Vertigo....Please, Please Help!

[1Freebird]

I have done a search on here for vertigo but I can't post right from the search so I am sorry if I posted this in the wrong area.

I have been experiencing vertigo for about 12 years now and the first time I got out of bed and hit the floor. The room was spinning. Since I have suffered sometimes daily with unsteadiness and disequalibrium. Just like sea legs and other times positional like rolling over in bed. I have been to now just today the third ENT and this one specializes in vertigo. All other MRI and Cat Scans have turned out just fine. Hearing and vestibular just fine, I have seen an endocrenologist and a nurologist and they could give me nothing. I don't drink alcohol anymore and cut out caffeine thinking that may be contributing. I am at the end of my rope! This last week has been terrible and I don't know what to do!

This time the MRI was done with contrast so I am hoping it turns up something. Something fixable. I have heard that anxiety can cause this as well but it seems that my anxiety is due to my vertigo. When I am not feeling dizzy I function just fine. Has anyone suffered the same type symptoms as me or know someone who has and can offer any helpful advice? Like I said it seems it is daily for the most part but 4-5 days can be really bad!

I eat meclizine like candy and have been given valium in the past and the valium helps supress it some but it still is not tolerable. Can anxiety cause something like this? Like I said I don't know what my next step is? Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated!!! Thank you!!!

[hermes370]

sounds like you have had a pretty significant work up ... your imaging will pretty much r/o MS, any vascular lesion although gado with the MRI or contrast with the CT would help, mass, clot, brain stem lesion, middle/inner ear mass/lesion/hemorrhage; and I can imagine that they worked you crazy for any possible vasculitis(ESR)/neuropathic(like lyme/B12/TSH/hgba1c/SPEP/amyloid)/infectious(syphillis) process ...

do you have headaches associated with the vertiginous feelings(did your neurologist think any chance that you have some type of basilar migraine) ... do you notice the sensation only when you position your head in any specific direction(suggestive of some positional vascular compression, have they done CT/CTA of posterior circulation or ultrasound of you neck/posterior circ)

other ?'s .. sounds like this is real "vertigo and not "syncope" .. you don't have "fainting" spells, no reported seizure like activity ... any other health issues or meds that could be contributing ...

cause if your work up has been as extensive as it sounds, I expect you be "slapped" with the diagnosis of idiopathic vertigo; the only thing I can suggest is that you go(if you already haven't) to a larger academic center where you may find a "world's expert" ENT/neurologist on vertigo

best of luck ...

[jcjwillis]

Dear 1Freebird:
My father had also suffered from vertigo when he changed positions and it was found out to be a sudden drop of blood pressure when he would rise from sitting or laying down.

My husband also suffered from vertigo and he was found out to have an inner ear problem.

You might want to have these checked out a possibilities.

Hope this helps.

[1Freebird]

Thanks for your responses. I do have migranes but not associated with the vertigo. I can go 6 months without a migrane or other times only a month. When I have the migranes I can only see parts of things it affects my vision. I have had my blood pressure checked when rising and sitting and that was not the case. Like I said it seems mostly constant always an uncertainty of my steps and in reaching for things. Sometimes it is positional and that is when it is bad and the room will spin but most of the time it is foggy mind and hard to communicate because of dizzyness and just sea legs a disequalibrium. I am not sure of the vasulitis part, I know they had me do tread mill tests with dye in me. Last year I had surgery for (around) my heart because I had an extra pathway that would cause my heart to race so they did an ablation and got it out. I had that problem since I was a kid and they always told me it was anxiety until I started passing out. I was hoping after getting the ablation done that miraculously my vertigo would disappear but no such luck! I am not sure about all the other things listed like lyme or HGbalc or amyloid I will have to do a search on all of those. I am sure I have not been tested on any of those. Can lyme stay in your system like that for years? I even had a TMJ specialist make me a mouth piece to wear at night thinking it was TMJ. I even though about my mercury fillings...etc...etc. I do have severe sleep apnea but sleep wiht my machine every night and it seems to help for the most part. Like I said I do not know what to do next. My ears feel full and it seems I have to yawn to clear them out but every test shows everything is ok???? I can only hope that the MRI with contrast will show something different then the MRI I had done with out contrast. Please keep any ideas coming! I truly appreciate it!

[sheriff56]

It does sound like an inner ear problem, have you checked out the inner ear message board there are a lot of people with the same symptoms as you.
J