COVID, tinnitus and vertigo

Thanks for your response. I sent a long reply which doesn't seem to have posted. I will re-write later on today.

Thank you. That's a shame. I really want to hear your thoughts... Please re-reply! ... And I hope you are doing better. 😃

Here we go again.

I’m sorry to hear about your condition. Difficulty swallowing sounds like it would have been scary.

My symptoms today are much as they are every other day. I always seem to wake up feeling dizzy and then that tends to come and go throughout the day. The buzzing in my ears never seems bad in the mornings, but seems to get worse again every evening. I also seem to have a mild shakiness. I've definitely become more clumsy.

Your description is very helpful so thank you for replying. Reading your response, I’m beginning to piece together a few things that have happened to me over the last few weeks which I hadn't connected before.

Back in early March, I had a very light fever for just one night, followed by a light cough for a few days. I wasn’t so ill that I needed to stay off work. It passed. However, after that I was left feeling like I had less energy than normal. A few days later, I had a very upset stomach, that came and went very quickly, I didn’t really connect the two and presumed I must have eaten something. (I now suspect that might all have been COVID)

About four weeks ago, I first noticed the tinnitus one evening while watching TV. Two days after that, I woke up, stood up and fell over with the room spinning. That was the worst vertigo attack I suffered but over the following few days, I continued to have bad vertigo that would come and go with no apparent cause. I woke up a couple of times in the night with the room absolutely spinning, unsure which direction was up or down.

At the same time, I thought I’d developed conjunctivitis as my eyes were red and itchy, and they had a lot of gunk in them when I woke up for several days.

I spoke to a doctor a couple of days after the first vertigo attack who told me that the eye and ear problem couldn’t be linked. (I now suspect they were). I started doing Epley maneouvre exercises for the vertigo and that seemed to help, although I can still feel nauseous , like I’m mildly car sick, at odd points throughout the day.

The thing your message made me think about was that before the vertigo happened, I had started to suffer anxiety dreams, which I’ve never really had before. A few nights running, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling very confused and very scared although I wasn’t sure why. A couple of nights I woke up with a very strange feeling, almost like I’d been suffocated, not short of breath , just pressure in my chest and this weird feeling of anxiety brain fog as you very well describe it. It almost felt like my brain was’t getting enough oxygen. I actually worried I might have suffered a heart attack or stroke in my sleep. But after being awake a while, I started to feel more normal and that worry subsided. I haven’t had that again though.

In the following weeks, some days I can go for a long bike ride or do a whole day of gardening and feel fine, other days I go for a short walk and that leaves me feeling utterly exhausted.

I also now realise that I have had unexplained pins and needles in my arms and legs that I had justified to myself - I must have been sitting weirdly, that’s why I got it - when I know I haven’t been sitting weirdly.

I still definitely don’t feel ‘right’.

Like you, I’m a fit healthy man, with a good diet, and no underlying health conditions. So this is all very strange for me. I have suffered a small degree of anxiety in the past but triggered by situations I could pinpoint. I am mixed race (white/black african) and I don’t know if that’s had any bearing on any of this.

Do you mind me asking, are you in the UK?

Hi, and thank you for your detailed reply! I live in Toronto Canada... Sounds like you've been through the ringer. I'm around eight weeks and for the past 3 or 4 days I've been feeling really good!... I hope it is actually passing this time. But I am cautious because relapse has happened before. But after 3 only days. I'm getting longer periods of Wellness now... Interesting to hear that you have a lot of the same neurological symptoms I do. I never had full-blown vertigo like you, but I certainly was on the pathway to it with strange dizziness and waking from dreams in anxiety and breathlessness. I can vividly remember the dream, which was scary, but maybe the breathlessness was a physical aspect manifesting as a dream to explain itself. Who knows... Anyway let's keep each other updated as to our progress. I'm pretty sure we have a neurological version of covid-19. But as I mentioned before, the doctors and Society needs to get caught up. I bet all of our symptoms will get Vindicated 6 months from now when they finally figure this thing out. As more and more cases like ours get reported.

Feeling very very similar after 3 months of certain Covid, wife had antibody test which was positive and i was ill at the same time so know i had it.

my worst symptoms at the time was low oxygen levels which left me feeling like i have never felt before, early fifties, fit and well but the dizziness, foggy mindedness and some times clogged lungs will nit leave me.

Sometimes it is ok, but can feel lightheaded for days, particularly bad late evening. Also loud sudden noises hurt my head, really wierd, it is demoralising with no end in sight.

sometimes feel heart pulpitations but may be anxious when dizziness sets in, can sometimes during bouts feel really unwell, then it passes.

It is literally doing my head it