 Unexplained tinnitus, dizziness, nystagmus - Any suggestions?
I am trying to help find an explanation for my father. He is 61 and has had the following symptoms:
* extreme dizziness. It starts when he gets out of bed in the morning and gets progressively worse. There are times he has to stop what he is doing bc his eyes are bouncing up and down so bad. He was diagnosed with downbeat nystagmus, but the doctors have not been able to find a cause.
* Tinnitus
* Bouncy vision
* Blurry vision
* Intermittant double vision
* He still surfs and finds that his symptoms do affect his balance when surfing, but other than that and some balance issues from the dizziness, he has no balance problems
* Maybe a little short term memory loss
* Some forgetfullness
* Some mental and/or physical fatigue out of proportion with his acitivity
* Left knee arthritis
* some shoulder issues, which he feels are not related to his other symptoms...rotator cuff problems that wil require additional surgery
He does not have:
* Vertigo
* Hearing loss
He has been to his primary care doctor, a neurologist in Edison NJ; a neurologist, ENT, and one other doctor at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. He has had several MRI's, balance chair tests, hearing tests, posturography/platform test, MRA (?), blood work done. All have come back normal. As I mentioned, the only thing the doctors can diagnose is the downbeat nystagmus. They have also ruled out Meneire's disease, and did not see any abmornalities on the MRI, including acoustic neuroma.
He has tried a few medications such as klonopin, phenergan, and one other anti anxiety medication, all of which have not helped at all. He takes a multivitamin every day, B complex supplement and I think a magnesium supplement. He has become more and more depressed, frustrated, and anxious with a lack of explanation for his symptoms, which have gotten progressively worse over about the past 5-7 years.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what he might try next?
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