I have had migraine for many years. It can change over time in its presentation, but for a long time I had vestibular migraine. Many people think of migraine as headache but it’s actually a neurological condition that can manifest in many ways, with or without headache.
Certain symptoms you’ve mentioned definitely fit:
Swaying/on a boat/pulled to one side feeling - this is vertigo, as opposed to spinning vertigo and can be a big component of vestibular migraine, also light and noise sensitivity, whooshing sounds in ears, full ears, heaviness/pain around an eye or eyes, low energy and neck pain.
People do get ocular symptoms, but floaters and pinguecula tend to be related to irregularities in the physiology of the eyes, not migraine.
What I’d wonder about are, when you say bruised, does the back of the head actually feel painful to press on and tender like it does on the back of your right ear bone?
I wonder about this as migraine doesn’t tend to make the skin/muscle actually tender. I was diagnosed many years ago when less doctors were familiar with vestibular migraine. My initial (wrong) diagnosis was tempero mandibular joint disorder - TMJ. I’m mindful you were both stressed and had wisdom teeth out, which makes me wonder if an already clenching prone and tired jaw had surgery that then upset the apple cart, hence some of the tenderness behind ear etc, imo tmj doesn’t cause vertigo or light sensitivity, but jaw issues can trigger migraine. There may be more than one thing going on.
labyrinthitis/vestibular neuritis (inflammation of the inner ear, often viral in cause) also cause vertigo and ear symptoms, although the way this started for you makes me think other options are more likely. I was also given this diagnosis before finally getting the vestibular migraine diagnosis that got me on the right treatment.
In your shoes I’d see what the GP has to say, if she rules out ear infection etc and has no definitive answer, I’d push for a daily migraine preventative which is how vestibular migraine is treated. Amitriptyline is one of the medications GPs can give out for migraine, which is also handily a treatment for TMJ.
Vestibular migraine tends to be a diagnosis of exclusion, and not everyone responds to all preventatives, it’s trial and error. So I’d also want a referral to a neurologist with migraine as a speciality. Not all neurologists are created equal when it comes to migraine. There are also neuro otologists who specialise in dizziness. They have 4 more years more training than ENTs in the inner ear. I saw neuro otology first, then, when they decided migraine not vestibular neuritis I was referred on to neurology.
I’m not sure how up on vestibular migraine or indeed TMJ (TMJ tends to be treated by specialist dentists or the dental hospital on the NHS) GPs are these days. Hopefully much better than 20 years ago when I finally fought my way through to the right specialist for my vestibular migraine diagnosis. Go armed with info and be prepared to push for answers/ referrals.
There’s a Facebook support group called vestibular migraine professional (odd name I know) lots of info on there.