Benign positional vertigo

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so dh suddenly developed dizziness on Thursday night, he can only walk short distances then if he turn his head he nearly falls over. It's awful, he's really scared. Gp said it's benign positional vertigo and has got him doing head exercises but it's not getting any better. Has anyone else experienced this?

Your dh needs to do canalith repositioning & then sleep upright with a neck brace on to avoid sudden movements. It's very scary I've had it a couple of times.

This will show you what to do

www.mayoclinic.com/health/canalith-repositioning-procedure/MY01322

Sorry forgot to post link

Great thanks, the dr did something like this but it didn't work. How long does it last as he's had it for three days now :(

I found it worked after a few days but only after wearing the neck brace & sleeping upright. If your dh lies down then I don't think the positioning will work. Sorry for vagueness but it was about 7 years ago & I can't remember it really clearly.

Thanks so much! Will try and get a brace then :)

I had this and my GP performed the Epley manoeuvre that got rid of it, moving the head to force the calcium crystals back to where they should be basically. I didn't have it again for years until last week when it came back, but this time GP thinks its more related to the fact I'm recovering from tonsillitis. When I lie down the whole room shakes in front of me, yep its scary! He prescribed me an anti-nausea drug that I take when its really bad, think it might be because I saw a different GP and this one doesnt know how to do the manoeuvre.

this explains canalith repositioning in detail

May be worth seeing if GP can refer your dh to an ENT specialist.

Ok we are gonna try and do the eply thing, there is a clip on you tube. His gp wasn't very helpful and dh is starting a new job on Monday and has to drive 260 miles! Very stressful as he can't even walk to the loo without staggering at the moment. Very scary - thanks for your help. Are you going to trybthe Epley again?

Yes thanks we are going to ask for a referralmon Monday.

Good luck. I wouldn't have been able to drive if I'd been your dh.

I know, it doesn't look like he's going to be able to drive. Train maybe. Thanks so much x

Horrendous. One of the worst things you can get. I had it back in October for the first time on holiday. Just woke up with it and it floors you. It lasted about 3 weeks but was more manageable after a few days. You get to understand what head turns trigger the bad attack for example looking up and you then avoid doing it.

I can't believe how common it is, dh thought he was having a stroke! Really hope it doesn't last three weeks, will keep trying the eply thing.

I was told it could be as long as three months at this point I refused to leave the surgery without drugs.

Mine has started to get a bit better already which suggests it was more inflammation in my ear rather then the calcium things being displaced, but I would have went back to my GP to get him to do the Epley if it hadnt started getting better by next week.

This is absolutely curable with the Epley manoeuvre or the even simpler Semont manouvre. If you look for the Semont manouvre on youtube you can see how easy it is and do it yourself (try one side and if it doesn't work, do the other side)

If it doesn't work, it isn't BPPV and you need more investigation.