just wondering.....ive never been told viral Labyrinthitis....just virl inner ear infection. im going on 7 months and still feeling sensations of movement and lighthead. i know for alot on here thats your case too.

how do you get through this?

I think they are the same thing, but I also have been told that I had a viral ear infection and not labyrinthitis. I had the vertigo initially but it only lasted a minute and was not as severe as with labs. I then had sensations of movement for at least 6 months. Hang in there, you will feel better. Try to keep moving as this helps your brain compensate and make you feel better. The "average" time for labs that the doctors say is 6 weeks, which in my opinion is crap. It takes longer than that for most people. Vestibular suppressants like Dramamine are known to hinder compensation, but for me, taking it every once in a while helped take the edge off of it. It doesn't make me drowsy and it just gave me a bit of relief when I just couldn't deal anymore. I'm not saying you should take it, but maybe talk to your doctor about something you can take to make you feel a bit better every now and then when you need a break.

Has things improved at all over the last 7 months?

yes things are way better than before. i never had the spinning vertigo though in the start. docs say doesn't matter...or that i had it when i was sleeping and didn't realize it. are you all better now???

I am better now. It took about a year to really feel over it. For me I got better gradually and sometimes took a step back before I took a step forward. So all in all it took a year. But the six month mark is when I really new I was going to be fine, so those last six months were not that big of a deal.

My experience with this, like yours wasn't as extreme as what happens with labs. People get dizzy for hours or days, and then slowly recover. We both didn't have such dramatic experiences (not that what you are going through isn't bad enough). It very well could be that the vertigo happened while you were sleeping. Regardless, the inner ear is where your balance is, so whatever is going on is probably from there. Have you gotten an ENG test to test the function of your vestibular system? You might ask your doctor about that.

You are improving and that is what matters. Keep active as best you can, and one day you will feel fine. Good luck!

thanks for the comments. makes me feel alot better. hope your doing well

Joy that is awesome that you have fully recovered.I have had this 8 months and was hanging around 98% the last month until I got a fierce cold last week and dropped to like 50%.It knokced the back out of me and I was feeling very depressed.Like you I didnt see much improvement till month 6....and have been getting better, bad and good weeks naturally.I really hope I will be over it around the year mark like you.

Well done it must feel quality to feel normal....oh how I miss it!!

Dizzyrascal-
You will be fine. Even though you feel like you are 50% worse (and I know how scary that feels), you will bounce back A LOT faster. I went to San Diego a couple weeks back. i drove there, and when I got out of the car after driving for 8 hours,I felt like I was back where I started a year ago, all screwed up. I was so fustrated. When I finally got back home after another 8 hour drive back, I bounced back in a couple days. I really didn't think I would get back to normal that fast, but I did. As time goes on and your brain gets used to compensating, it will do it faster and faster. So even though a nasty cold will cause you to feel lightheaded, woozy, and dizzy, plus any other pleasant symptom you get from your poor ears, it will get better faster.
Just hang in there.
Joy

Thanks Joy for your support

Its just so frustrating and depressing as I was feeling like 98 % for a few weeks and Im back to work tommorow feeling 50%, just like when I stopped working.I really hope I can throw this junk soon... I feel like I have done 'my time'!!

Cheers once again and hope you are feeling very dizzy free.

Oh yeh Comeandrelax....dont worry ....like me your bad patch will end and you will be better again.Being at our age I know how difficult this is....I just wanna enjoy my early 20's!!!

I pray for the recovery Subs has had....4 years with no dizziness in June....Imagine that!!!!!!!

Totally understand being young and not wanting to deal with this. The first time I had this problem I was 24. I'm 28 now, and even though I had another spell of this crap a year ago, I'm better now. Realize it's temporary. I know it's hard, and that wasn't much consilation to me when I was feeling bad, but try to remember it will pass. Especially since you did your time, you will feel better faster.Try to take vitamin C, wash your hands, and head the other way when people sneeze. Unlike the normal population who gets a cold for a week, we suffer much more if we decompensate.

Hang in there. Let us know when you are feeling better, I'm sure it won't be long.
Joy :wave:

hey Joy- how have you been feeling lately?

I hope well

Jesse

I like this post. I, MUCH like comeandrelax, was hit with "something". With me, it was 50 weeks ago (not quite a year), but who's counting. The 2 Dr's that I went too both said 'viral innear ear infection". that was almost a year ago. I would have these LONG spells of feeling good (never 100%), but 70-95% at times, and other spells of feeling like crap (but never any real dizzy problems). I was never 'diagnosed' with anything other than that and when i told my doc that it was continuing after monts and wanted to get it checked wiht an ENT, he said it was "anxiety". He basically told me to try and forget all of this.

Its not working and i still feel messed up most times....

joyb

hey quick question....you said your last 6 months weren't as bad....did you still have bad patches in the last 6 months? im going on 7 and i thought i was getting better and now im going through a rough patch. im taking .5mg of xanax no more than once or twice a day and that seems to help make me get through the day

Yeah, i did have a couple of off times during that past 6 months.... It wasn't ALL smooth sailing, but it was much better!

anyone? is it the same?

i realize that im the one who started this thread......but after doing research and all i do believe that its the same thing. if you type in inner ear infection you get labs.

joyb

you siad you had this when you were 24? how long did it last then?

anyone? is it the same?

Yes.

And---"viral inner ear infection"---is also used for two other "inner ear" infections which are thought to be caused by virus---infections of:

The 8th nerve and that nerve root's entry zone in the brain stem

So:

Viral Inner ear infections--can be = to:

1. labyrinthitis--some times also called---neurolabyrinthitis

2. vestibular neuritis---some times called----vestibular neuronitis

3. brain-stem infarction involving the entry zone of the root of the 8th nerve

Depends on which part of "inner ear" the virus attacks, i.e., superior part of the vestibular labyrinth (horizontal and anterior semicircular canals and utricle), inferior part (posterior semicircular canal and saccule), brain stem 8th nerve root entry, 8th nerve..etc....

the exact mechanism of action by the infection(viral or bacterial) is unclear, it is thought that they act at the level of the neurotransmitters involved in the propagation of impulses from primary to secondary vestibular neurons and in the maintenance of tone in the vestibular nuclei

However--there are no well-accepted diagnostic criteria for these disorders---and---No major medical organization has proposed specific guidelines for their diagnosis and treatment--- because the pathophysiology is uncertain.

Welcome---to the "club"!!

P.s. intentionally did not include "Meniere's syndrome".

:cool:

did you intentionally not include it becasue its not the same??

did you intentionally not include it becasue its not the same??

--don't know any of the medical detail---about it---have no interest in finding out

---used to be a poster---Adam---I think---who was up on/into it---pretty deep.

:cool:

subs

hey....im going on 9 months and what im left with now is some strange eyes symptoms that kinda look like things move alittle when they aren't also still have off days here and there....how were you at 9 months? and how long did you have this for?

subs

hey....im going on 9 months and what im left with now is some strange eyes symptoms that kinda look like things move alittle when they aren't also still have off days here and there....how were you at 9 months? and how long did you have this for?

Hi

At nine months I was hung up--at abt 75 to 85% compensation---with a lot of unbalance---eye---probs.

Had it (Vn, then Lab, then BPPV) for about 14 months.

:cool:

subs

thank you for your replies. you give me hope that this will end soon. my biggest thing is worrying that this will never end or that i will have to live with this the rest of my life. i think i just need reassurance every once in a while

Hey guys,
I had this when I was 24 and it took me 6 months to really start to feel normal, but longer before the setbacks went away. i can't remember how long, but I'm guessing 8months to a year to really feel normal all the time and forget about it. But at the six month mark I could live my life pretty normally again.

This time it took me 6 months to feel better, but with the stress of school I think my brain is having a harder time adjusting because it's been about a year now, and I still have setbacks. I'm hoping due to school. Hopefully they will go away soon. I feel okay now. it's really on and off, but my off times aren't very long. Hopefully over time I will be as strong as I was before. I had four wonderful years of feeling normal and I'm hoping I can experience at least that again.

Joy

Me? I didn't get it when I was 24. I got it when i was 30. And it is still ongoing. About 14 months now....

joyb

did you do any VRT? or did you just try and stay active?