Vertigo advice

[AndiRee]

Can anyone help? I was dx with vertigo last Sunday and although the "dizziness" and sickness has now gone post injection (still taking the tablets), the "at-sea" "half cut" heady, unsteady feeling is really getting me down.

Has anyone had this and if so, how long does it last?

TIA

Is this the same as labyrinthitis? I've had it, and I know the feelings you describe. It's really horrible, so you have my sympathy. For me the tablets worked really quite quickly - a few days at most. A week sounds like a long time. Can you all your GP in the morning and get his/her view?

I've never been given anything for it. I just lie on my front and cling onto the bed in case I fall off until it passes.

I have had vertigo in the past, and have known a few other people who have also had it. All of us have experienced it very differently.

Mine was fairly mild; apart from the initial sea-sickness (one day) I just experienced slight dizziness, veering to the left when walking, and head-spinning for a few seconds on lying down. This lasted only a few days, but has recurred a few times when I have a heavy cold or am run down. I was prescribed tablets for the nausea, but after the first day didn't need them.

A relative described having to crawl on her hands and knees as she felt too unsteady to be on her feet. It lasted a week or two and never recurred.

A friend of a friend had constant vertigo for two years and was referred to a physio for Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy.

I have bouts of severe vertigo. My ENT advised not taking any meds because it tricks your brain & doesnt allow it to right itself... if you don't take anything, your body will fix it. But it's awful!

I have betahistine which I take every day & when I have a bad attack and am not home where I can just lie on the floor and hold on for dear life, I use buccal prochloroperazine to help reduce the sickness.

But generally, there is little you can do.

I have it as part of Meniere's disease. Horrible. Is your hearing ok?Meniere's also affects hearing and generally causes tinnitus too (noise in your ear like listening to a sea shell).

Oh dear this is depressing. Currently suffering from vertigo but only when switching from vertical to horizontal. Surprisingly debilitating (bed, housework, pliates all affected). Doctor said give it a couple of weeks but not much sign of change, now I have a nasty suspicion there's nothing to be done about it.

Thank you for all your replies although its not great reading!

Rubbish isn't it! I'm getting better at moving around today, so can see another improvement. Hearing not affected massively but ears and head feel full IYSWIM.
I have betahistine too which I need in order to function. School finishes tomorrow so I can be more flexible but scared about not taking them as the clinging on to the bed was not pleasant! Toying with stopping them at the weekend when DH is around for support as it makes sense what Grockle said.
I find it strange that everyones' experience of it is so different.

I'm glad I'm not the only one scared off falling off the world! I read that the look off the world spinning is from your eyes flicking back and fourth (like rem I guess) but my husband wouldn't look last time I was like that. I find it coincides with migraine these days and all I can do is cover my head.

Still having balance issues - surely my vertigo should be getting better by now?

My sympathies OP (and all other sufferers) vertigo is rotten.

Have you looked into Brandt-Daroff exercise? It doesn't work for everyone with vertigo, but it might be worth a shot. It helped me improve to a point where my vertigo was bearable - though I still have some slightly woozy and unsteady days even 18 months after my initial serious vertigo attack when I spent two weeks clinging desperately to the toilet (which had become part of a runaway roller coaster ride) and begging DH to just take me out back and shoot me

One of my BILs suffers from recurrent bad bouts of vertigo and has identified several triggers for himself - too much salt, any significant amount of alcohol, too much caffeine, and spending too much time staring fixedly at a computer screen. I have to say I largely agree with him, as all those things seem to disagree with me and make my symptoms worse too.

In my experience there isn't really much the doctors can do. You just have to hope that your balance system of brain/eyes/ears re-calibrates itself and learns to compensate for the problem.

I hope it improves for you.

Have a look at Epley Manouvre on YouTube.

"Vertigo" is not really a condition, it's a symptom. Doctor should be able to dx a bit more specific than that. BPV is helped by the maneuvers others have mentioned, but there is a specific test doc can do for it. I would go back to gp really.