repeat episodes of vertigo/labyrinthitis

Ears, nose and throat
1

This is my third period of vertigo within the last year and my fourth overall.  Each time I get it I have to take time off work, cant drive and am more or less housebound.  For me I mostly suffer from swirling which affects everything I do.  When I walk I appear drunk and I feel clumsy and unable to do very much.  Today I felt unable to do very much as everything constantly moved.  The symptoms for me usually last up to 6 weeks.  

This time I have asked the GP for a referral as I am concerned that it keeps returning.  The GP wants me to try a different drug to deal with the symptoms.  Before I have been given stemetil which does stop the spinning but leaves me exhausted.  The advice I have had about stemetil previously is that its better to try and not take it and allow your brain to adjust.  I dont see the point in taking another medication which is the same if it is going to make me tired.  If it meant I could drive and go back to work I would gladly take it but I dont want to swap one symptom for another.  What are other people's experiences of this?  

It would just be nice at the moment to talk to other people who know what it feels like to have vertigo.  

2

I have have been suffering from vertigo for the last 6 months now and I feel swirly and feels like I am constantly drunk.... Not a nice feeling at all!! I have tried all sorts of medication but nothing is helping so I am starting to take VRT therapy to see if it will help me!! Mine never goes away it is constantly with me.... Maybe you should try therapy and see if it helps with the dizziness!! I have had time off work and I'm still off work now.... I would gibe anything to get better and go back to work.... If you want to inbox me your email address and I will message you for anymore support and advice

3

Medication can be helpful in calming down the symptoms so you can recover but what most doctors fail to tell their patients is that it will not solve the vertigo itself. Only a proper diagnosis of the form of vertigo will help find the right course of action. In your case it's obviously it flares up then settles back down.  But takes too long to settle on its own. I would go see your specialist. ENT's are always a good place to start. Until you have a better clue as to what is causing your vertigo (or if it's something else) medication is only going to cover up the symptoms and make it harder to diagnosis. I get so frustrated with doctors who just start prescribing medication to cover up things in hopes they will go away. I’m sorry most of the time it just draws out a patients chances of recovery. Hopefully your get somewhere with another doctor! Good luck. And let us know how you make out. 

4

Thanks for your answer. I found it really helpful. I've been back to see a different gp today who said I needed a referral before I asked for one and also agreed that I would be better off without the medication. It was nice to be listened to and hopefully I'll have an appointment with ENT in the next two weeks.

5

So sorry to hear that I know how it feels when you try all medication and nom of them helps I feel dizzy two years and 4 months now I can't come out of the house as well just anything I do makes me dizzy I can not do house things anymore.. I tried many therapies a lot of different medicines but nothing helped.. when ever I go gp they just don't do anything anymore just going there and coming back home like 0 information ... also I got breathing problems it is just too much for too long... many things I tried have no idea what else I could try.. but think positive all the time and try to do some exercise I am trying to do yoga every morning it doesn't seen much difference but you never know it might help at least a little x

6

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and to Vertigo. On the 11th December I experienced Sudden Complete Hearing Loss in my right ear, acute vertigo and nausea and also have extremely loud tinnitus. Initially the vertigo was the thing that I found hardest to deal with as I thought the other symtpoms were temporary. After a week of crawling round if I had to, and being sick anytime I moved my head I was treated in A&E for a supected TIA/Stroke, which tested negative. I was given an injection to stop the nausea and as the stemetil prescribed by my GP I was given some other drug which just made me so tired I couldn't even speak for more than a minute without dozing off in mid sentence. A few days later I was admitted to hospital for treatment of my deaf ear, and was given steroid injections in my ear to try and save my hearing. While in hospital I was encouraged to move about and the vertigo eased a littl so that I was able to walk around if holding onto the walls or furniture.

I was discharged just before Christmas and after spending most of Christmas feeling sorry for myslef was advised by a friend to try VRT. Due to the Christmas shut down of the NHS clinics and my desperation to at least get one of my problems sorted out, I eventually researched exercises on the internet.

http://www.umc.edu/uploadedFiles/UMCedu/Content/Education/Schools/Medicine/Clinical_Science/Otolaryngology__Communicative_Sciences/Handouts/VestibularExercise.pdf

I have been doing the atached every day for about three weeks. I don't manage to do them more than once a day, but am fairl religious about trying them, and also have included the recommended 30min walk a day. I am really impressed with the progress I've made, and feel so much more stable. I still have the odd wobble, and am challenged by changing surfaces (eg gravel, bark chippings, and changes in the colours of surfaces (going from a dark carpet to lighter one) but I'm much more able to function. I've even managed to walk the 15 minutes to my gym and do a little exercise and have swim (although front crawl made me feel really dizzy and probably shouldn't have been attempted). I even tried out my Zumba Class for the first time in since this happened. I positioned myself near the back of the class so that I had the wall by me, and any twisting made me giddy, but I managed to complete the class. 

My ENT consultant stressed that although taking drugs might aid me short term, it was essential that I try and be as active as possible and use the exercises to retrain my brain ans my inner ear on my right is totally non-functioning. 

I even starting my phased return to work on Friday. Not easy as I'm a deputy head in a large junior school, but the balance isn't the problem - the bit that gets me is that I'm now unable to hear anything when there is background noise - so it's the deafness that's the challenge.

I would really encourage you to look into VRT, and be warned, it feels horrible to begin with as the exercises exacerbate the symptoms, but persevere, as after a couple of days I found the exercises got easier and my balance started to improve.