Fell, room spinning

[Lionore]

Fell, scared today! I was at my usual yoga session,on my back doing things with my legs and raising my torso. Suddenly the ceiling began to spin for a few seconds. Then when the instructor asked us to stand, the dizziness came back full force and I fell. No injuries or loss of consciousness but the dizziness continued, although lessened. A nurse took vitals, all normal. I had eaten a good breakfast and drank what I thought was sufficient water during the night and some with my med and supplements.

My partner brought me home and walked over to get my car. I await word from my neuro as to whether I should go to the ER. I am dr king potassium water in quantity.I sure hope that this problem can be addressed because otherwise I won't be safe to drive or do much of anything!

This dizziness occurred a year ago, no fall that time and Dr king water helped. Does anyone have any experience with this or suggested?

[Hikoi]

Check out your bp lying then standing. You probably have postural hypotension. Most common in pd.

[Lionore in reply to Hikoi]

Thanks, Hikoi. Well, I saw the neurologist and amazingly the problem is not PD related! I have BPPV which is an inner ear condition where the crystals are out of position. A few PT sessions in a specialized facility should fix me pretty quickly. As for the PD, he ordered a month long program of the BIG regimen, which he said is an intense exercise program for pwp's. I will start once the ear issue is resolved.

Worst part of the exam was his replicating the dizziness in order to diagnose. I felt like the whole world was spinning and was nauseous, ugh!

[Hikoi in reply to Lionore]

Good outcome! Thanks for the update.

[Catlou in reply to Lionore]

I have that too. It can b from hitting your head or just getting older. The crystals shrink and get loosened from the inner ear it is called positional vertigo. The therapist can adjust that and then you can do it yourself. You just need to know which side it effects. But in general they have you lay on the most affected side first for about 5 min till the spinning stops. This lets the crystals float out of the areas they are in - then sit up slowly and lay down on your opposite side till the spinning stops for at least 5 min and they are forced back into place in the correct spot of the inner ear. Make sure your head is Down, no pillow when you do this. It can be repeated up to 3 x. Good luck. Works for me.

[Lionore in reply to Catlou]

Catlou, your post is very encouraging! I do have to wait until next Wednesday for my first vestibular PT session although I did ask them to call if there is a cancellation. This morning I had some vertigo when I got up to go to the bathroom. I just sat on the side of the bed until it passed.

I am trying to relax and breathe deeply to not panic. Helps with PD too.

[Jwolfman614 in reply to Lionore]

Lionore,

I'm glad that they found the problem causing your dizzyness I have taken that exam for BPPV where they try to replicate your aura to get the crystals in your middle ear to trigger your dizziness - not fun at all.

They even unsuccessfully used a tilt table for me, but BPPV was not the issue.

I'm wondering now if my problem might not have been PD. But, no one thought to diagnose that. I'm 68 years old and was diagnosed with PD about 1 1/2 years ago.

What is the BIG regimen you mentioned?

--John

[Lionore in reply to Jwolfman614]

John, I looked up the BIG program online and couldn't find much. It is apparently similar to the LOUD program for pwp to regain proper voice function. Neuro said that it is very intense. I will update on this board once I get started.

Sounds like they misdiagnosed your dizziness symptoms. I hope that the PD treatment is helping!

[Jwolfman614 in reply to Lionore]

Lionore,

Thanks. I will watch for info about the LOUD program. I did some of that in my SPeech therapy. (Sort of sounded like the Nerd Wallet commercial you can see on YouTube). I cracked up when I first heard that and HAD to play it for my therapist. She loved it too.

But, I digress. I don't know if my lower volume speech was due to my head accident, when I broke my neck or my PD.

I know I used to have a "teacher's voice" so that for 42 years of teaching special ed. high school, I could get the attention of anything going on in my classroom.

The two events seemed to happen about the same time.

My speech therapist has helped me recover some of my vocal strength, by practicing vocal exercises, but it's not quite there yet.

--John

[hopedope in reply to Jwolfman614]

It is called LVST BIG and LVST LOUD. You can google the programs. I think you can find good information about the programs on the blogs "Aging, Parkinsons and Me" and "Journey With Parkinsons" too.

[Jwolfman614 in reply to hopedope]

Thanks for the information about the Loud program, hopedope. I'll check that out.

--John

[Lionore]

Thanks, Catlou! It is a relief to learn that a condition has a relatively easy fix, unlike PD!

Glad that you have learned how to treat yourself!

[Beckey]

Yes. I got "turned around," so to speak, while standing on a chair one day and suddenly -- kabong! I was on my back on the floor. It seemed to be a one-off experience, at least for the time being, so I continued to drive to school, where I take classes, and walk around campus, so far remaining vertical. I wonder, could it be you've got a touch of vertigo?

[Lionore in reply to Beckey]

Hi Becky, I do have vertigo which is the term that describes the symptoms, but there are many causes. My partner thought it was dehydration and he is continually reminding me to drink more water. Not the cause in this case but good advice anyway.

[JohnPepper]

Have you had your ears thoroughly checked out?

[Lionore in reply to JohnPepper]

Not recently although some years ago I had my primary doctor remove wax buildup in that ear.I will ask about seeing a ent doc if the PT doesn't work. Thanks!

[Jwolfman614]

Lionore,

I have had episodes of syncope, which is what it was labeled.

In the middle of my PT, without much warning, while sitting upright in a chair I started getting dizzy and the room was spinning. All I wanted to do was lay down.

The more I just sat there the more I wanted to get to the floor. My wife later told me I went ashen and threw up in a waste basket that was slid over to the therapist working on my neck.

She also told me that my eyes were tightly closed and I was delirious. When asked to open my eyes I responded "They are open." I could not tell anyone my name or the year or most anything I was asked. The squad was called, but none of the EMT's were able to get my blood pressure because of the increased intensity of my PD tremors (likely stress related, but I'm not a doctor to know.

Later after I got to hospital, my wife was told by my EMT's in the squad, that they still couldn't get my b/p and I continued to keep my eyes shut tightly and talk out of my head.

After a few minutes, (Don't know how long.) I was given IV fluids, blood and other tests were run without any concrete answers. (I'm sure I was dehydrated though.)

When I came to, I was confused about where I was, but started to become more lucid with time My b/p was now taken and considered low, but not so much as to be dangerous. After my IV fluids, the doctor talked to us about my meds and what I'd been doing prior to all of this. He asked if I'd eaten anything that morning. I had not, but now I eat a bagel and drink a protein drink prior to my therapy.

Although we didn't have a definitive answer for what happened, the doctor talked to us about syncope (fainting), but not much more. He asked if I wanted to be admitted or go home. I chose home.

Afterward, I made appointments with my GP and my Cardiologist to see if they could tell me me more about why this happened.

IMPORTANT AND MAY BE USEFUL:

My Cardiologist already had me taking MIdodrine 2.5 MG each time my b/p was low, but now wanted me to take it daily AND when it was low, take another one. I was also to chart my systolic, diastolic readings and pulse each day. So, I found an app that allowed me to do that. I already had a b/p cuff monitor. The app was very helpful, "HeartStar."

So far I've not had any more episodes of syncope. I've caught my b/p dropping, but responded successfully by taking MIdodrine.

I've also tried (unsuccessfully) drinking more water. Yuck! Tough for me to do, but really dislike the artificial sweetener used in flavored waters. However, I take it with me to therapy and try to drink it there.

Anyway, ask your doc about Midodrine to see if that might help.

--John

[Lionore in reply to Jwolfman614]

Wolfman, my bp was normal immediately following the fall and I didn't lose consciousness, fortunately. I wasn't a fan of plain water either. I used to drink diet soda and ice teas but I now consider water to be medicine and force myself to drink plenty. I am trying to down a big glass before eating anything at mealtimes. Good for you to start eating breakfast!

[Jwolfman614 in reply to Lionore]

Yeah, Lionore, that's a unique attitude about water.

I'm doing better. I'm trying to find out information about infusion too.

However, eating at least something for breakfast is keeping me upright for now. lol

--John

[Lionore in reply to Jwolfman614]

I am so glad that you recovered from that frightening event!

[kz59]

Hi, Try not to be frightened. It probably has nothing to do with Parkinson's. I get it now and then, out of the blue. The doctor said that it was positional vertigo. It's very common, unfortunately.