Hi guys,

after 2 years of feeling good, started to feel "spacy" again last week, doc said that the right eardrum was bulging outwards and she could see clear fluid behind it, and the left one was a little bit.

went back 2 days later after taking sudafed and she said left one was normal and right one was about 1/3 less bulging but she could still see fluid.

seeing a ENT guy on monday and currently taking sudafed, beconase and doing steam inhalation, a sort of 3 pronged attack.

question is if i hold my nose and close my mouth and blow gently i can feel eardrums move, which suggests that tubes are open. but it takes a little more air pressure to make right one go.

if i can open tubes how can there be fluid? how long does fluid take to drain in this situation ? is there a norm?

I have no pain and no infection and still feel just as "spacy" which manifests itself as a lack of confidence that I can balance etc, so tend to walk slowly everywhere, but balance actually seems fine, weird huh !

interested to hear other peoples experiences relevant to this

regards

elpirata

I suggest eating raw garlic (the best antibiotic) and snorting a mug of warm salt water twice a day.

hey guys and gals,

just been to see an ENT sepcialist today and he said eardrums were absolutely fine and he confident that I have mild BPPV, and is going to do a brainscan tomorrow (to rule out tumour) and the epley manoever on saturday, and he says that most of the time that wil fix it.

he said that my classic symptoms were a fleeting disoriention when turning in bed in the dark and the general feeling of the brain often feeling like it takes a fraction of a second to work out the head position.

he seems so certain I hope he is right, what have peoples experiences of the epley been ?

regards

elpirata

Hi There
I have had BPPV, not a mild case! Extreme vertigo initially even with small head movements, slowly got better (weeks) and only had 5-10sec spins with a larger head movement....then found out what I had. I did the MEP which is the modified epely you can do on your own at home (it took so long to get into the ENT that I ended up figuring it out on my own). After the first day of doing the MEP three times, I was vertigo free! Hasn't come back in 18months. At the time the GPthought I had another case of labyrinthitis which I had gone through two years previous to the BPPV attack, but in the acute stage I can see why, it wasn't evident that head position was related to the dizziness until it got a little better).
Once the crystals are out of the canal where they are sending your brain the wrong message about your position, you will find that you may still feel a bit foggy initially. I still have some episodes of lightheadedness and brain fog, especially when overtired or stressed. But if you have a mild case you may find that once you get the epeley done you will be right as rain.
I would be interested to know if your doctor wants you to sleep reclined at 45degrees for the first 48 hours after he does the repositioning or if he wants you to just move around like normal. I slept semi-sitting for a couple of nights and have slept on eithe my back or right side since. (bad ear up) Is your doctor sure which side the BPPV is on? That will determine how the epely is done.
Good luck with it all and let us know how it turns out...
FC