was told that inner ear balance is also brain stem area.Your eyes screw you up but inner ears made me walk drunk.Hopefully I have this right.

[jumpinjiminy]

Hi Gypsy. I had a little nystagmus last summer and baclofen did help some. I could tell a difference at night while gazing at the stars. They stopped bouncing when I started taking the baclofen. I can't attest to the vomiting or dizziness, as that wasn't a significant thing for me at the time.

Hugs, and good luck. I hope you find something that helps. My neuro offered PT for the balance issues, but they cleared up and I didn't need it.

[hope32]

I'm so sorry. I don't have experience with that (though I had tons of dizziness issues during pregnancy ... maybe it was MS-related?) but I really hope you're able to find some relief from the dizziness.

[dpmich]

Get ahold of your Dr and ask them to schedule you for immediate PT. The pt there should be able to re-set your inner ear crystals. It will make you feel like a human again. They can teach you to do it at home as well. Even if you can call an ENT in your area they can help also. There is no reason to suffer through that. It will let you know right away if it is Nystagmus. Then once you are not going through the vertigo, they can find out what caused it.

[empirerecs]

I agree with dpmich, there is also something that can cause the type of sx you are having and it's easy to fix, no meds. You see an ENT and they "tip" you upside down in a chair and move your head a certain way. We all have ear crystals and sometimes they get out of whack, it's called Ménière's Disease and another name is Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo. Ask your doctor about these too - it far better to have one of these than nystagmus. And as dpmich said, if it isn't fixed by the "tipping" then you check on the nystagmus.

good luck~

[wrest53]

Dizzy

gypsy,

Wondering how you made out today. Just wanted to say that I have had Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) too. It happens to lots of people. My eyes were not moving and I was dizzy lying down. The Neuro told me that the dizzy while lying down part was the clue. Usually with Nystagmus,when you lie down it is relieved. The getting up-part can trigger the vomiting.

The PT treatment was easy and it went away right away,although I was exhausted after the treatment. The PTcalled to checkon me later thatPM and said that the fatigue was not unusual. Haven't had a problem since.

Hope you are able to get some help,and let us know how you are doing.

[jumpinjiminy]

Gosh, I almost forgot, the other posts reminded me, if your neuro isn't a dizziness and balance specialist, you may want to check into that route as well. Mine was, and had an audiologist on staff that did all of the testing - BAER, VNG, etc. They at first thought I might have an acoustic neuroma or a viral infection of the vestibular nerve. But that didn't pan out with testing.

[James Currier]

I am new to these forums but am glad I stumbled across them now.
I have been dealing with "vertigo" for quite a while now. I blamed the neuropathy that came from Stevens-Johnson Syndrome as the culprit and just blindly did as the Neuro told me to, take more pills. I have been dealing with this "vertigo" since April 2011 and have had only minor relief from it. Lyrica helped but makes me swell like a balloon, Cymbalta was better but side effects are a no deal for me. Celebrex caused the SJS so nothing there. It affects my hearing, vision, balance, cognitive function and worst of all makes me so miserable no one wants to be near me. All I want is for this to go away and not to have these electrical shocks running through me with every move I make.
I am not sure if this is from the SJS and the damage it did to my skin/nerve endings or if this is from MS.. my Neuro said "You have a significant loss of white matter suggesting MS but I am not convinced"
Currently seeking a 2nd opinion on my symptoms and history.

[Citlalli]

Physical Therapy for Vertigo

Gypsy, I've had pretty long bouts of vertigo (weeks at a time) including this past summer and much of September.
The best help came from physical therapy, which I started to deal with coordination problems. To my surprise they diagnosed poor balance that I wasn't even aware of, and also helped me realize that I was getting dizzier from certain normal eye movements that they retrained me to do differently. The change was gradual but fantastic. I had to do eye exercises that actually made me dizzier, but after a couple of weeks the process had rerouted my brain and now I can catch myself if I start looking at things the "old" way.

In a nutshell, it has to do with not sweeping your eyes from one thing to another as we naturally do, but looking first with your eyes and then with your head as you shift your gaze. The best advice I can give is to get some PT. I did not have crystals or Menière's disease or benign paroxysmal vertigo, just something to do with how my brain was processing things. I hope you find relief. Vertigo and dizziness are awful.

[jumpinjiminy]

Funny, every post I read in this thread brings back more memories of my consults with the dizzy doc. He related that your vestibular system is very amenable to treatment. It's one of the easiest systems to reorganize and retrain through different pathways. I would go for it. PTs are the pros that actually treat this beyond the meds the docs can prescribe. I don't recall if the audiologist did some of the retraining of the visual end of things, but do know they had a PT on staff that worked with the rest, if not all of it.

[LZMOM]

I went to the hospital for vertigo the last time and had numerous lesions. (they said too many to count) My pcp gave me mecclazine. I take a half a pill a day and it seems to work ok. (I am always dizzy) Just not falling down dizzy. I was falling down dizzy when I went to the hospital

Good luck, I hate being dizzy

Peace
LZmom