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I have been lightheaded and ears ringing for one year now

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brenda71967
brenda71967

I started having symptoms a year ago. I was driving and all of a sudden I thought I was having a stroke. My vision went blurry, my ears started ringing and I got so dizzy I had to pull off the road. To this day, it has not gone away and has gotten worse. I have pressure in my ears, like they are full and they both ring constantly. My vision has changed in my left eye and it's blurry and I have double vision in that eye. It is so bad that it causes me a lot of anxiety. I have made an emergency trip to the hospital because I thought I was dieing. I have had MRI, CT, ENT, ENG, VNG tests done. I have seen 18 doctors and the only thing they can tell me is that I have lost my balance sensation in one ear that is causing my dizziness and unstableness. My legs are weak and shake and I would not dare stand on a ladder right now. I have been thru Vestibular Therapy exercises and they did not help. I am miserable and it has affected my daily function in life and is causing me to lose time at my job. My family is feeling the replicutions of my sickness too. I just want to feel NORMAL again. My brain is not working right and I have the sensation of falling all the time in my head. It is such a weird feeling and I can't fall asleep unless I take a sleeping pill and even now, I am waking up like I am falling. The ENT doctor has not made a diagnosis but I am taking some medicine to try to dry up fluid in my ears. Its hard to walk in a busy store without feeling dizzy or unstable and my vision is so off I can't see. I have had thoughts of not wanting to live like this anymore, that is how awful this disease or whatever this is I have is. Does anyone else have these symptoms or a diagnosis or maybe some ideas on how I can control it? 

Thank you 

2 likes, 138 replies

138 Replies

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  • jodie77731
    jodie77731 brenda71967

    Posted

    Hello Brenda. I just found your post here... Of 4 months ago... And i am crying. A year?! You are very strong and very brave. I had my "attack" of whatever this is 2 weeks ago today. And you have been a year ?! How are you now? Have you any relief? I of course too am looking for hope. Mine includes: lightheadedness dizziness, like I am falling, nystagmus Or eye shaking back-and-forth uncontrollably, tinnitus in both ears of white noise or like I've been at a concert to a deafening degree, full and plugged feeling ears , terrible burning down deep in both ears for which I have to use cold wet Q-tips in my ears to find any relief, nausea/vomiting, intense fatigue, terribly weak and shaky legs, and now to the burning sensation has moved to the back of my throat into my lungs and I have a terrible cough from it... My only relief is when I am lying flat and can find sleep which only lasts until I roll over and the dizziness hits me and wakes me.. I am a 50-year-old woman 10 years into menopause following a hysterectomy. All I was doing was shopping... Ménière's disease is my latest diagnosis after seven hours in the emergency room Two days ago... I am so afraid... you have battled this for a year? Please tell me have you learned anything new that has given you relief? All of my good thoughts and best wishes are with you!
    • brenda71967
      brenda71967 jodie77731

      Posted

      Hi Jodie. Sorry I just now getting back with you. I am sorry you are feeling the same way I am. You have described me to the "T". Every symptom you have, I have. Its' horrifying!!! I have horrific ringing in both ears,plugged up feeling in one ear, dizziness, lightheadedness, ANXIETY to the MAX, chronic fatigue, legs are constantly shaking and weak, balance problems to the max, blurry vision and double vision in one eye, neck pain.I'm sure there is a couple more I am leaving out, Sound familiar?  I always feel like I am falling and I have this weird sensation in my brain like it is going to explode any second, its' the feeling you get in an airplane when you are slowly descending to land and you get that icky feeling in your head, like you are dropping. That is the worst for me, it is pretty much non stop through my day. I can't stand any loud noises or even someone crunching on a chip, its sends me thru the roof and I feel like my eardrum is going to explode. Very sensitive to sound. I have been to so many Doctors, 3 ENT doctors, 3 eye drs., one Nuerologists, one Opthamologist Neurologists, MRI, CT of the brain, neck MRI, ENG, VNG, EEG, rotary chair testing,hearing testing, extensive blood work, all come back fine! I also had 4 weeks of VRT which did nothing, as a matter of fact the Therapists released me and told me I was waisting my time and money because nothing was helping. The ear drs did say I have something going on in one ear, maybe the beginning of Menieres disease, they couldn't tell me for sure. One of the ear drs I saw 3 times and he sent me away and said I can't help you! I have NO faith in doctors anymore.They tired to tell me take Valium everyday, who can work with Valium? Not me and try to function. I have tried Meclizine too, which only made me worse. I'm going on 15 months with this condition and it just hit me while I was drving oneday. No explantation. My ears started ringing, the anxiety hit me and I lost vision in my left eye. Stores are my enemy as I feel more dizzy and my left eye goes crazy. I have floaters and blurriness and start getting nauseated. NO fun. I do try to continue working thru my day as it is very hard to pretend you feel good and talk to clients. Every now and then I will have a few minutes of relief but if I focus on things up close, I'm back in my dizziness. I try to walk as they say it helps to keep moving. I do find if I sit on the coucn and watch TV, I seem to feel worse at times.  I'm like you, I can't wait to get into bed everynight, as that is the only time I feel good. I don't have the severe spinning like Vertigo as some of these people experience, I just feel like I got off of a Merry go Round and it won't go away. My life has become obsolete! I have days that I don;t want to wake up and ask God not to wake me up, but then I have my kids and family to think about, but I'm telling you, I have wished that plenty of times, more than I want to admit. I have had it so long and never have a day that is good anymore, that I feel l will have to live like this forever!!! Hopelessness sets in. Friends and family don't understand this horrible disease, or whatever it is, because we look fine and don't look sick. It' frustrating when you want to join in on their laughter but just cant bring yourself to smile anymore. I have never been one to sit around, but now I don't want to move. I'm so sorry to hear you are suffering too, I hope you find an answer and get better and maybe you can let the rest of us know how you did it.  Good luck and please keep in touch!
    • jodie77731
      jodie77731 brenda71967

      Posted

      Hi Brenda. I send good healing energy to you. I want you to try something... An ER doctor (my second) shared this with me and told me she had had a similar type of attack when she was in college... med school... and someone told her they had read this in some obscure book and remembered it.... She tried it ... and it worked for her! She says she sees a couple people per week come into the ER with variations on our symptoms (says it's fairly common) and always shares this with every one of them... And sometimes it does work for them! she says she's even gotten a Thank You card to her and the ER staff from a lady had these symptoms 16 years and tried this following an ER visit on one of those really bad days and it worked for her! So maybe it will help you! This is what you do: sit upright in the middle of your sofa. Place a pillow at each far end of the sofa. Have a timer. Set timer for 3 min. From your seated upright position lay straight over to your right side placing your head on the pillow leaving your bottom in the middle of the sofa and raise your feet to the pillow at the opposite end. Stay in that position the full three minutes until the timer goes off. Then sit straight up sideways do not turn your head but keep looking straight forward so that you are again on your bottom in an upright position in the middle of the sofa. Set the timer again for three minutes and then lie over to your left side placing your head on that pillow raising your feet to the opposite end same as before just the opposite direction. Complete this back and forth five times on each side. If it makes no difference you can try it again the next day but at five minutes rather than three minute intervals. For some people this alleviates the light headedness, dizziness, spinning, falling motion entirely... For others it offers at least some relief for a while and of course it can be repeated as often as needed at eight somehow tricks your brain into not paying attention to what your ears are telling it about what's going on with you so levels you out. It did not eliminate my lightheadedness entirely but it did alleviate it on the worst day I have had and I have never had it that bad since. I am doing this every day religiously as that symptom does seem to have lightened from the very start... But Brenda do try it and do let me know if it works for you... Is important to remember not to turn your head while doing this process keep it straight forward... Am very hopeful that this will impact you in some positive way... And a sidenote the medicines did not work for me either...
    • jodie77731
      jodie77731 brenda71967

      Posted

      And! I did experiment on myself based an some info online on tinnitus and it is true! At least for me... I've tried it 3 times in these two werks... Salt makes it worse!!! Went to no salt diet for 4 days and the noise sensitivity, hissing/ringing/white noise, and fullness decreased! I could especially tell at night! Ate salt again and sure enough it increased again each time... Not a cure but helping a little to manage symptoms... It might work for you...
    • brenda71967
      brenda71967 jodie77731

      Posted

      Hi Jodie, Thank you so much for that info on the exercise. I actually had a client of mine tell me that his wife did something similar to that and I tried it off and on but didn't stick to it because I was feeling so bad. I would lay on the bed and lay on one side and put my legs up like  you were talking about and then would look up at the celing and stay for 2 minutes and then the other side. Your exercise is a little different than that. I will try your way and try to stick to it. I get so depressed when I can't see a difference. I have heard from many people that salt and caffeine is bad for us that have this condition. I have switched to Ms. Dash spice and have not added any salt to my dishes. Its hard sometimes as I try to reach for the salt but then say NO Don't Do it !!! If I am really feeling the anxiety and heart palpatations bad, I do notice the ringing gets louder, almost unbearable ! I swear that i feel fluid rolling around in that one ear that is so full, it will feel like a bug just crawled in there. Thank you so much for the info and will certainly give it a try. I will keep you posted. Let's keep doing these silly exercises, whatever we think will help us, right?
    • mikemix
      mikemix brenda71967

      Posted

      Brenda, your symptoms are very similar to mine. Do you also feel the world to be very bright? Would like to chat with you more about this.
    • mandejw
      mandejw jodie77731

      Posted

      Thanks I am going to try this. I have had this now for 5 years it started one day after a cold wile i was shopping. One thing that has helped when watching tv or on laptop is glasses as my eyes do not feel so wobbly i have reading glasses from optician also i am on Betahistine which does help a bit
    • anthonys_ear_pr
      anthonys_ear_pr brenda71967

      Posted

      Have you ever had your teeth checked out the loud sounds is what i have when the sounds are crazy i feel dry in my sinuses ears feel full light headed off balance it happens ever week sometimes it goes a whole month whatever is wrong with me its teasing my life anxiety has got ahold of me now what's weird is my jaw seems to be playing a roll maybe im getting it looked at today or possibly my bite my teeth might be off causing all this madness look into it dr Sutter dtr treatment or tmd treatment i came across this i have some kinda hope for us ppl who are going through this the worse part for me is waking up to increase sounds usally goes away within 24 hours but comes right on back

  • jodie77731
    jodie77731 brenda71967

    Posted

    Hi again Brenda! Laura in this forum posted today that she has found the cause of her dizziness and all related symptoms to be pernicious anemia or the body's inability to absorb vitamin B12 creating a deficiency! Early blood testing did show that I was also B12 deficient and have been reading online today all I can about pernicious anemia... So many of the symptoms you and I share so in case you hadn't seen the post or conversation by Laura I wanted to be sure to point this out to you just in case you have not already ruled this out! Apologies if somewhere in this conversation you have mentioned already ruling it out I have difficulty reading for very long it makes the dizziness worse for me.. That may also be because I am visually impaired.. Anyway I have just scheduled a second B 12 blood test for tomorrow and am hopeful that this may be the cause of my symptoms... And perhaps it may be worth a shot for you as well? I hope you are having a better day today!
    • brenda71967
      brenda71967 jodie77731

      Posted

      Hi Jodie, yes I just saw where Laura posted that . I'm so excited for her and it's weird that I just had a client tell me about vitamin B12 defienentcy 

      and what it does to your body. She said I had all the symptoms too and she is feeling tremendous better since she is taking the shots every week. I thought I would ask my dr to test me too. My dr did double up on my Vitsmin D, 8000 mg to be exact . Thank you for thinking about me and letting men now about Laura's findings. I hope and pray that it helps us all. Let me know how you test too. Talk to you soon 

  • brentp
    brentp brenda71967

    Posted

    I have had similar symptoms. My ears feel full most of the time.  I have total deafness sometimes in one ear or the other, but only for a minute or two and then it goes away.  Sometimes my ears just ring or buzz, but against only for a few minutes at the most.   I also get some shar pains in my head, nausea, and shortness of breath.  I have had nearly every test under the sun.  Everything from cardiac, neurology, and ENT.  

    Anyone have symptoms that started this way?  

    • anthonys_ear_pr
      anthonys_ear_pr brentp

      Posted

      Mine did when it would happen my ears plugged like of a thick mucus qas running slowly after the ringing would stop i would halk up mucus in my throat and the ringing and fullness would go away now i can't do this anymore and it feels fullness all the time and very dry

    • EagleKJD
      EagleKJD brentp

      Posted

      Yes Brent, mine started out the exact same way. Did you ever find an answer? The shortness of breath and dizziness scare me the most. My shortness of breath lasts all day. Feels like I can't take a deep breath. I'm wondering if it's from allergies or an inner ear infection. There are 2 things I am about to try. One is Wild Oregano Oil (p73), and the other is Serrapeptase (a miracle enzyme). I would go into the LONG miraculous benefits of these 2 things, but there are countless studies and testimonials on the net.

  • elizabeth_14138
    elizabeth_14138 brenda71967

    Posted

    Hi all. I'm just starting to connect with others on this topic. I've never talked outside of family and doctors about it before. I've been dealing with these exact Issues for many years. They use to kinda just come and go at will with no explanation. That was in my late teens early twenties. After my first child was born they were a little worse for awhile. After my second child, they all but disappeared for a time. Just before I conceived my third they came back with a vengeance! When she was about 6 months old they were so bad I was suffering from almost stroke level blood pressure and all but bedridden. I have been to the point of being completely debilitated at times. Being a stay at home mother of 3 it has been absolutely horrifying!!!!! I'm only 38. I should be going strong. I know exactly how you feel in all this. I've been on meds from allergy pills to anti-anxiety pills. Tests done out the whazoo! Through a multitude of doctors who all tell me it's in my head. A therapist who said she could help me, but I can't afford that. NOTHING has worked. I'm currently on beta blockers for my heart palpitations, zoloft for my anxiety, and a vitamin regiment d b12 etc etc. All this being said, I have learned people don't understand (especially doctors). Many members of my family have suffered from this for many years. They have all said you just have to deal with it. That I will outgrow it. :-( Even my 92 year old grandmother sais this. So I'm guessing it's not fatal if they're all still here.

    Hang in there. You're not alone. There are some people who understand you. This condition doesn't mean you're life is over. Or that it should be. It's just another one of those invisible struggles that WILL make you stronger. Prayers and peace sister.

  • dona95120
    dona95120 brenda71967

    Posted

    Hi Brenda glad to see hear someone else has these symptoms also mine started out when I was nine with severe migraines over the past 4 years I've had the same chronic condition that you are explaining in great detail my vision has changed my balance has changed I've had all the testing tried all these different medications have had sleep issues for about 8 years and still wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep the dizziness swimming headedness the ringing in the ears that never goes away has gotten worse over the past year my vision in my eye proceeds to get worse I have another doctors appointment July the 20th I have lost two jobs over there and I'm trying to get disability for it still no exact diagnosis yet have even proceeded to see a psychologist to see if there's something psychological going on but there appears to be nothing there either all tests have came back clear CT scans hearing vision and that's one that really baffles me I still have good vision in my eyes but the blurriness and the dizziness affects my daily life to the point of where some days I cannot even get out of bed so if you find out anything on this please write me back and let me know at this point I'm looking for any answers

    Thank you

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