Hi all,

I was struck with "clinical" severe vertigo on Sunday, lessened over the next 2 days till yesterday, then came right back at me. Doc says it's stress maybe...but don't think it's RSD-connected.

Nonetheless, perhaps someone here has suggestions for dealing with it.
Just to be clear, this is not dizziness, this is like I'm still but the room is spinning round violently. Slight headache, when bad accompanied by nausea and vomiting. No balance, lurch like a drunk. Can't focus, so can't read, use computer etc, have to keep eyes closed to help control it.

Been prescribed stemetil and novomin (motion sickness meds)..but they aren't doing much....helps if I squeeze my skull hard near the temples...I had no idea vertigo was so horrid, or so disabling.

Little better today (so far, yesterday it started gently, then reared up again on my way back from town, very difficult to walk at all, but made it home..)

Hellsbells, if it's not one thing it's the other...anyone had this? anything help?
all the best

[Debby]

Hey Pat,
Vertigo SUCKS!!! The first time I had it I was told it was caused by a Virus. I ended up with fluid behind my left ear drum, altho I did NOT have an ear infection nor did I have any pain. I ended up at an otolaryngologist (an eye, ear, & throat doctor). I had to have a tube inserted into my ear. The doctor told me I was the oldest patient he had ever had that had to have a tube put in their ear. I was 42 at the time. *LOL* BOY OH BOY do I ever know why they knock little kiddies out for that surgery. He thought he had my ear drum numb from a shot he put into it while I sat in his chair of, what I now call torture *LOL* He started to cut the hole in which he would insert the tube. YIKES!!! I tensed & was, by that time, gripping the arms of the 'torture chair' so hard I was almost ripping them off & wanting to proceed to beat him with one *LOL* GEEZE!!! He asked if he should quit & numb me more & I told him "HELL NO!!! Just insert the damn tube & be done with it!!!" So he did just that. I do have to admit once all the fluid behind my ear drum gushed out of the hole he had cut, the vertigo almost instantly subsized. I never did have pain in that ear. Just a feeling of pressure & the worst vertigo I had ever experienced up until that time in my life anyway.
It was about a year later when I found out the tube had come out. I didn't even know when it did. I just know because my regular doctor looked in my ear & told me it was no longer there. Anyway I am assuming that since you have been to your doctor you don't have any fluid behind your ear.

Now the 2nd time I had terrible vertigo was after I was in a car wreck in 1991. I had a severe whiplash & suffered from a headache for over 6 years. I couldn't even walk down the hallway at home & I was bouncing off the walls for a long time. Well, the only way I finally got completely away from the headache & vertigo was after I had gone to an Atlas-Orthogonal Chiropracter for treatment (this was back in Iowa where I saw this specific type of chiro). I had seen more than one Neurologist & Neuro-surgeon during those years. And more than one regular Chiro, the type who snapped & popped my head & neck this way & that with no lasting relief. Finally one reg Chiro told me that my problem was up high in my neck & that he didn't know how to treat that area. Eventually I did come across an AO Chiro who could treat that area of my neck. The severe vertigo came & went during the time before finding the AO Chiro I finally went to who gave me the relief I had been seeking for over 5 years. I was so disabled by this headache I was on Disability SS. Well anyway after months of treatments the headache slowly went away as did the vertigo, UNLESS my darn atlas pulls out again. He DX'ed me with having my Atlas (top vertebra that your head sits on) being twisted about 7cm around my brainstem. 7cm isn't much but when it is a bone that puts undue pressure on your brainstem it might as well be miles. To this day if I start having severe vertigo & my head starts in with a specific type of headache I have to go see the NUCCA Chiropracter that I now see in California. These two types of Chiro's go on to more school than most Chiropracters do. Both types have web sites on the web:

http://www.uppercervicalcare.com/
this site is still being constructed
http://www.nucca.org/
http://atlasorthogonality.com/

Well there should be somewhere to search & see if one of these types of Chiro's is near to you. I have seen all the types listed above & the only difference is their technique but they all the same thing. They align your atlas so that all is in place. Just having your Atlas aligned correctly can put your whole spine into alignment.

DebbyV

sorry for being so long winded.......Jose & I never know who rambles the worst *LOL* Anyway this is my story of VERTIGO.

Thanks Debby - You couldn't have put it better, vertigo SUCKS!!!

Very interesting information. I've still got it, the meds do appear to control the nausea, but the vertigo is completely unaffected. If it continues much longer I will have to ask around for a chiro - that's a good idea. You had this for weeks?? Unthinkable!! I'm trying the exercises recomended in one of the websites you gave me...trying everything so far, (bar anything that costs money!)...meanwhile my head is in a whirl

all the best.