Hi Scott,

I sure hope things are settling down for you by now with going back on the SSRI.

I thought you might be able to help me with this: there was a gentlemen on the boards a while back that solved a lot of his dizzy related symptoms by watching his GI levels. I was searching and trying to find his name, but am getting a headache from the computer so thought it may be easier to just ask if you remember him. Do you know who I'm talking about? I thought you may remember him since this is all up your alley.

I saw my headache specialist this past Friday and from what I told him about my current symtpoms and the improvements I have made so recently (past couple of months), he thinks my CNS is de-sensatizing itself and I am moving along on the right path to recovery. I have to admit despite some bad days, better days are becoming more and more and I think my really bad days now are probably closer to what my better days felt like the last half of the second year. If that makes any sense. Still have bad anxiety creep up on me every so often and finding it hard to get ahead of the past. I have a tendency to dwell on what was or what happened and what I have gone through with doctors. I suppose time will heal that too. Still struggling with the tinnitus, but hbep's been a great help with that.

How's your study going?

Take care and hope you are feeling better this week.

Gloria

Hi Gloria,
Sorry for butting in on your post to Scott, but I wanted to say hello. It's good to hear you are moving along in your recovery. I think about you often, and wonder how you are doing. I'll keep positive thoughts for you and hope for a full recovery. Take care!
Joy

Hi Gloria,

Thanks for asking...I'm slowly crawling out of the dizzy pit again although I'm still a long way off from feeling as I did 3 months ago. It's as though I'm walking on very thin ice again. PC screens can still nail me but it's getting easier. There's no way I'd drive a car at the moment as it would send me into a tail spin. I'm hoping another 2 weeks should see things stabilising much more. No question though - this has been the worst dizzy crash since 2003. A real nightmare.

The person you are thinking about re the GI was Rick. He posts elsewhere too but I haven't seen him around for ages. Were you thinking of following the GI?

Glad to hear you feel things have improved. It's interesting to note that since having a diagnosis and feeling like things are on the right track that you have felt better too. I think we cannot underestimate the effect our own mind chatter has on recovery. It certainly supports some past studies I found where they found that those who believed they would be well again actually showed a significantly greater recovery rate than those who didn't. Dizzyandsad, I hope you really get that - it's very important.

The new study has not started yet but soon I hope. It will get me off PC screens!

Chat soon.....Scott :cool:

Yes, Rick. That is him. Thanks I thought you would probably remember.

My neurologist (headache specialist) really stresses keeping everything low key as not to disrupt my CNS and eating small meals 6 times a day (not anything that would increase my GI too rapidly) is very important and I'm beginning to think he is on to something. I've noticed things more recently and think back to the start of this. Someone had posted once about feeling better after they eat and I've noticed this myself as well as I've also noticed things when I eat too big of a meal or eat 3 meals rather than breaking it into 6 small meals. I've also noticed an increase in symptoms when I don't eat or don't eat enough. I was interested in reading about some of Rick's experience. I've read some things in that cookbook and it makes a lot of sense to me on how it would effect me with what I'm dealing with.

On top of it, I really need to drop some of the extra pounds I put on from this crap. I think dropping some of these foods that turn to sugar more rapidly in your system just may help. I'm probably not wording this all properly (in your terms), but I do understand it;).

I do agree and think it does help now knowing what I am dealing with and how to get better, but I also somehow think the klonopin was holding me back. (My doctor thinks it contributed to my symptoms too.) I noticed my pressure and headaches getting better only with coming off the klonopin and after 2 years (when I started reducing the klonopin) did I start to notice improvement.


I think also finally following things that will help my recovery is helping too (doctors recommendations).

I'm glad you are seeing some improvement. Scott, I really wonder about these SSRI's contributing to your symptoms. I know you feel that the Cipramil really helped you, but I just really wonder about what it is doing in your head. There were a few times when coming off the klonopin that I felt maybe I should just take a little more to get me through this but I am so glad now that I never did and the farther I get away from it the better I am. I know your healthcare system is different from ours and I have to admit that I am very lucky in the flexibility that I have, but have you thought of trying another headache specialist? I really wonder about some of the people on this board and their continual problems especially the ones who never had that initial true vertigo episode and maybe it isn't inner ear or migraine but something similar to what happened to me. There are so many things inside our brain that can go wrong. We really take our bodies for granted until something like this happens, don't we.

One last thing, I asked my doctor about why I get these weird inner ear symptoms like the buzzing, fullness, fluttering (which all have gotten better with time) and he said because that part of the injury hasn't healed yet. He said that in most brain injuries, it effects the auditory system. I did a quick search on this and sure enough, for some strange reason, people that have had a brain trauma (mostly physical injuries like someone in a car accident is what I've been able to find), they've reported all kinds of ear symptoms.

I'm crossing my fingers that things improve quickly for you. I'm sorry you keep going through these bad patches. I think you have paid your dues two-fold. Hopefully you can get off the computer work and it will give you time to rest. I find the computer puts a lot of strain on my eyes which causes more painful headaches especially aroung my eyes so I can see how it can create such problems. How are your headaches? By the way, I've been taking 400 - 500 mg of megnesium daily too so it may have helped me as well. I have found that by diverting my mind to something else when my headaches are bad (this I have just learned to do with time; you just sort of learn to live with the pain and how to ignore it some), my headaches actually get better. Must coincide with distracting my CNS (almost calming it) which is why the headaches feel better.

As for the driving, I never had a problem at all with driving. This is puzzling why some are bothered by it and not others. Almost would make more sense that it is VN for those with driving difficultly as it sparks something where as in my case, I was always just dizzy 24/7 like a weird drugged up feeling not moving or spinning and no bouncy vision just my weird crossed vision. Well anyway, I hope it gets better for you. Is the public transportation good there. I would be lost here without a car. I live in the suburbs and there are very few buses that come out this way and taxis cost a fortune.

Thanks for the information. It is late so I hope I didn't make too many spelling/grammer errors (lol). Take care of yourself.

Gloria







Hi Joy,

Thanks for the nice post. Always nice to have well wishes and they are coming right back at you. I feel stronger these days and feel closer to winning my battle than not, so that is a good thing. I still get some really bad days in between, but believe I will conquer these too. It would be nice to shed a few extra pounds as I use to be in good shape but I suppose right now, just beating this thing 100% is more important.

It is great to see you are still doing well....take care.

Gloria:wave:

Hi Gloria,
I'm doing pretty well (knock on wood). I'm really hoping that i can get back to where i was before... not feeling this inner ear stuff at all. I feel 100% most of the time, but I do have my blips pretty often. They don't last more than a few minutes (if that), so I'm counting my blessings and can live with this just fine!

It is interesting how when I was hit with this for the first time, I could recover 100% for four years and now over two years after my second bout of this, I'm having lingering symptoms. Nothing horrible or enough to really complain about, but interesting.

Take care and keep us all updated on how you are doing.
Joy