All of the ENT's say I'm over thinking things

Don't think I can offer much of a shred of comfort here but I know how you feel, and how demoralizing the search for a diagnosis can be.

I've seen six ENT consultants, two neurologists and four stroke doctors so far over a two year period of continuous and gradually worsening dizziness with nausea and as I sit here with a spinning head and my life pretty much reduced to hoping I'll wake up tomorrow feeling a little better, it's hard to find anything positive to grab onto.

I'm in the UK and after seeing specialists in Derby, Birmingham and Leicester I finally got a consultation through my GP with a Prof Bronstein at University College Hospital London. I was really hopeful that something new would come from the appointment as the guy appears to be one of best in the country.

However after an encouraging half hour session with one of his very keen junior registrars, my 15 minute session with the prof turned out to be pretty much a repeat of every other consultation I've had, ending with a possible diagnosis of PPPD, (that good old fallback when every other diagnosis doesn't hit the spot), followed by 'I'm sorry but aside from exercising regularly and trying not to be too anxious about it, we can't help you any further today.'

The last guy I saw was an ENT consultant in Derby, who was refreshingly cynical about the PPPD diagnosis, saying that in his opinion it was no more than a convenient catchall for consultants to use in order to be able to say they'd reached a diagnosis; but that it didn't really mean anything in clinical terms and certainly didn't help the patient. He highlighted the problems of diagnosing issues with the vestibular system as it's buried so deep inside the skull and is very difficult to scan accurately. He said that it was his belief that in 50 years or so when imaging technology has advanced to the level where individual nerve tracks can be seen in detail, it might very well be possible to identify and diagnose many of the issues that at present are being labelled with anomalous titles like vestibular migraine, PPPD etc.

My only saving grace so far is that up to present, when I either eat or chew gum, my symptoms immediately lessen in intensity, so I chew gum manically all day every day. Trouble is that as my symptoms worsen, the gum is proving far less effective, and my jaw aches!

TBH I can't bring myself to look forward to the next few years very much.