Hi, I really hope that someone can help me here. Around October I started feeling a way that I have never felt before. I was completely empty inside. I was living in a complete dream state. It was almost as if the real me was at home sleeping and I was walking around living life. I'm sorry this is really hard to explain...I'm trying. Anyways, I had no idea in the world what it could have been, but I fell short every time. Then in May I finally decided to go see a doctor, they sent me for a bunch of tests such as EEG, cat scan, ultrasound of my neck and as well for a bunch of blood tests. Weird thing is, is that they all came back NORMAL. This really scared me because I was really hoping that something would show up. Then I had just realized that my ears have been blocked for a while and I went swimming in October. I was fine the day I went swimming and this dream state only started afterwards. I finally went to see an ear specialist, he sent me for tests and as it turns out I have BLOCKED EUSTACHIAN TUBES. Although the doctor does not know if my dream state is the cause of this. PLEASE CAN SOMEONE HELP ME AND WHAT IS THIS DREAM STATE?!?!?!?! PLEASE. I cannot take this anymore, it is really hard to concentrate and I start school again soon after summer, I need this to go away. ANYONE, PLEASE HELP.

Hi there

I totally understand your worry. I have been feeling like you have for the past year. I feel like I'm not even here at times...and I know it can be so scary. In January I had some ear tests and it turned out I have peripheral vestibular disorder and E tube dysfunction. As soon as I mentioned the dream like feeling, the doctor knew straight away that it was inner ear related.

The blocked tubes you have could be caused by damage to your inner ear..which would definately explain the feeling you're having. Its exactly what I have....plus a whole other bunch of symptoms.

I hope I have helped in some way. Feel free to ask any questions...I'm here :)

Kelly
xxxxx

hey dream_state.. i have had the exact same thing for almost 5 years.. i also believe mine was from swimming.. no doctor i have been to has told me much of anything.. at least you know your eustation tubes are blocked (maybe mine are as well) did they say they could do anything about it????

Hi there...

I tend to agree that its your e.tubes that is causing this...doubt it would be an inner ear problem as you would have more symptoms inc intense dizziness. What you describe is prob coming from the middle ear. Have they suggested grommets? xxx

ya i have it too. we call it brain fog. it's like you've been drugged, sort of detatched from the wolrd. it drove me crazy for the longest time, still does sometimes. it gets easier. i started to ease up abit after about 9 months to a year of having it. now i can just ignore it.
no one really knows why we get brain fog. some people say its a sensory problem. since our brain can't trust the signal comming from our ears it simple shuts them off (that what my oto thinks happened to me). or the brain gets the signal but its screwed up and your brain has to take extra time to sort it out. you probably can't multi-task think anymore either or have an accurate time perspective. it does get better i promise!
what is your doc going to do about your e-tubes?

Hi everyone, thank you very much for replying. I just want to know if this is going to go away. I need to know that. It is driving me absolutly nuts. Its hard, cause I have been with my boyfriend for 3 years now and its hard to feel close and to love someone 100% when you're not 100% yourself. I need this to go away, if anyone has any suggestions? Im going to another ear specialist for a second opinion on the 25th and he went to harvard and is apparently amazing, hopefully he could figure something out. I'm TERRIFIED it'll NEVER go away! Please, just someone let me know this WILL go away, or am I doomed?
Thanks everyone.

i've had brain fog for 2.5 years now and although it hasn't gone away, its really not that bad to live with. i work 2 jobs, go to college and have a boyfriend, i can drink beer again, walk at night, etc. the trick is to take everything in moderation. eventually it will go away, it just depends on the person. you may recover tomorrow, or a year from now, or many years from now. the hard part is not knowing when it will happen. it's easier to adjust to it because then you can learn to ignore it and live with it. it no longer bothers me like it used to. i still have bad days where i feel like i'm stoned out of my face but they're easier to handle and not as long in duration. unfortunalty no one here can truthfully tell you it will go away indefinatly. it depends on alot of circumstances. you're not even a year into it so your still in the rough. i can't tell you it will go away but i CAN tell you it will get better. keep your chin up. you'll learn alot about yourself through this.

Hi anastasia, thank you for the reply. I know what you mean, it will get better, it just seems impossible at the moment. I had a friend who had a eustachian tube dysfunction as well when he was younger and he went to an ear specialist that he has just recommended to me and said that it went away, but he didn't have brain fog, or maybe he did, he was 3 at the time. guess I will just have to see, I am just happy that there is atleast someone else out that has the same thing that I do. Thank you for your help anyways.

Anastasia, sorry I didn't answer your question about what the doctor said about my e-tubes. The first doctor that I went to told me that I have to do exercises to make it go away, and these exercises include blocking my nose and mouth and doing in 10 times in a row, 6 times a day and he said that eventually it will unblock. So I don't know. Like I said before in the other message, I am going to see another doctor on the 25th and apparently he is really good. The first one made me feel horrible and told me I was over-dramatizing the situation. Anyways, I'll let you know what the next doctor says and did any of the doctors say your e-tubes will get better?
thank you for the replies.

hey anastasia, I wrote you back, just wanted to know what you thought.

hi, sorry i didn't reply sooner,

i have i have left periferal vestibulopathy but i also have minor damage to my right vestibulat nerve. mines not a tube problem, mine is permanent damage to my vestibular system from a virius what weasled by my immune defenses. my Oto said its like a freak accident of the body. that one in a million chance that my body didn't catch it in time. yeay me.

but i also saw an ENT too who made me feel like a drama queen. actually the first doctor i went to (not a specialist) said to me "if your not pregnant, then i don't know what your problem is!" doctors can be so cold sometimes. my ENT told me my problem was "stress". i agree, that was one of my problems. it was hard being 19 and having your life as you know it screech to a halt. it took me a year just to get a doctor who would listen to me.
i remember when i was first in healthboards (like 2 years ago) there was someone in here who had their tubes replaced after fighting with doctor to have it done, and when she did she felt 100%. i don't know if she's still posting once in a while. do a search about e-tube replacement in the boards and see what you find.

i totally understand your situation with brainfog! i'm used to it now. you'll either get used to it too or it will simply go away. from what i've been told, it very abrupt when you get better. i was at work last year and have about 3 hours of total clarity and it freaked me right out:)! it was too much at once.
i found it hard too to get close to my boyfriend when all of this first happened but he was great. he would sit on the phone and just let me whale about how much it sucked not to be able to go out anymore. we're still together you and your boyfriend will be okay too. my boyfriend used to read alot about people here in healthboards to help him get a better understanding of what i was going through. your bo should do the same. an inner ear disroder will affect alot of people. i'm confident you'll be okay :wave: let me know how your excersises are working out

Hi Anastasia, thank you very much for writting back. Yeah, well lately since I've been doing the exercices my ears have been popping and sometimes I get a headache that feels like needles in my head, its really weird. I had contacted my family doctor this week cause I needed a referral to see the new ear specialist that Im going to tomorrow and she asked me to explain everything that I was feeling and she told me that I should take Sudafed decongestant twice a day, one in the morning and the other at 5. I dunno, so far nothing has changed, but we'll have to see, things are sometimes a little clearer, but the brain fog is still there. I guess I'll have to wait and see what the new doctor says tomorrow. But as for replacing my e-tubes, I dunno about that, that scares me. First Ill see if it'll go away on its own with the doctors help and if it doesn't eventually go away then I guess I'll have to take more drastic measures. Thank you very much for responding, I feel better knowing that I'm not alone with this. So, thank you again very much. And I'll let you know what happens at the doctor tomorrow. :)

seach the web for an article called THE COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF A VESTIBULAR DISORDER. it was very good and explains why we have alot of these symptoms. (an e-tube problem can be very similar to a vestibular one)

hi Mel, no my symptoms are not as vivid as yours. I basically ONLY have brain fog. Lately I have been getting headaches but I believe it is due to the Sudafed I was told to take, so I am off of it now. When I was at the first ear specialist he had told me that it could be that, but there is no way of knowing for sure, but I just went to another ear specialist today and he is sending me for more tests such as allergy tests and another audiogram to test the pressure in my ear. It is driving me nuts and I need for this to away before I start school again. So I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. Also, I know what you mean about the high on marijuana feeling except less fun, cause that is exactly what I have, it's almost as if the real me is at home sleeping and I'm walking around in my dream. I dunno if this will ever go away, but i'll go to as many doctors as I have to until it does, I cannot keep living like this. About your anxiety, no I don't get any of that...there is nothing physically and mentally wrong with me, only the fact that I have brain fog, I mean when people talk to me, my friends especially they didn't even know anything was wrong with me until I mentionned it to them and even now they always forget. Lastly, I'm pretty stable most of the time, meaning that it's not as bad, but the brain fog never goes away, but there are days better than other. Anyways, I hope that I helped in any way. Feel free to write back:)

Anastasia,
Thank you for the article, I will look for it.

Hi Kelly, it's Nadia (dream_state). You had posted a message a while ago to answer my question. Thank you for replying and also I just wanted to know if you still have it (dream state), what are your other symptoms and did the doctor say that it will ever go away???? Sorry it took long to write back.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Thank you,
Nadia.

hey guys.. anyone gotten anywhere with the dream state, foggy head whatever you want to call it.. i've been thinking about going to see another doctor but am not sure as it will probably be a waste of time.. i would like to see if my eustation tubes are functioning right.. because when this came on a DR told me then that they were swollen, i thought it was an ear infection because at that time i had extreme dizziness, but he told me my ears were fine.. Should i just see an ENT or are there special DR's for eustation tubes..?

Hey Mel's Head, mine came one day out of nowhere and it is incredibly frustrating! What is more frustrating is that every test I have done has come back normal (EEG, Cat scan, blood tests and ultrasound of my neck)...hopefully you guys have better luck.
Thanks for the replies.
Nadia:)

hi all

soupyhead,
you should go see a doctor called a nuero-oologist, or otoneurologist or otolarygologist. its all the same thing but he/she is much more informed about the inner ear than an ENT. they will probably do what is called chloric test ot ENG to see if you have any nerve damage. they do a whole bunch of things. definatly worth seeing them!

dream state,
same for you. all of my tests in the first year came back normal. it was so frustrating. i was to the point that i was hoping it was brain cancer or siezures, just anything! at least if i had a diognosis i could work with something. i cired when my ENG came back saying something was wrong! i was so happy. maybe an otonuerologist would be better for you to see too. it couldn't hurt. you'll probably get better answers out of a better specialist. (i hated my ENT!)

did anyone manage to find that article?

Hey Mel's Head, I am actually going for allergy testing on wednesday. My ear specialist thinks that maybe I am allergic to something also. I guess I will have to see from there what happens. No I don't feel trapped in my own body, the only symptom that I have is the dream state aka brain fog and sometimes Im a little dizzy like yesterday and today, but that is it. I guess I'll let you know what the doctor says about the allergies on wednesday. Im thinking that its possibly chlorine since the last time I was in water was before this all happened. I guess I'll have to wait and see. Are you feeling better though being on the stuff that the doctor gave you for your allegies???
Thanks a bunch.
Nadia

Anastasia,
I know exactly how you feel. When I was told to do a cat scan and all those types of tests I was really hoping that just SOMETHING would come up and then we would work with that. It is a lot more frustrating when you have NO clue what-so-ever what it is. I guess the only thing that we could do is go from doctor to doctor until someone finally figures it out! If nothing comes up with the ear specialist on the 23rd, I will ask him to refer me to a neuro-otologist and then work from there. If that doesn't work...I'll probably just end up in the psycho house in a room with paded walls...lol. Well, take care and I hope you feel better. Thanks for writting back.
Best of luck.
Nadia

hi all again,
mel's head
OMG. where you said its like you trapped in your own body and freaking out is what tried so hard to tell docs, friends, fam, etc. it drive me nuts to the point where it felt like my skin was screaming! like you want to tear off small chunks of your flesh to escape or to breath. its awful! i also have an anxiety disorder (had it for years) that i think made this whole ordeal worse. but i KNOW how you feel.
dreamstate
i def think the otologist can help you more than an ENT. before all this started my left ear had swollen shut for about 2 months but i never went to see a doctor, i mean, what are they going to do for an ear infection right? it was shortly after the swelling had started to go down that i fell into this mess. i still didn't see a doctor for like 6 weeks and when i did they told me my e-tubes were retaining fluid and thats why i was dizzy, like you. when my e-tubes cleared i still felt like garbage thats where they started telling me i was a hypochondriac. if your e-tubes come back normal, you definately need to see an otologist to get it under conrtol! don't let the ENT try to tell you no. they tend to do that. just a heads up.

Anastasia,
Thank you for the advice. This message boards thing has opened my eyes to a lot of things and I am really happy that I found it. Atleast we don't all feel alone and we can talk about our problems freely without feeling judged.
Nadia

I just wanted to point out that nasal steroids dont usually work within 2 days. You have to take them continuously -- maybe a week or 2 and you will see improvmenet. so dont give up even if you dont feel 100% after 2 days.

anyone made progress with anything? i'm doing nothing at the moment.. not sure if i should see another dr. or what.. i will give st johns wort a try, i think a few said it helped?

Hey, no...no progress yet. But tomorrow I have allergy tests at the hospital. So I'll let you guys know what happens. :)
Take care.
Nadia

Hi guys, thank God for this board, I am new to this site, after reading Mel's head symptoms, i have the exact same symptoms. Mine I think developed after trying all sorts of herbal supplemensts, st. john's wort, ginko biloba, multivatmin tabs plus hemp seed oil, you name it after a bad vertigo experience. i dont know if that was due to lack of sleep, horrible cramps, i get up at 3:00a.m. every morning for some time now, so dont get much sleep at all. prior to this i have had constant lightheadedness, anxiety issues it all developed when my cousin passed away in january 05 from a brain anuerysym, i thought i was gonna die my self, i got the ocd issue, never had that before in my life, jus thought i would die like her! yeah but since that vertigo issue i have not been feeling the same weird, have you been able to figure out what is wrong with you?
Favoured

No, I don't know what is wrong with me, but I went for allergy tests and apparenytly I am allergic to my cat. Which makes sense because I only started petting her and playing around with her around the time that I started feeling this way. I had thought it was from when I went swimming, but I guess not. The allergy doctor told me it has to be something that is constant to make it stay this long. Im going back to the ear specialist on tuesday with all my results and hopefully he can help me and make this crap go away. But it's been pretty stabble for some time and all I have is brain fog. I don't have any other symptoms, except for blocked ears and a stuffy nose. DOES ANYONE KNOW IF IT WILL GO AWAY IF IT CAUSED MY AN ALLERGY???? I sure hope so.
Write back guys if you can.
Thanks.
Nadia

hi again
i think maybe the blocked ears as a result of an allergic reaction could give you brainfog...? just a shot in the dark. i mean, i don't think the allergy itself caused the fog, just one of the symptoms may cause another symptom, maybe, possibley? i'm curious. keep me posted. i hope it's something simlpe for you like an allergy

the feelings of emptiness and unreality and 'watching a movie' are all part of anxiety too, called 'depersonalisation' or 'derealisation'if your surroundings look unreal or flat,

:)

hey dream state i'm guessing its not from your cat.. but good luck!

yeah neither does my ENT...lol...he gave me a presciption for my eustacian tubes, but its discontinued. So...I have to wait and see what he gives me next, if nothing else works then he said that I have to put tubes in my ears. Lovely!...lol
Thanks for writting.
Nadia

Hi All, I too have been suffering from brain fog. I tell you what it sure is nice to know I am not the only one. Anastasia... Does it really get better? I have read some of your post and it sounds like it is possable. Sometimes it feels like I could have a drink but I get scared to. Buy the way my symptoms are brain fog along with pressure and popping in the ear and sinus cavity, although I have a diagnoses (sp) for the popping It is called palatal myoclonus. It is when the palat in my mouth flutters on its own. My oto. thinks it is caused by the stress of the FOG. It is an actual nurological dissorder such as parkinsons and epilepsy but is mainly caused by stress. I to have had alot of test and to no avail. so now I think I will go to the university here in seattle an hopefully get some results. I have had it since Jan 2005 and had no sign of it comming on it just hit me like a ton of bricks.Life is really hard but I have two beautiful boys an a lovley wife and together we will make it through. Also for all you sufferers of the Fog I know it is hard but I find if you keep busy it is alot easier to deal with. I know one thing also dont give up because it will pay off.

Hey everyone, I haven't been on in a while and I just wanted to let you all know what has been happening. Well I did take allergy tests and apperently I am allergic to my cat, but my ENT said that it has nothing to do with my brain fog. He has prescribed me an estrogen nose spray for my nose which I must take for 6 weeks, then stop for 2 weeks and then continue for another 6 weeks. But my brain fog has been getting worse since I started it. If my eustachian tubes don't get better then they said that they are going to put tubes in my ears. I don't recall who had told me before that they knew someone in the healthboards that put tubes in their ears and they felt 100% better. If anyone reads this and knows what Im talking about please reply.
Anyways, if anyone wants to reply please do so:)
Nadia
xox

P.S Larisa_80 is dream_state...I had to change my user name.
Sorry for the confusion...Ill try to get back to my other name.

I have a feeling that my tubes are closed also or clogged and this is the cause of my fog. Can you tell me how they diagnosed your tubes being clogged or closed?

i'm also wondering about my tubes.. let us know how things go larisa..

i just passed 5 years with brainfog 'dreamstate'......... anyone else that posted in this thread gotten anywhere.. i admit i havent seen any doctors or done anything to help myself in the last year or so.. i'm pretty much trying to live with it, as much as it sucks. almost like i'm wasting my whole life because i don't feel as i'm really here.

Hi Soupyhead---

Not feeling better yet either?? I've pretty much lost hope as well. My neuro-oto wants me to try Verapamil (going down the MAV route)--havent tried it yet, but will probably start soon--I dont have high hopes for it at all.
Flourescent lights have been bothering me more lately--do they bother you??

schao

sorry it took so long to respond.. bright lights have always made it a bit worse.. but please let us know of anything you do that might help.. i dont remember but how did yours start and how long have you had it schao?

I just woke up one morning and felt like this, never had any vertigo or anything. Ive had this for 7 years now. Im getting some more tests done b/c my ear doctor told me that if it was my inner ear causing this feeling, then it would be better by now, so I doubt if it has anything to do with my ears.

yea well when i initially got mine and got tested, they said my ears were fine also, and i had no ear infections or anything.. which i thought i had because it was REALLY bad for like 3 days, then it went away and i'm left with this 'dreamstate' if i had to guess i would say its something to do with eustation tubes.. but what do i know.

I feel the same way. Like I am living life in a thick fog. Almost as if part of my brain is asleep. It went away for a few months, but came back again a week ago. I feel horrible right now.

It is like I am there, but detatched from life. I really, really hate this. :(