Neck pain, dizziness, light-headed...help!

Ears, nose and throat
1

Hello,

The neckpain I have been experiencing for several years now (chiropractor helped but as of last year stopped helping my pain), the dizziness came on last fall and stopped me from going on my usual jogs. Then came the light headed feeling (yay, not!). I tried taking pain killers (Ibprofen), getting blood work done, cat scan, and all that jazz. Never had I seen my doctor so much or racked up my medical bill. I am currently seeing a phyiscal therapist for my neck pain (helping somewhat), but the dizziness continues. I am seeing an ear, nose, and throat specialist but they are booked until mid-May (another downer!). I am so beyond frustrated because people really don't get when I say "I have bad days and ok days". I can't even work out without feeling like I am going to pass out and I can hardly keep up with my daughter. I want myself back and the doctors are not helping and I just want to feel relief. Someone please enlighten me. 

2

Hey there Tiny,

Please use good judgement and seek PROFESSIONAL attention.  There are at least a dozen things the human brain can feel dizzy or light headed from, like: 

  1).   Vitimin B-12 defficiancy

  2.)   Water on the Brain

  3).   Ménière's disease

  4).   Labyrinthitis

  5).   Pinched Nerve

  6).   Vestibular Nerve damage

  7).   Imbalanced blood ph

  8).   Nystagmus

  9).   Lack of oxygen 

10).   Lack of quality sleep

11).   Sleep Apnea

12).   BPPV

and more I'm sure.

So, you know the routine, you have to go through all the resources and have things ruled out methodically, one by one.  It takes time and hopefully you will get a diagnosis befor you go through too many, so take heart and keep a positive attitude, but keep your appointments and seek referals.

In my case, after extended effort to reduce the dizziness, I didn't  believe my diagnosis, so I sought even more help.  I went for a 2nd opinion and now they have revised my diagnosis.   So stick with the program and keep on trying to get to the bottom of it......seek professional help.

Ben 

 

3

Thanks Ben,

I am going through the process of elimination right now but I am just becoming impatient as I have been dealing with this since last fall and it took my doctor a while to finally refer me to physical therapy and the ear, nose, and throat specialist. It is dificult to keep positive and no one around me seems to care nor have compassion-not that I need someone to feel bad for me but someone relating and understanding is nice. People think I am fine because they dont see what is going on on the inside. I am in constant pain and constantly dizzy. I do not have good days, but rather "ok" and "bad" days. 

If you dont mind me asking, what is your diagnosis? 

4

Hi Tiny,

I have the same thing as you nd I am going on yr 4 with it. Every day, all the time spaced out. I think it might be me scm Muscle which is in your neck. Do some reasearch on the SCM muscle, it could be your problem. I have been to a person that does dry needling ( another thing to reseach) It has not helped much yet but I hear it can help if that is your problem.

5

Hi Tiny

Sorry to hear you are suffering in this way.  I understand what you are going through but I am fortunate that those close to me have been completely understanding and supportive. I've also have excellent support from the medical profession. It is important that people try and understand your condition and it might help them to do that if they could read some of the experiences of people on this Forum. I can also understand how confusing it can be for people.  The problem with this type of condition is you could be out and about looking great one day and the next day you feel like you are at death's door!

Your symptoms could be vertigo but, as suggested by others on the Forum, you need to have a diagnosis.  If it is vertigo, I can say from my experience, that it can take some time to get under control. I get neck pain related to migraine and vertigo (I also have permanent tinnitus) and have regular chiropractic treatment. It must be frustrating for you if this has stopped helping.

It might be helpful to you to give up anything strenuous for the time being and go for steady walks instead.  This is something you could do with your daughter even if it's a very short walk.

It sounds like you're not in the UK if you are paying to see a doctor.  We are fortunate in the UK that we get to see a GP without paying extra (we pay national insurance, which funds our NHS.

Hope today is a better day for you!

6

Hi Tiny,

I don't mind at all.  I will also give you some details of what I am experiencing and what I am trying to do about it.

After the 2nd opinion I have now been diagnosed with No. 6 from the list: Vestibular Nerve Damage.  I was diagnosed with No. 3, Ménière's disease. I took the pills suggested, Lipoflavonoid" and cut out Salt, Sugar, Caffeine, Alcohol and went to therapy for 5 weeks.  When it didn't seem to make me better, I asked my doctor ( general practitioner) what to do and he suggested we get another opinion.

 

I live in the U.S.A. and my health care costs are paid for by my employer, and they have their rules, so I just let the doctor suggest what to do and he got me in to see a group that specializes in ear trouble at the University of Michigan School of Medicine Hospital in Ann Arbor Michigan.  There I received more of the same tests and a couple new ones, and was given some eye exercises to do.  No drugs.  They told me not to take the anti vertigo medicine, because it will stall the process of regeneration.  I wonder about that though, I think they don't want dependency.  Either way, the pills don't do anything that I can tell, so I don't take any, just my vitamins.

  

Tiny, I don't want to appear to be  pessimistic, but I still have the same feeling all the time.  I too have bad days and then worse days, depending upon what I try to do.  To describe the feeling; there just seems to be a sort of Busy feeling going on inside my head and it is distracting to the point where it interferes with concentration.  I don't see double anymore ( maybe that is progress) but my eyes don't seem to both look at the same thing all the time, and everything just seems to be too busy.   What ever I am doing I get fatigued, then like a child, I get rambunctious and start tripping over things and knocking things over.  If I sit down the feeling subsides somewhat, but the only thing that relieves the feeling of fatigue and anxiety for me is to stop what ever I am doing and lie down for a while.  Sometimes I even fall asleep, even though I have rested well at night, the relief from the feeling that I am a total disaster sometimes puts me right to sleep.    Perhaps I am over doing it befor I stop for a break, I don't know.

  

When I attempt to do something, I usually set up a chair where I can sit down every few minutes ( as in 2 or 3 minutes).   But, then I forget that I am handicapped, or maybe I get bull-headed and stubborn and refuse to stop until I over do it and then I have to stop altogether.  It is my own form of Therapy that I try to do things that I used to do befor this disease hit me, and I am my own person, I have no one ( and glad of it, it would be very embarassing to have someone see me as I am) I am alone in my struggle, so I go at my own pace and sometimes I become agitated with myself because I am progressing so slowly and I can't do the things I used to do.

So,  if you can understand that for me at least, it is going to take a while I would say befor I am going to be more like normal.  My own attitude is that it could be a lot worse;  I could have cancer or Alzheimer's, so I take heart and keep thinking I will regain my previous life and all will be well someday.  I just wish it would be soon.

Good Luck and Good Day

Ben  

 

7

Tiny i may be completely wrong but i believe my neck pain and dizziness are all part of my problem, related,  and that the neck pain is affecting my dizziness.  My dizziness started after a physical therapist crunched down on my spine because of my neck pain and though i can't prove it i think that was the beginning of my problem and possibly caused some misalignment in my spine/neck.  I will not allow anyone now to do anymore physical therapy on my neck as i have an abnormaility in it anyway.  I take pain relief for my neck now and when it is less painful i am less dizzy. I wish i could offer you some solution but even the doctors can't do this it seems, i can only say that my condition has gone from bad to better, as when it first kicked off i was severely dizzy and now i would say most days it fluctuates between mild to moderate.  Thankfully i now have more good days than bad but it is always there to a greater or lesser degree.  It is important to remain well hydrated and get enough rest.  Best wishes Anne.

8

My Symptons are the same as bens! i have visited the ENT last week, i was told i either have  Ménière's disease or some nerve damage, i have been asked to do a test to find if there is any water behind the ear.

For me vertigo isnt much of an issue, its more or less vision issues mixed with nausea + a bit of vertigo.

Specially if i try working out or lifting weights.

Well it all started after a heavy shoulder day when i started heavyness or fullness in the ear.

Ben if you dont mind me asking can you please tell me the test you did to figure out that you have nerve damage?

Thank you

Abhi

9

Hi Abhi,

I would be glad to tell you what test I did to find out that I have Vestibular Neuritis but it was not one test.  It is not that simple, it involves doing several tests and "ruling out" other possibilities.  I can tell you what battery of tests ( or at least some of them) that I have had done to make the determination though. 

 1).  A simple hearing test

 2).  All of the different maneuvers, like Semont, Eply, Brandt-Darroff, Reverse somersault,

 3).   Electronystagmography

 4).  Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials

 5).  MRI

 6).  CAT SCAN

And there were others.  Some testing was to determine if there was a relationship between any drugs that may cause a dizziness, stroke, heart rate, blood ph etc.

I was strapped into a chair and spun in different directions and then stood in a small booth that the floor and walls shifted while I tried to maintain balance.  They blew hot and cold air into my ears and made pounding noises in both ears while my eye movements were recorded to analysis.

So as you can see, there are a lot of tests that I did to "rule out" the different possibilites. The doctors wanted to make sure I was not being affected all the other things that can cause dizziness befor they were satisfied to make the diagnosis.

Abhi,  I would like to give you a web site url to go and read some more of what I have just described.  I will give you the website in a different post because they will not let a web page url go through without scrutiny and it would hold up what I have written here for quite some time. So in another post I will give you the url and when it finally clears the screening process please go there and just skim the different topics and delve into the ones you want to read more about, like diagnosis and treatment etc.

OK?  I hope for the best for you.  Ask anything you'd like, I will try to answer you.

Ben

Look for the next post from me:

10

2nd Post:

The url is-->>http://vestibular.org/labyrinthitis-and-vestibular-neuritis

If you can get to this site it explains a lot, in underestandable terms, that you can do and what to expect.

Good Luck

Ben

 

11

Ben,

thanks for responding. As frustrating as what we are going through is, it is nice to relate to someone who feels my pain. When I try to tell my family and friends and even co-workers they don't really seem to comprehend what I am saying. I am beyond frustrated with my condition and am wondering when I will feel better and if the next specialist in May will help me. I am struggling just to do the ordinary, everything stuff. I can't even work out without feeling like I am going to pass out. I liked how you described how it feels in your head, the "busy" feeling. I too get exhausted easily and think its from the constant headaches and dizziness. I am trying not to become depressed but I feel myself feeling hopeless sometimes.

 

12

Thanks for responding. I was diagnosed with BPPV. However physical therapy was supposed to help and it has not-only has helped with neck pain. At this rate I would rather have the neck pain than the vertigo...but I don't think I have vertigo because I never stop feeling dizzy and lightheded. I have had to stop going for jogs and stop working out which is another frustration. I am currently waiting to see an ear, nose, and throat specialist in May...

13

Thank you so much for your detailed reply Ben,  i really appriiciate all the advice.  I will start with the tests in the next coming days and hopefully figure out what is wrong with me.

Thank you again Ben, you have been super helpful.

14

How are you doing now? I have the same symptoms. It has been over three months for me. It really ruins your life.

15

I can completely relate to both of you.

16

Hi all,

I am new to this forum, I find this specific conversation very relevant to my symptoms and thought of writing.

Everything for me started 6 months ago with weird muscle spasm / twitching, my doctor said it could be a pinched nerve in my neck with influence in the whole body,  so I started to see a chiropractor. Spasms/twitching got better but then the dizziness started...For the last 5 months I've been feeling awful: like if I were on a boat the whole time (or, actually, like if I did just got off a boat), I didn't have neck pain in the beginning of my symptoms but eventually 4 months ago I started to feel my neck and upper shoulders very stiff,and from then on I feel neck pain and stiffness practically everyday, with associated sensation of "pressure" in the back of my lower head. 

Additionally I have some sort of maybe related sleep disorder: I would wake up because of muscle spasms, and involuntary movements especially in the moments when I am about to get asleep, as if my body would want to wake me up

I've done:

- blood tests (they are perfect)

- brain MRI (it is normal)

- visit to neurologist (everything normal).

I am on Valium (2 mg a day) for the last 3 months as my doctor thinks everything is related to stress and anxiety. I have indeed high level of stress due to my profession but I don't feel like an anxious person at all...

If I don't take Valium though, my symptoms get incredibly worse and the dizziness is totally debilitating.

Any comment, similar experience, or suggestions of what I can do to have a proper diagnosis or about anything else I could try would be much appreciated! THANKS!

(ps: English is my second language so apologies for any inconsistencies!!)

17

Hi tiny

I woke up 6yrs ago feeling so sick and dizzy.. Was being sick about 10 times a day I thought I was dying. Went doc he said it was labyrinthtitus.. Went ears nose and throat clinic all came back clear.. Had loads of other tests and went for a ct scan all came back clear.. Lost count how mm any times I'd been doc's.. He would always say you gotta live with it parmed me off with loads of pills.. Which didn't help.. But to this day I still feel the pain it right at the top of my neck and along my shoulders and i find it hard to walk sometimes as o feel like I'm gonna fall over.. But there seems to be no diagnosis been told I've gotta live with it.. But it's hard when you got children as it stops me from doing thing's... I do feel your pain

18

Hi Claire

I had the neck pain with dizziness too and was diagnosed with MAV/Silent migraines and put on nortriptyline which has helped about 80%, the bonus is that it has also relieved my shoulder pain.

19

I'm going thru same thing I can barley get around walking is difficult for me I no longer drive I'm dizzy 24/7 always lightheaded I was hit by a car n currently getting therapy for my neck but still unable to function n live normal life very difficult I have constant headaches as well

20

Look into Verticle Heterophia or vestibular migraines