Okay, I was diagnosed with labyrinthitis right after Memorial day weekend. The first doctor I went to diagnosed it as vertigo and said it should go away within a week. It didn't. It subsided by the time I saw a second doctor who told me it was labyrinthitis. He told me it could go away and come back and from my Googling, I discovered it could take weeks to months to go away.

So, the dizziness went away but was replaced with a sever level of disorientation and anxiety and occasional tinnutus (which is happening more often the less sever the other symptoms get). I kept convincing myself I had a brain tumor or had a stroke because my left hand was starting to go numb as well. I was also getting facial tension and some other odd, minor symptoms.

Now, here's the thing. How do you get labyrinthitis? I'm only 30 and to be getting something like this just seems odd. Another question: How do folks with no health coverage deal with this? I currently don't have any as I quit a stressful job at a time I thought I was getting better and I probably won't have it for months. So I can't confirm if I have a vestibular lesion or what not. Subs provided a doc which gave me some exercises to do.

I seem to be getting slowly better after dealing with this for months but I want to make sure that lack of medical attention won't lead to any long term problems.

Hi digizen

Sorry to hear about your troubles. To answer some of your questions, laby can be caused by a virus called Epstine Barr (sp?) and although the infection itself goes away, you can be left with vestibular damage that can take forever to go away.
I’m curious about your facial tension and arm numbness. Have you thought about TMJ disorders? That’s what I have. You laby. may have triggered it some how. Unfortunately, I can’t help you with the coverage question but I think if it is laby casing all of your problems it will eventually go away on it’s own. It will just take a lot of time.

Take care

Anastasia

It certainly seems to be taking it's own sweet time http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif Thanks for the info and support. The Epstein Barr item was particularly interesting, especially since I seemed to have had a number of colds this past year. At firs I thought a lot of this was stress induced as it has been a lousy year and a half.

Thanks again!

Labyrinthitis:


commonly called vestibular neuritis, although other terms such as "vestibular neuronitis," "labyrinthitis"..


....."The syndrome of acute, prolonged vertigo of peripheral origin is commonly called vestibular neuritis, although other terms such as "vestibular neuronitis," "labyrinthitis," "neurolabyrinthitis," and "unilateral vestibulopathy of unknown cause" have also been used.3 The vertigo typically develops over a period of hours, is severe for a few days, and then subsides over the course of a few weeks. Some patients can have residual nonspecific dizziness and imbalance that lasts for months. The condition is thought to result from a selective inflammation of the vestibular nerve, presumably of viral origin. The facts that the disorder often has a viral prodrome, that it occurs in epidemics, that it may affect several members of the same family, and that it occurs more commonly in spring and early summer all support a viral cause.3 Postmortem studies have found atrophy of the vestibular nerve and the vestibular sensory epithelium that is similar to the pathological findings with known viral disorders of the inner ear, such as measles and mumps.4,5 Several viruses selectively infect the labyrinth, the 8th nerve, or both in animal models.6,7............"

Remember from a medical point of view it is a "syndrome". Go here:

http://www.medical-journals.com/r03vn.htm

I've had Lab for almost 3 months now. Really bad for the first 3 days (bed only), able to walk around after that. Back to work after 2 weeks (which unfortunatley all I do is stare at a computer), but that's been ok.
I'm pretty thankful for that at least.

Anyway...a question: When doing sports/exercise, I typically find that 6 hours (well 4-8) after I exercise, I get dizzy again. This usually will not go away until I wake up the next day. I definitely feel slower after that too the next day. I'll sit out for 2 weeks or so, and then repeat the whole ordeal. Do others experience this repeated dizziness from exercise? SHOULD I be doing exercise like this to learn to compensate or should I just be resting? How long have others had similar experiences?

Thanks for any replies! http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/smile.gif

Matty

Hi, I have just discovered this forum and signed up. I have had this labyrinthitis now for three weeks. My Dr gave me pills for the dizziness and anti inflammatory pills which haven't helped much. He now says that he's surprised it hasn't gone away and has given me valium which helps a lot but I'm still dizzy most of the time.
When I walk about 100 yards I have to stop for a rest because I fel exhausted and get to the point where I want to faint. He's also given me an ECG and blood chest as well as chest X Ray which showed some enlargement of my heart. Occasionaly I get a nasty feeling like my heart is pumping too fast and then a rush to my head and extreme dizzy sensation. No spinning though just like I want to faint with blurred vision. Any kind of stress seems to make it worse, I guess that's how the valium is helping.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? I haven't met anyone else who has had this thing and I appear fit and healthy. Three weeks ago I was swimming over 500 metres a day and felt great. Now I can't even walk to put out the garbage and for a 48 year old man, I feel like an 84 year old! Do other people also get such a loss of energy with this thing? Does the L. really have such an effect on the circulation and heart as my Dr. has suggested?


Dizzy Dave (Hong Kong)

Matt, Hi there. Doing some sort of excercise is definitely a good thing to help your brain to compensate. However making yourself feel really bad and then doing nothing for two weeks is probably not th best way to go about it. I would say that cutting down what you do - even if that just means taking a brisk walk, but being sure to do this once or twice every day would be a better approach. The other thing that might be worth looking into is vestibular rehabilitation, a special series of exercises designed specifically to aid compensation which you do several times per day. Ask your Dr about it, Good luck.

Dizzydave, sorry you're feeling so worn out all the time. I have definitely been more tired than usual since I have had this but yours does sound a little extreme. You mention you have had various cardiac tests but you don't say what the results were, also are they investigating why your heart is enlarged?. I would find out what is happening from this perspective, any kind of cardiac dysfunction may account for your exhaustion and be contributing to your dizziness. Look into it, and I hope you feel better soon, xx

Hmmm, I'm kinda wondering about this too, but I don't have all the symptoms, just dizziness when rolling over in bed.

Mine started about a week ago. Just suddenly one night I rolled over onto my left side and ... suddenly the room started to spin and I had a falling sensation. The spinning would stop after about 6-10 seconds, but since then, every time I roll over in bed, the spinning episode would happen.
I feel pretty normal during the day and rapidly turning my head doesn't result in any dizziness or spinning.
I thought it was simply a bad pillow that was cutting off circulation, so I bought a new one with down and duck feathers, but I am still experiencing the spinning just after rolling over.

I've always had poor balance since I can remember (can't walk to the edge of a roof without falling toward the abyss) but the new dizziness seems out of the norm.
I've considered the possibility of household mold infections/virii, because I've been renovating our old house during the summer and started having some eye pressure problems for a week or so (which cleared up eventually), but now the dizziness in bed.
I have been to the dentist about 2 weeks ago and had 5 fillings put in in one visit. Those are hurting a lot when I drink water or anything not at body temperature. The thought occured to me that my dental visit may be connected with the dizziness, but it's pure speculation.

I also wondered if it was due to sleeping too long. During the holidays, I was sleeping 12-13 hours a day, since I didn't have to go to work last week. So I thought it might be a symptom of oversleeping. Who knows... This stuff is a mystery and even if I can find out what causes it, I'm not sure I want to know!