Brain fog, dizziness, vision problems, head pressure, headache PLEASE HELP

Hello shadocia,

So sorry you’re going through this.. I too share a lot of the symptoms that are brought up in this chat.. I also have a toddler so I know how difficult it is to get through the day, feeling tired and dizzy.. I call it, the “drunk” feeling. Some days are better than other days..

I also have neck pain on the left side of my neck.. and I get a tingly sensation that starts at the bottom of my head and goes down in a straight line all the way to my shoulder.. no pain, just tingly feeling. I sometimes get the head pressure, kinda like a tention feeling.. not too often. I’ve gotten MRI, CT SCAN of my brain and than God everything is ok.

I’m still trying to figure out what it is.

Hi shadocia!!! I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this all too, it’s a nightmare! I’ve also had so many mris ct scans and the such. I figured after having this 1 1/2 years I’d be dead by now if it was something severely life threatening. 

Do not feel alone, I (as well as so many others) experience these exact same symptoms! My visual symptoms are the most difficult to deal with, as I have so many of them. Have you seen a neuro- ophthalmologist or opthmaologist yet? I would definitely recommend it as well as seeing s chiropractor specializing in c1 atlas vertabrae issues. 

I also have had severe sinus and ear issues my entire life, but so do thousands of other Americans and they aren’t having the same symptoms we have. SO many doctors don’t know what’s wrong and instead of admitting they don’t know, it’s easuer for them to blame it on anxiety or some easy thing they can see like a cyst in a sinus cavity. Definitely try and see a neurologist as well as they can better help you too! 

Honestly I don’t know how I deal with it, it’s terribke. I barely deal with it to be honest. My life is very isolating and debilitated right now and I just don’t do much of anything. please keep us updated and know you aren’t alone! You will be able to find an answer

Oh and I forgot to mention I’m 5 months pregnant and I’m absolutely terrified of being a horrible mom because of this. I just keep praying and trying to stay positive that things will get better. I’ve been dealing with this for a year and a half now and I’m just scared about everything going on. 

Have any of you checked out temporal arteritis? Just something to ck into. I some days think this is my cause, but I do t have the main symptoms. But look up a complete list of symptoms..it won't show up on mri but needs biopsy of the temple area..at least it's curable..

Hi Terrie,

I looked up the symptoms but I don’t have fever, double vision.. there were more symptoms but not really compadible to mine. Thank you though..

Yea, I dont have fever or dbl vision either..whew..I'm just stumped..I got off floase because if the weight gain. Like 7 lbs in a month. No thanks. Praying awful symptoms don't come back. If all these tests keep comin back ckear, there has to be some ki d if blood work up ir even biopsy they can do to figure this all out..

Hi Elise93...sorry this thread is too long to read through all the comments. Was just wondering..before your symptoms began...did you have any dental work done.. like having a tooth extracted or something similar?

I had two teeth extracted a few months ago

Could that cause similar symptoms?

I'm not sure Steph...but I had a molar surgically removed in mid December...with sedation (it was cracked in half below the gum line...so under anesthetic...and about 3 weeks later is when all my probs started...and we are now 4 and a bit months down the line. Started with vertigo (last for 1 month) which my GP diagnosed as BPPV....so I did the Epley manoeuvre on myself and the next day...vertigo world spinning disappeared...but have been left with almost a residue visual cross eyed feeling....swollen feeling in the left eye, black floaters in left eye and just general weird not myself feeling. All of this has now caused major anxiety...which just makes the symptoms worse..and vica versa. Feel like its crippling my once very active and happy life. Saw an ENT and had an MRI...all fine. Saw an optometrist...and eyes are fine ...apart from astigmatism but othereisw vision and eye pressure fine. Seeing a Vestibular specialist on the 28th April. Doing my own googling (dangerous cos it can make anxiety worse)...it seems that a common "side effect" of dental surgery (ie the drilling) can cause probs in the inner ear and the crystals get dislodged and so the balance probs begin.

Hey Ren,

I had an anesthetic too and it caused my problems. It's called neurotoxicity, its a form of brain damage caused by drugs that can cross the blood brain barrier. Mine took a week to manifest the first time, and three weeks the second, but got considerably worse for three months afterwards, but neurotoxicity can take weeks and months to manifest, alot of people it tends to kick in around the three - 4 month mark, but no one seems to know why it takes so long. Its pretty uncommon from an anesthetic but it does happen more then we think, that's why old people tend to get dementia afterwards. Unfortunately most doctors, unless they are neurotoxicity specialists tend to misdiagnose as anxiety, depression, blah blah blah. Anyway I was misdiagnosed for two years, I started recovering after a year and 8months, until I got poisoned again by antibiotics this year and now I'm back to square one, but luckily this time I got a proper diagnosis and I can never take antibiotics again really or have an anesthetic or drink alcohol etc etc, unless I want more brain damage. Look up neurotoxicity. It should provide you with some answers. Oh yeah and neurotoxicity doesn't show up in tests. Just for the final kick in the teeth. It's like dementia, it can only be diagnosed from symptoms. They only way they could tell you had it, is if when you passed away, they dissected your brain. Honestly. It sounds like a made up illness but it incredibly common and virtually always misdiagnosed and it can be caused by virtually everything that's toxic to humans, even aspirin if you take enough of it. Hope that helps x

Wow that is scary!! Thanks for your message Jessica. Going to Google it now. I have had 4 months of hell..from being in perfect health to now...this. feel like my immune system has just completely gone too....I seem to catch whatever is going around...currently full of flu *sigh* Makes you feel slightly looney doesn't it!! Even started seeing a psychologist cos I feel so anxious and Feel like I'm losing the plot !

I was exactly the same! Perfect health to crippled by my symptoms over night. I also suffered severe anxiety and depression and that's why they misdiagnosed me, I felt like I was mad for a long time, and I'd never suffered before. it's part of the awful symptoms unfortunately, because your brain is so irritated by the anesthetic, and it causes damage to your central nervous system as well as many other parts of the brain/body, and most doctors do all the tests, see they come back fine, so just label you with mental health issues. I think there's maybe five or six of us on this forum that I've spoken to (so there may be many more) that were triggered by anesthetics or c-sections or antibiotics etc. My doctor told me there is no cure, just time. Time is the best healer. Eventually things will settle again but until that happens you can't really take any other medication that can cross the blood brain barrier. No steriods, antibiotics, beta blockers, antidepressants alcohol (gutted) etc. Even ibuprofen because it can make it much worse. So if you've done some research and have come to the conclusion that you fit the neurotoxicity symptoms then you really need to try focus on being as healthy as possible, avoid all sugar, wheat, and anything that can cause inflammation in the gut and drink a ton of water. I also found vitimin D helped me soooo much. Just sitting in the sun as much as possible. It takes a long time, a really long time. And at first you won't even notice a change, but it will get better. I promise. If you want to chat more, send me a private message and I can explain the ins and outs of what's happening to the brain, why your getting certain symptoms etc x

Hi Jessica,

Good morning to you, I do agree with you.

You are 100% right.

Medication can destroy us with side affects.

I have bad and good days.

From been perfect healthy person to weak and heat with this symptoms.

I am trying to exercise and see talking therapy too.

I wish every one a good health and quick recovery.

Sab 

Jessica how do i private message you? Done some research on Heavy metals, neurotoxins and Epstein Barr Virus which I think you will find very interesting.

Hey! I'm so glad you've done some research and you're confident you've found a cause. Unfortunately for me I know mine isn't heavy metals, but just plain old brain damage from a severe and incredibly rare reaction to anesthetic and then antibiotics. (I know that's the case because I still have the leaflets from my antibiotics and I have every side effect on the thing) However I also know that heavy metals can definitely cause illness, that's why we no longer use lead in paint, because it causes psychological problems and mercury is incredibly deadly. Im sure the treatment is the same as anesthetic induced neurotoxicity as heavy metals because they both do exactly the same damage. also I would still bet my life savings you had a reaction to the anesthetic though as you'd never suffered before and within a few weeks you got your symptoms. It's not a coincidence. Neurotoxicity takes weeks to manifest. So do proceed with caution. Your body/brain is in a very fragile state and its trying desperately to find an equalibrium between all the chemicals again. I had a cyst grow in my thyroid after my anesthetic after 4 months, I also lost the ability to pop my ears, and I lost a significant amount of weight rapidly within a month at the 8month mark as just a few of minor symptoms I had. So my body was still in injury mode for at least 8months afterwards, because I was still developing new symptoms. First time round I did it naturally. I took nothing. And I did get better. Second time round I've taken a whole host of supplements etc and they didn't make a difference and now I'm back to doing it naturally and letting my body heal on its own. My doctor advised me to stay away from all medication. Eat as healthily as possible. Only organic food if you can (unorganic contains pesticides that also cause neurotoxicity). Drink alot of a water. Avoid sugar. Try and get good sleep and lots of sun. Try to exercise if you can. I can't atm, because if I attempt it I have three days of being bed bound atm. These drugs, all drugs/metals that cross the blood brain barrier can cause devestating damage to your whole body. I'm not exaggerating unfortunately. Every inch of your body is damaged. Your blood, brain, nerves, ears, eyes etc. You have to listen to your body. And proceed with extreme caution. Please don't push yourself on days when you don't feel like it. Your body needs to heal and that's its way of telling you to take it easy.

Jessica, I was wondering if you ever looked into upper cervical chiropractic care? It's different from regular chiropractic and they don't do the violent twisting adjustments. They xray first to see if C1 C2 are off. Believe me, I am suspicious of this kind of thing, and don't want to waste my money. But my phys therapist, who my Neuro referred me to, recommended that I be evaluated for this. I have many similar symptoms of others on here, and everything (tinnitus, facial pain, neck/shoulder pain, migraine) is ONLY on the left. No Dr can tell me why. Mine came after surgery too. When I woke up after a 8hr surgery, I had screaming tinnitus in left ear and dizziness. Phys therapist says it's possible that having my neck in position for breathing tube for 8hrs may have caused a neck problem. Anyway, I go for evaluation in a few weeks, and will write a post down the line if I feel this treatment helped me.

Jessica, I was wondering if you ever looked into upper cervical chiropractic care? It's different from regular chiropractic and they don't do the violent twisting adjustments. They xray first to see if C1 C2 are off. Believe me, I am suspicious of this kind of thing, and don't want to waste my money. But my phys therapist, who my Neuro referred me to, recommended that I be evaluated for this. I have many similar symptoms of others on here, and everything (tinnitus, facial pain, neck/shoulder pain, migraine) is ONLY on the left. No Dr can tell me why. Mine came after surgery too. When I woke up after a 8hr surgery, I had screaming tinnitus in left ear and dizziness. Phys therapist says it's possible that having my neck in position for breathing tube for 8hrs may have caused a neck problem. Anyway, I go for evaluation in a few weeks, and will write a post down the line if I feel this treatment helped me.

Hey lizzy,

No, like I said, I know exactly what I have. I self diagnosed, then my doctor diagnosed me, then I did so much research off my own back. I have every single symptom of neurotoxicity, specifically from antibiotics, I've read hundreds of similar stories and success stories and I have about 30 symptoms, from blurred vision, to damaged nerves, dizziness, seizures, stained teeth, furry tongue, gastric distress, head pressure, headaches, muscle weakness, muscle spasms, memory loss (long and short term) mental confusion, kidney pain, problems reading and writing, disassociation, depression, anxiety, ocd thoughts, eye pain, dry eyes, chronic dehydration, heart palpations/pain all the time, chronic fatigue. There's actually more. And they are cyclical, so I don't have all at once. I get worse around my period. Its definitely 100% not anything physical, it's central nervous system damage. Read a website called floxie hope, its about neurotoxicity caused by antibiotics, I share all their symptoms and lots of them took the antibiotics I took. Hope that helps.

Hey lizzy,

No, like I said, I know exactly what I have. I self diagnosed, then my doctor diagnosed me, then I did so much research off my own back. I have every single symptom of neurotoxicity, specifically from antibiotics, I've read hundreds of similar stories and success stories and I have about 30 symptoms, from blurred vision, to damaged nerves, dizziness, seizures, stained teeth, furry tongue, gastric distress, head pressure, headaches, muscle weakness, muscle spasms, memory loss (long and short term) mental confusion, kidney pain, problems reading and writing, disassociation, depression, anxiety, ocd thoughts, eye pain, dry eyes, chronic dehydration, heart palpations/pain all the time, chronic fatigue. There's actually more. And they are cyclical, so I don't have all at once. I get worse around my period. Its definitely 100% not anything physical, it's central nervous system damage. Read a website called floxie hope, its about neurotoxicity caused by antibiotics, I share all their symptoms and lots of them took the antibiotics I took. Hope that helps.

Ahh. That sounds horrible! Is there any treatment? Some drugs do affect certain people but not others. The drug Levaquin is thought to have caused my Achilles tendon tear back in 2010. I call it rat poison as I felt poisoned while I was on it. But none of my current symptoms came about during that time.

There is no known treatment. Usually if its a very mild case stopping the offending drug makes the symptoms disappear after a while. But if its moderate to severe it can take months and year to develop and it can take years to go or some symptoms can be permanent. Unless a doctor is trained as a neurotoxicity specialist it is very easy to misdiagnose so I imagine that not many studies have been done on it, although there is alot of medical literature on the subject. I'll put in some interesting links if you chose to read them.

Yes, levaquin is part of the group of antibiotics that cause tendon ruptures, along with cipro etc. Lots of people have been left crippled by that antibiotic. However their side effects can devestate your whole body, many months after the event. You really should read floxie hope. What tends to happen, is most people have never had a drug reaction before, and have taken antibiotics many times throughout their lives with zero side effects, that was definitely true for me, I ate then like sweets when I was younger, and eventually you'll start to react. It may be subtle, it'll probably be delayed so you won't put two and two together. Once you start reacting though for some reason it causes hypersensitivity to all drugs that cross the blood brain barrier. Peoples symptoms even get triggered by ibuprofen in some cases. So I imagine with you, you had levaquin, had a reaction, but a relatively 'mild' one mentally and physically although your tendon ruptured, then you had an anesthetic and that added to the damage if that makes sense? So your brain had only recovered partially and then the anesthetic came in and really messed stuff up. I have to explain how strong the drugs in anesthetics are to people. You would die under anesthetic if there wasn't someone there to breathe for you. It puts you in to a coma. Not a sleep. A coma. That's why so many old people die on operating tables. Doctors also have no idea how they work, just that they do and even seconds with out the right anesthetic dose can cause brain damage. There's even a term for damage after operations, its called postoperative cognitive decline. That means your brain will not function correctly potentially after an anesthetic. They are potentially reviewing anesthetics because they are dangerous. Especially in the elderly and children. I now have to wear a bracelet that says no antibiotics or anesthetic in an emergency unless it is literally life or death and even then I would probably choose death my symptoms have been so bad. So in my case I had an anesthetic, I went in a happy, healthy amazing young woman, a week later I became a fearful, confused wreck with severe insomnia and anxiety like I have never felt in my life. It wasn't even anxiety it was pure fear 24 hours a day. I then recovered so slowly. I got back to my life, nothing was ever the same, but it became bareable, I had fun, I could run again and laugh and get a job, in that time I had taken no drugs at all. None. I was petrified of them. Until I took antibiotics for a sinus infection, I started getting deep tremors in my body, and depression and anxiety again, but I had no idea why. I just thought I was stressed for some reason. Even though my life was going amazingly. I then got put on beta blockers. Worst. Mistake. Ever. To combat the anxiety. I instantly felt weird but I was still functioning, going to work, seeing people, I then took amoxocillin and metronidazole and I became a vegetable within two days. I could not figure anything out. I didn't know what my hands were for. I couldn't read. I had no memory. I became catatonic. It took me a week to link the way I was feeling to the antibiotics and then I found firstly the beta blocker leaflet, the side effects were horrific and I was experiencing everyone. I then read the antibiotic leaflet and I was experiencing every side effect and more. Many more. So I went online to see if I was the only one and no there are thousands. Hundreds of thousands of people with the same story as mine and worse. I went to the docs with my page of side effects I was experiencing, and my mum so he didn't shrug it off as mental health because this time my symptoms were physical too. My mum had seen my face and ears burning red, my toes turn white, me collapsing and having to wear sunglasses even on rainy days because the light hurt my eyes so bad. He said I was having a severe reaction and said there was nothing he could do. I cannot take medication any more. Nothing. I can't even eat wheat or dairy, I'm now intolerant. I cannot take painkillers at all, they cause panic attacks, which sounds mad. But it's true. I used to be perfect. I walked 8km a day, I was happy, laid back, I loved my life and socialising. I loved dancing. I am now bedbound virtually every day except for one dog walk a day, and then I have to lie down until the afternoon, where if I'm lucky I'll be ok enough to cook dinner later. I am not exaggerating my symptoms because I always say what 27 year old would want to watch their life pass them by. I want to be out there desperately. But for now I have to listen to my body and take it easy. So many people cannot believe that man made drugs m, that are handed out in doctors or hospital can be dangerous, but they are as dangerous as recreational drugs, as dangerous as exhaust fumes, and pollution. You wouldn't sniff glue, or suck on the tail pipe of a car, because we know its dangerous, but we do take these drugs handed out by doctors and take them with out a second thought.

Will send links separately.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.news-medical.net/amp/health/What-is-Neurotoxicity.aspx

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3175508/

https://floxiehope.com/fluoroquinolone-toxicity-recovery-stories/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postoperative_cognitive_dysfunction

HI Jessica,

Yes you are absolutely right agree with your 100%.

No known treatment, all GP and Doctors cannot diagnose anything.

Your post is like I am the one who wrote that by myself.

I am suffering exactly the same way as you, just about to workforce few hours a day and I have to lie down in bed for all the afternoon.

I am seeing so many specialists Doctors next month.

I wish every one a quick recovery.

Take care.

Sab 

Jessica that is horrible!! You have suffered so much. All drugs have potential side effects but the drs don't seen to think of the very few who will be permanently damaged by them. My daughter has dysautonomia and is very sensitive to meds. Her Dr is getting ready to write a paper that talks about healing the nervous system (mostly the vagus nerve) with pantothenic acid (B5) and biotin. Your experience with anesthesia and meds also remind me of a friend who has mast cell activation disorder. She has to avoid so much, and takes zantac and mast cell stabilizers. I will check out your links. Funny thing, I may have posted on one of them back when I had the Achilles tear.

Jessica that is horrible!! You have suffered so much. All drugs have potential side effects but the drs don't seen to think of the very few who will be permanently damaged by them. My daughter has dysautonomia and is very sensitive to meds. Her Dr is getting ready to write a paper that talks about healing the nervous system (mostly the vagus nerve) with pantothenic acid (B5) and biotin. Your experience with anesthesia and meds also remind me of a friend who has mast cell activation disorder. She has to avoid so much, and takes zantac and mast cell stabilizers. I will check out your links. Funny thing, I may have posted on one of them back when I had the Achilles tear.

HI Jessica, it was great to stumple upon tour post it would seem ive got exactly what u described. after taking a horrible antibiotic it took me 10 months to see any improvement then suddenly i had a massive set back thats lasted the last 10 months. ive even been suicidal at times, its really been the hardest time of my life. but im really happy there is recovery. could tou please desrcibe to me more of what you've learnt about it? seems like you've researched alot! thankyou