Gosh, I do not know where to start, so I will tell my story then I welcome any and all comment and help.
Today is September the 7th 2010. Exactly 5 weeks ago I went to bed feeling normal, when my alarm went off the next morning to get up and get ready for church, I reached over and shut it off, sat up in bed, swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up…then all hell broke loose; I got really dizzy, the room started spinning, and I instantly got sick, and crawled to the bathroom because I could not walk. That’s where I stayed for the next 4 hours vomiting and spinning in circles. It was horrible, one of the worst experiences I have been through in my entire life.
After the 4 hours had passed, I felt slightly better, not much but slightly, enough to move from the bathroom to the bed where I stayed all day. At about 2 in the morning I awoke to go to the bathroom at which time this started all over again. I woke my wife up and had her take me to the hospital emergency room. My wife had to call a friend of ours to come over and help me to the car so we could get to the hospital. It was an awful 10 minute ride to the hospital, I was dizzy, spinning, throwing up etc. horrible time!! There at the hospital they did a CAT scan, drew blood, and hooked me up to a heart monitor, and found nothing wrong as a result of those tests. The on call Dr. told me that it is probably something to do with the inner ear which controls balance. So I left there with drugs to calm the symptoms of dizziness and nausea. They worked, but I was still not right. Two day later I went to my family Dr and he more or less told me the same thing: inner ear problem. He prescribed Prednisone and Valium which made me feel like a zombie.
Four days later I was still feeling awful so I went back to my family Dr. He said gosh, this should be gone by now, so he was concerned and sent me to an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist…the ENT Dr. did a hearing test, and all was fine there. They then sent me to a Balance Center where a therapist tilted me up and down making me really dizzy but only for a very short time. I was told by her that I had these crystals in my inner ear that were out of place and therefore I have what they call BPPV and the tilting of my head and body would move these crystals back into place. Well, I walked out of that therapy session feeling instantly about 75% better than when I came in, but still all was not well. I have been back there four times for this tilting therapy since then. I have today gone through a 3 hour balance test. I was told by the specialist today that he believes that I have MAV associated with Migraine. I dont even have headaches! I don’t get it.
My symptoms right now are: when I bend over or stand up from bending over, things are a little shaky, but I do not spin or get real dizzy…when I walk, it is like my eyes are bouncing inside my head with every step, and it is hard to concentrate on where I am walking to because of this…I now have the ringing in my ears, I guess it is called tinnitus, which is constantly there and audible…flourescent lights are a nightmare, especially when walking into a store with a lot of them. I have been off work now for 5 weeks, and do not know how I will be able cope with this inside of a factory. I am looking for answers, ideas or anything that will help me with this. If these symptoms sound familiar to you, please write me back.
Thank you, John