dizzy..

No, not a distributor or my stupid posts... me

Started a few days ago while replacing telephone wire in a crawl space and along the baseboard in the kitchen. I'm fine laying on the ground or floor but when I roll I experience dizziness to the point I can't keep focused on work or stand up, makes my head really spin. Rising while rolling from bed the last few days too, I need to wait to feel balance before I stand. Happened again tonight while changing the oil and filter on the K20. Had to stop working and lay flat under the truck till I regained my sense of balance. In all instances I couldn't stand right away but had to stay on all fours till I felt I regained balance and could stand up, and that was still a little shaky. Only happened mildly once before several years ago while working under the truck so I thought it an isolated incident.

Googles suggest Vertigo and maybe Syncope but I have an odd sense it may be related to several damaged discs in my neck suffered in a traffic accident five years ago (whiplash type). MD says calcification and arthritis but my neck feels like there's gravel in it, ca-lunk, ca-lunk, w/ about 25% lost motion L-R and more up/ down. Neck gets fatigued quickly working horizontal, under the car/ truck and especially welding overhead, then I need to stop working and sit till my neck feels relieved. 800mg Ibuprofin helps to get through but I still pay for it later. Only thing I can possibly figure is a damaged nerve in my neck but I'm no medical guy and have no idea how that would relate to this dizziness.

Stats: turned 53 yesterday, 25 lbs over my comfortable weight, blood pressure of a teenager, been off my walking /exercise routine for months now while I finish projects, no major medical conditions or meds.

Any other dizzy folks out there?

suggestions?

TIA

Sinus problems? Allergies? A stuffed up head can give you the spins.

Inner ear or ear infection?
How is your blood-sugar?

If you let google diagnose you, I am certain you will die of the wrong thing.

Perhaps a medical doctor would have some insight as to what s going on?

Had similar about ten years ago. I was mid 30's at the time. Went to a neurologist and had a bunch of tests. Slight inner ear infection. I still get it on occasion. The scary thing is it can be an early symptom of MS. Get it checked out but it's probably nothing.

If I sit in the car driving without stretching my back I can't feel my hands. Twist side to side and flex myback a few times an all is good.

It sucks getting old but it beats the alternative!

How hydrated are you? It's real easy to get into a state of chronic dehydration, and it frequently gives you symptoms similar to what you describe.

I had a similar issue happen last Thanksgiving- my wife was so scared, she called an ambulance, and I got a good looking over at the hospital.

Nothing was found, but my doctor figured it was something depositing in my inner ear.

Anyway, I'd suggest going to a doctor, and explaining exactly what has happened. The reason my wife paniced is that they are similar symptoms to a heart attack and/or stroke. Not nearly what I had, but for sure, something a doctor should look at for you.

I thought this was going to be a shout out to SlickDizzy.

I second the possible inner ear infection, as this is the time of year I get those as well, and the hydration.

The first time I experienced what you described was in the early 90s when I was spending long hours welding plastic as a side line to my restoration business. I didn't wear a mask, just tried to stand "upwind" of the fumes. Then, of course, I was constantly exposed to all the air contaminents of the resto. shop daily. I felt like I was in constant motion and was nauseous most of the time. The MD said he knew exactly what the problem was and gave me a penicillin shot. By the next morning I was feeling better. He said I had an inner ear infection. There was no pain associated with it so that diagnosis surprised me.

So that was a simple problem to diagnose and cure. In 2000, I began to have chronic debilitating migraine headaches. I was working with fiberglass resins daily for long periods, again, foolishly, with no mask. This led to a series of tests including an MRI. That revealed "many small lesions in my brain". I had been having TIAs for several years and since the effect wasn't all that noticeable ignored them. Within a couple of years I began to have numbness in my left side when the more severe of the TIAs struck. I still have frequent periods of dizziness, dissorientation, sudden energy loss, etc. etc. associated with this.

Fasted, I was 52 when this began and in my case the symtoms began to get worse. I'm afraid at this point that I'm already beginning to experience memory loss at a rate a little worse than the norm for people my age. I do take a regimine of medications now that are helpful for the dizziness as well as other health problems. So do yourself a favor and get checked out thoroughly if this persists. Best of luck to you in your future. "May you live long and prosper".

Teenager blood pressure may not be appropiate for a 50+ yr old . TIA's are nothing to mess around with. It is a STOKE. I found out that I had been having minor ones before a more serious one happened. Luckily everything turned out OK. Eleven years and counting, A good physical and blood test are the best thing to do. We are not doctors, go see one. ASAP.

I've had similar symptoms and was diagnosed with Meniere's Disease. It seems like one of those things they diagnose when they can't come up with anything else. They can't really prove that you have it and there is no great treatment. I just deal with it.

Dizziness is usually associated with an inner ear problem. (Vertigo is a bit different, but there are pills to help) After two major ear surgeries that I did not entirely enjoy, my advice is not to ignore your inner ear. Go to a doctor. Go now. It will get worse. Much much worse.

pinchvalve wrote: Dizziness is usually associated with an inner ear problem.

True! And, it doesn't necessarily get worse. Here's something you can do that absolutely won't do any harm and may clear the whole thing up:

Google "Epley Maneuver" and "Benign Positional Vertigo" and then do the Epley Maneuver. There are films on YouTube. You don't need the therapist...that's what MY therapist told me after he showed me how to do it.

Be sure to do it slowly...wait AT LEAST as long as they say with the head turned. Be sure to do it on both sides because if it's the thing this maneuver helps, you don't know which side it's on.

Do it now, it's safe and easy and was a sudden and complete cure for me (after the head CT and a lot of silly fumbling around by neurologists.) The physical therapist just shook his head and said: "I can't believe they do the CT first. This cures most people with one treatment." I hope it works for you, but if it doesn't, no harm done. Good luck.

Edit: I got a little uncomfortable about this sounding as if I was discouraging you from seeing a doctor. You should still go, of course, even if this works. But, if the Epley maneuver gives you relief, you'll have learned something important about the probable cause..a little crystal of calcium floating loose in the inner ear fluid and brushing those microscopic hairs that help us balance. This is something that happens to almost everybody from time to time and is most alarming, I know. The Maneuver puts the crystal in a place where it quits rolling around and the body absorbs it.

In reply to chuckles:

My doctor suggested the Epley Maneuver to me, too.

good luck, fast- being dizzy and sick is no fun at all.

Medical advice from a car board on teh intrawebz, y0? Yo Yo Yo, I'm having chest pains, doode and I can't breath, yo. What shud I due? Yo yo yo, I had that once and it got all better when I drank a bottle of jack black doode. Yo, tanks doode I'll try dat.

New onset of vertigo can be from a large number of causes, some minor and some very, very serious. That's why when you go to a LICENSED PHYSICIAN with that complaint, you are going to get your head scanned. BECAUSE if it's SOMETHING REALLY BAD, the sooner it is found the better you will be. For example, back when I wuz doin' teh brain surgery, y0, I don't know how many people I saw present to the ER with a "dizzy" complaint or brought in because after being dizzy for some time, they started falling a bunch or bumping into things and the SO brought them in. Smoker? Metastatic lung cancer in the brain. Been to/from Mexico? Worms in the brain (there's a reason some religions ban pork). Female? Breast cancer in the brain. Those are just a few. That's why you get a CT Head.

In reply to Dr. Hess:

Good doctor - Am I right that Meniere's is a catch all when they've ruled out all the other stuff?

Dr. Hess wrote: That's why you get a CT Head.

Oh. OK, then.

Let the record reflect that my edit preceded Doc's post.

There's Meniere's Disease and Meniere's Syndrome. Both are from high lymphatic pressure in the inner ear, with the Syndrome being for a known reason and the Disease for unknown reasons. I could see that if everything else has been ruled out, Meniere's Disease could probably be the diagnosis put down. I suppose to properly diagnose Menier's (D or S) as the cause for the dizzyness, one should really determine the inner ear pressure, but inner ear pressure gauges are not really in every physician's office, so "Meniere's" could be used as a catch all. I think a better catch all would be "Vertigo NOS" (not otherwise specified...) or "Idiopathic vertigo" (doode is dizzy and we don't know why).

I'm not going to disagree with the doc about going to see a doctor and not taking any "web diagnosis" from us very seriously.

That said, I'll risk disagreeing with him and some others about Meniere's. Got some kin with it, bad. Got it myself, maybe (never been formally diagnosed, but I've got several of the symptoms). Giving it a blanket cause of "inner ear pressure" is grossly simplified and incomplete. As well, it tends to do its own thing and not be instigated by sitting up, and especially not calming down after a few seconds.

FT, I'm not saying it's a junk diagnosis, like most ADD diagnosis or several others I could name, but what I listed above is Meniere's Disease/Syndrome, by definition. I can post excerpts from a super-secret doctor only web site that lists such things if you'd like. (I'm sure you have access to super-secret Esquire web sites, same thing, only used for Good instead of Evil.) Pretty much, inner ear pressure NOS is Meniere's Disease and if the cause is known, Syndrome. This causes the other symptoms, like a herniated disk causes muscle atrophy and shooting pains in the leg.

"Idiopathic vertigo" = Dizzy Dood. Guess all that ejamaction was worth it just to learn that

I've had the same problem off and on now for 14 yrs... since a MVA where I T-boned someone that ran a red light ... some times it seems to go away other times it's so bad I'm almost afraid to drive... my chiropractor calls it "positional vertigo ( in other words ... no nausea .. just the dizziness ) he thinks it's from the whiplash of the wreck

wbjones wrote: I've had the same problem off and on now for 14 yrs... since a MVA where I T-boned someone that ran a red light ... some times it seems to go away other times it's so bad I'm almost afraid to drive... my chiropractor calls it "positional vertigo ( in other words ... no nausea .. just the dizziness ) he thinks it's from the whiplash of the wreck

The neck injury was my first gut feeling about this as no dizziness occurred prior to the accident in '07. Haven't seen the chiro in a while as 'adjustments' only last a few days at best so I just deal w/ it.... Ibuprofin, cervical collar and rest. Haven't brought up the dizziness w/ them either but I'll schedule an appt. to address the situation. In my experience it's best to have multiple opinions from chiro and MDs as their disciplines and opinions vary widely. Thnx much.

Pretty busy last 24 hrs but to recap: no problem rising/ rolling out of bed overnight, just tried to re-enact the episode by laying on floor.. no problem laying on side but laying flat and rolling and moving too fast, then become dizzy.

I'll try to address the posts here as much as possible:

Sinus: No sinus trouble (infections) for over 15 years. Was however cleaning mildew in the basement a few nights ago, felt some ill ease a few hours afterwards but went away after sleep. Still had a dizziness episode two days prior to that though.

Blood sugar: fine as of last check up, never had a problem before but I'll bring that up w/ MD

Ear/ Inner ear: no prior problems. Rarely 'ringing ears' people refer to commonly. However, I raised an issue w/ a long ago former doc about some pressure I felt in my left ear at the time. We were at the shooting range years ago and a overzealous buddy fired a 357 before I had my muffs on, left ear rang like berkeleying craaazy. Much rarer now but it still happens in the left ear only I feel some pressure or an altitude style type 'pop'. I will address this w/ MD also.

Hydration: I'm off my exercise routine including my healthy lose/ control weight diet and on my 'projects get done before winter and all diet/ exercise be damned routine', hydration may be lumped in that boat

TIA: 83 y/o Mom has had several mini-strokes (and falls) in the last few years, not aware if it's genetic, will look into it w/ MD.

Epley, Meniere's, Positional Vetigo etc. will need further research, I'm up to the eyeballs swamped right now.. the latest cluster berkeley is termites probing my garage tonight... the universe might berkeley w/ my health but ya don't berkeley w/ my shop !!... but it will get done before the doc appt.

Thanks much to all for the input, these issues will be addressed shortly. I think it highly important to be fully informed and armed w/ all possible information before seeing any docs these days.... WebMD to GRMers. From my experience we should avoid the test it all/ wild goose chase scenario if things can be narrowed down to core troubles/ symptoms w/ an in depth interview at the initial MD contact.

Again to all, thanks very much

My perfectly honed redneck opinion is to get your head examined. Past 50 you are in the danger zone.Doc called it.