Am getting really confused and anxious.

After my second child a year ago, I got a really bad upper respiratory cold (and anxiety attacks which I hadn't had since I was 16). The anxiety is probably not related but I thought I would mention it.

The cold seemed like it went on for a very long time. First, I lost my voice, then I developed a very phlegmy cough and then I had months of a cough and post-nasal drip with a mucousy nose that wouldn't stop. Never in my life had I experienced such a cold that wouldn't cease.

About 2 months after everything subsided, I started getting a lot of headaches in that felt like they were coming from my left ear. The headaches would start every 2-3 days. Sometimes, they would move in clusters as well.

During this time I also wasn't sleeping because of the baby and I spent long hours at the computer because of my job.

The left ear also clicks and if I move my jaw it will click and I also have some mild post nasal drip as well, even now. I also noticed that after the cold subsided, I became very sensitive to noise. It actually hurt (I cringed) when my children became loud. 

I also had random ringing that lasted a few seconds and periods where it felt my ears just popped and equalized themselves.

Then what started happening is a weird vertigo thing. When I would talk on the phone (tilt my head to the right) or look down to write on a piece of paper, my head would spin. I went on two months like this thinking it was all part of my anxiety.

The vertigo was triggered the night after I awoke to find myself so extremely dizzy to the point where I couldn't read the medicine label. 

I discovered by going to the ER that I had BPPV or positional vertigo. I was told to go home and do the Epley Maneuver until it subsided. Eventually, the true spinning subsided but I am still constantly dizzy. I now seem to have an off-balance feeling all day and "motion trails" when I turn my head. It's as if my proprioception is off. I also feel off driving and up until recently, felt like I was still moving when the car came to a stop. I am negative on the Epley now, although I still get some positional dizziness. Like today, spent 5 hours on the computer on my bed (looking down) and felt a strange sensation of vertigo when looking up. 

I am wondering if the BPPV could have been caused by the cold, and the constant blowing of my nose and perhaps the other ear which is full and clicking is a result of that cold as well. Is it possible to have two issues from the cold affecting each year differently?

I have been to an ENT who says it seems like a weird case of BPPV. The neurologist says it can be a migraine associated vertigo (but I don't buy it).

Headaches increased a lot while I had BPPV but i know my triggers for migraine so I don't believe it's a migraine disorder. 

Do you have any thoughts? Why can't I shake this dizziness?

1 like, 3 replies