Vertigo!

[Gran4z]

I planned to do a Parkrun last Saturday, but vertigo struck. My world just kept spinning and no, it wasn't a hangover! Took hours to pass. Sunday was ok, no vertigo...but Monday morning, nice day, coolish - great for a run, but no the vertigo was back. I felt like I was on a boat in the middle of a raging storm, unable to stand, unable to balance. It is so frustrating, it's not a strain or a sprain this time to stop me running, just my own little world spinning out of control. Has anyone else experienced this vertigo thing, and how did you/do you cope?

[Tbae]

Worst thing I have experienced in my life.

Turned out to be an inner ear infection, spinning sensation and vomitting uncontrollably.

Permanent loss of hearing one side.

Pleased to say it was not diagnosed as BPPV or Labrynthritis, or a chronic condition.

Cannot help from personal experience.

But loads of help, knowledge and procedures to improve situations.

Have not looked but I would have thought there will be a community on here.🤔

It’s complex and it requires ENT specialist input.🤔

Hope you get the help you need.👏👏

[Gran4z Graduate in reply to Tbae]

Thanks Tbae, sorry about your hearing loss. I will explore the Unlocked site, didn't think of that. Good advice. Fingers crossed its done with. Again, thank you. Luckily no vomitting! 🙃

[Runningnut]

I get the dizzy 😵 spinning, vertigo feeling all the time, my life constantly feels like a storm in a tea cup-it’s knowing the feeling of reaching land through the storm which keeps me going....

[Gran4z Graduate in reply to Runningnut]

Oh Runningnut that's terrible, how do you manage to run while the world goes round? I couldn't even stand. Do you get any respite?

[Runningnut in reply to Gran4z]

Well-I actually fainted at he gym once lol, so I would say just take it easy, I would say try and still yourself and look and ask for inner strength from where ever you may find it.

[Hidden]

I'm so upset this happened to you. Vertigo is hellish!

There is this strange head swinging exercise you can do that resettles the crystals in your inner ear. It looks a little wild, but it might work for you.

[Tbae in reply to Hidden]

Exactly what I was trying to remember.

Not nice for the patient, induces the condition but is the solution for some.👍👏👏

[Gran4z Graduate]

Thank you 365893, yes it's definitely no nice! My daughter was describing those exercises to me today...bizarre, but if it happens again I'm definitely going to have a go. Fingers crossed I'm done with the vertigo...I don't have time for it 🙃😎

[Razouski]

I know that feeling. I suffer dreadfully from vertigo after having sudden hearing loss and chronic vertigo three years ago, had the whole room spinning thing for weeks and am now permanently and profoundly deaf in one ear. I also have tinnitus and hyperacusis. I had damage to my inner ear probably caused by a virus. Tbae it sounds similar to your experience.

I have BPPV so have had several sessions of the Epley manoeuvre to try and shift the crystals back to where they should be. It works for a while. I also have labrynthritis. I've done lots and lots of VRT exercises to help retrain my brain, and managed to learn to walk again as to begin with just walking was pretty impossible.

Because my brain is now reliant on vision and other senses for balance I get challenged by changes in lighting and changes in floor sensation. This means that changing from a hard surface to a soft surface (grass, sand, gravel, thick pile carpet) can send me into a wobble at the least and a room spin at worst). Going into the dark is a problem and the sun coming out suddenly can set me off. Head movements up or down set me off, and things moving fast in my peripheral vision can also be a trigger.

So running can be quite challenging. I have fallen quite a few times, but most times know to anticipate when I'm likely to find it difficult and have managed to either stop and crouch down, or cope.

Originally I was prescribed stemitil and sturgeron, but they didn't make much difference. I've had a fantastic ENT team at Addenbrookes hospital, and the latest suggestion was to drill out my inner ear (only offered as a solution as I have already lost my hearing in that ear), but I wasn't happy to have this procedure as there was a chance I could end up with facial paralysis, and although it would stop the hyperacusis there is a possibility it would make my tinnitus worse !!!

If I were you if the symptoms persist I would get it checked out by an ENT. If you've had any hearing loss then it's essential you get to an ENT as soon as possible. My GP didn't refer me for over a week and although I received the treatment (steroid injections through my ear drum into my cochlear) it was too late and I was told it should ideally have been done within 48 -72 hours of the deafness occurring.

I do feel for you. I ended up giving up work because I was a liability in the classroom: couldn't hear the children, fell over if I looked up from a child's work to check the rest of the class.

I love my running because it helps me manage my tinnitus even if I have had some nasty falls (broke my thumb and got covered in nettle rash not so long ago). You just have to be careful how you go.

Hopefully you'll be lucky and find this is just a passing thing, but it's really worth going to GP and asking for a referral to an ENT if he/she can't give you the reassurance you need.

Good luck with your running.

[Runningnut in reply to Razouski]

I get this weird sensation when I lift on the incline leg press it me as if the pressure of the cavities in my body and in my head push out and I get like a shell shock sensation described by video games and real life you know that ringing in your ears 👂 it’s as if everything goes so quiet or so loud that it’s either deafening or I can’t hear as well-a very odd sensation but I love it none the less hehe 😜

[Tbae in reply to Razouski]

I have said this to you before, you are absolutely amazing.

You have unfortunately had to become an expert in such a complex area.

How you manage to run at all is incredible, but at your very fast pace all the way through from 5k, 10K and HM. WOW you are just inspiritational.

As a detail thankfully on the one and only incident I have experienced, I felt that I was spinning , not the room.

But it is such a helpless and frightening experience who knows.

Any sign of anything linked to that gets my immediate attention.No one can afford to wait and see in my experience.

I have too many problems on my right side,complete loss of central vision,some hearing, trigeminal neuropathy, loss of facial feeling.

Just been yesterday for a facial X-ray and waiting for my dentist to decide how he is going to proceed to alleviate the pain I am containing in my top left side of my jaw and teeth.

This stuff can get complex with age so do not wait, keep getting stuff sorted is what I say.

Was thinking more gran4z’s situation and not to scare her and not yours at all.

Completely appreciate your situation Mrs Raz., which I can partially empathise with you.

Wish I could run as fast as you though.👍👏👏

Your an absolute star.💥🏃‍♀️💥💪🔥💨

[Gran4z Graduate]

Thank you so much Razouski for your very full response. You have certainly been through it, yet you manage to run and you're a graduate too. You're amazing. Must have been tough giving up work.

Don't blame you for not wanting your inner ear drilled out, sounds horrendous, as does a steroid injection through the eardrum.

If it persists I will see my GP, and in the meantime I guess I might just have to learn to manage it. And after your account of everything you've been through and are still coping with, I will have to stop feeling sorry for myself.

Well done, a big high five to you 🌻

[Tbae in reply to Gran4z]

Get the reassurance you need that this is not going to be a chronic condition.Waiting times can be many months to see specialists ENT and others, hopefully it settles down, but I would personally still attend an appointment when it comes round, even if you do not have a reoccurrence.🤔👍👏👏

Reassurance on this stuff is everything.Inaction is not an option.🤔👏👏.

Funny I remember going to an ENT specialist after 2 years of frequent unexplainable nose bleeds and around 5 visits to GP’s, first question he asked, why have I suffered this and not come sooner.🙈 I rest my case.🙈😂😂

[Gran4z Graduate in reply to Tbae]

Ok Tbae, wise words - I will heed your advice and try to get an appointment with my GP. I tend to advise others to see the doc. but never follow my own advice! Last time I did that, when I did eventually see a doc., I had 4 cracked ribs diagnosed...I thought I had a soft tissue injury! 😂

[Tbae in reply to Gran4z]

What are you like.🙈😂😂💥🏃‍♀️💥

[Gran4z Graduate in reply to Tbae]

It's being a wretched nurse (retired), always know what's best for others, never for myself! But you Tbae, how do you manage? Another truly inspirational person right here in this forum. Saw triage nurse this afternoon, if not right by Thursday she will get me into see a GP as I'm off to Canada on Monday.

Determined to do a Parkrun either in Vancouver or Victoria 😀, with or without vertigo 😂.

Thank you so much for you advice and support, really good to have some people making me do the sensible thing, i.e you and Razouski.

Happy running 🐎

[Tbae in reply to Gran4z]

Your a star.🌟👏👏

Great take care of you and have a lovely holiday and run.

My daughter is in the same profession as you and she has the same mind set as you.

That’s the caring profession, courageous, and angels.💥🏃‍♀️🌟💥

[Razouski in reply to Gran4z]

It's been good having something to aim for, and the running started as a result of a personal trainer I had a couple of years ago while recovering from breast cancer. I said I couldn't run... never had (even as a child) and wouldn't be able to because of my balance issues. But the seed had been planted, and when a friend started C25K I thought maybe I could give it a go. That was two years ago, and now I'm a 5K, 10k and half marathon graduate. I have more than my fair share of tumbles, and sometimes have to stop and sit down mid run while I wait for my symptoms to subside, but I really enjoy running so much.

It's amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it.

Good luck with the GP, and hope it's just one of those passing things.

[Gran4z Graduate in reply to Razouski]

You are a true inspiration, and I mean it - truly amazing. My current problem is nothing in comparison to your health history, and I'm sure mine is just a passing thing. Probably took my eye off the water intake and became dehydrated whilst spending a week running around (caring!) for my 6 year old grand daughter.

Thank you so much for your support.

PS I've just signed up for Ju-Ju's 10k adventure...have to do it. 🌻

[Ang33333 Graduate]

I had vertigo a couple of years ago. Doc gave me some tablets that settled it down within 24 hours. Haven't had it again since but have tablets if it does. Many causes most easily sorted. It was the most strange feeling! 🤢🤢

[Gran4z Graduate in reply to Ang33333]

That's interesting, Tbae has advised me strongly to see my GP, so with your added response, i' m going to do just that. Probably be a long wait, but never mind...best to get these things checked out. Happy running 🌻

[GoGo_JoJo Graduate]

My OH gets it now and then, usually if he gets dehydrated.

His can be fixed by the GP doing the Eply manoeuvre and actually he can sometimes acheive this himself.

Be warned it can make you vomit or damn near. Sometimes the fix is immediate and sometimes it takes a few hours for things to go back to rights 👍

[Gran4z Graduate in reply to GoGo_JoJo]

I did think dehydration might be a contributing factor after all this heat and all the running too. I'm quite water logged now with the added fluid intake. Lots of great advice flooding in - so to speak - thank you too for yours. Those manoeuvres sound complicated, my daughter told me about them...haven't tried yet, all is calm so far today. Hooray 🙃🙂

[Tbae in reply to Gran4z]

Not really complicated, Epley, but if your GP uses it, it is as a diagnostic test, they need to perform it or if referred to ENT specialist they will do it also.

Ongoing self practise is obviously only if they advise/ recommend you do it.👍👏👏💥🏃‍♀️💥

[Gran4z Graduate in reply to Tbae]

Ok, thanks for that 🌻