Labyrinthitis/ Vestibular Neuritis...Please Help

Hi All,

Thanks Shirshir for starting this post. My symptoms are quite similar to yours. After 10 months of suffering the unknown and many fruitless visits to GPs, A&Es etc., I finally brought myself to self diagnose. I'm so happy to have found this messageboard.

It all started one morning when I woke up. I felt nauseous and dizzy, couldn't get up. When I finally stood up it felt like I was going to collapse. Spent that day in bed and the next 2 days in the house feeling unwell. The day prior to the initial spell, I had a very strenous swim. Did 150 lenghts in a 25m pool, trying to beat my personal best. I normally do 100 lenghts with no problem but that particular day I was quite stressed and tense. On top of that the extra 50 lenghts wasn't a good idea. Around the 120th lenght I recall having a bad head pressure pain on the left side of my head. I stopped to take off my left earplug, which was painful. I thought I must have scratched my ear, but looking back, the pain was definitely pressure related.

On the 4th day of my initial symptoms I visited my GP. He asked me how it all kicked off and if I was stressed in any way. I told him that I never had any anxiety issues and was not stressed out. Also told him my experince in the swimming pool.

He gave me some pain killers and sent me home. The pain killers did not make any difference and my dizziness continued. However it was nothing like the initial spell, where I couldn't even stand up.

A week later I went to see another Dr, who asked me the same questions but suspected that the issue might be a trapped nerve. I was then sent to see a physio. The physio said I was quite stiff around the neck but had no problems with balance. I was able to walk in a straight line and my eye movements were fine.

A week later I went back to the gym. Did some back exercises, hoping that I would feel better. Upon returning home, I felt awful. The dizziness was very severe and I felt pain in my left ear. It very much felt like a pressure pain. The next morning I was at the GP again. The GP said that it must be the trapped nerve giving me grief and the anxiety must be the cause of my dizziness. She then sent me to the hospital for a series of blood tests as well as a neck MRI scan.

As I wasn't convinced and the earache was getting worse, I googled earache causes and decided that I had an outer ear infection. Went to the chemists and got a bottle of hydrogen preroxide and poured it down my ear. That made it much worse and I headed to the A&E. The Dr there checked my ears and said there was a small infection in my left ear and gave me anti-biotics. By the time I left the A&E, the ear pain was a lot less. I still took the anti-biotics hoping that it will cure my ear and therefore my dizziness. Nothing changed.

I should mention that my dizziness was constant with bad and not too bad spells, but it was always there.

Then I was off to Spain for a 5 day holiday. I was hoping that maybe the pressure during the flight will do my ears good or if it is anxiety related, a holiday will relax me. I was wrong, the whole time I was there I felt no different.

Upon my return I went to a private ear clinic to get my ears washed. They said my ears were squaky clean (thanks to the hyrogen peroxide) but my left ear drum was not opening up properly which might be a sign of an inner ear infection.

Armed with this information, I was back at my GP. By then they had the results from my blood tests, which showed elevated liver enzymes. Neck scan didn't find anything. This made them think that it might be an infection. I was then checked for Hepatitis, which all came back clear.

My head was still dizzy and I was feeling fed up. I started to think that I had a brain tumor. I have always refrained from self-diagnosing myself online. But a recent visit to a friend who self diagnosed his cancer online after numorous visits to his GP convinced me that I had to do something about it. I delayed it up to today.

I was due to go on a month holiday to the States at this stage and decided to wait for another month. Again, the holiday changed nothing.

My GP recently gave me some very strong anti-inflammatory pills and said I can take those and go back to exercise. How wrong was she. I went for a normal swim and I was all over the place the next day.

After several more bad spells and more visits to the GP and A&E, I finally went for a private MRI scan of my brain. I am still waiting for the results. I am hoping that nothing will come out of it. I will find out this Friday.

I finally decided that I will check online and came accross this forum. It very much made me think that I have VN. It looks like everyone's experience is slightly different but the main symptoms are the same. I forgot to mention that I had a hearing test as well, which came out fine. This makes me think that I have VN rather than Labyrinthitis.

If people who have posted on here could post updates from time to time, that would be great.

I found this site, which has some useful info but it is more for Labyrinthitis sufferers rather than VN sufferers.

http://www.labyrinthitis.org.uk/

I hope my experience will help others diagnose themselves as it can take a lot of Dr visits to find out what you have.

At this stage I am still not diagnosed with anything but next time I visit my Dr (this Friday) I will take a print out of Shirshir's post as it describes how I feel very well.

Thanks again

Hi all I'm going through a nightmare I've had these symptoms for two years now dizzeness ringing in my ears pressure in my ears and head I've was diagnosed with a perforated ear drum a longtime ago 

I was giving some pills and then I was told it will get better but it hasn't I have major anxiety attacks now that  really scare me I'm at the stage now where I'm finally having a mir scan and some xrays I just want to feel normal again I can't do the things I used to do ie gym biking swimming is ok until I get out and then I get punished I'm at my wits end 

I have had the same problems for four years and all I can say is you have to be pushy with the gp/nhs.  First off you need to be seen at ENT at your local hospital, so tell (don't ask!) your gp this is what you want.  Forget all the drugs he will try to give you as they rarely work, and if they do, not long term.  You need to see a specialist, gp,s do not know enough about this complex co plaine as there are so many different symptoms.  While you are waiting for the wheels to turn, research as much as you can on this problem.  Get yourself some god quality supplements , just to help your body deal with the stress.  B 12 complex, Vit C 1000mg, Vit D,  do not got for the multi vitamin as they are waste of your money.  there are some exercises you can try just to maybe get some relief.  They work for some, not others.  One I got from this site is to sit on the side of your bed, turn your head for eg, to left the. Very quickly lie down on your side, stay this way for one minute (I count to sixty), come up slowly as you may feel dizzied, wait for secs no when ready do the same another four times.  repeat this by turning head to right first etc and do the other side.  then another thing, try and cut out dairy as it makes you congested (cows milk has lot of mucous), get a saucepan, heat up water in it to a simmer or lower., till you have steam, lean over (no need for towel!), and breath the steam in.  Also look at Ménière's disease websites, in case this is your problem for info.  And lastly VEDA, which is an American, very very good, website.  they have a Facebook page, think you need to put Vestibular as opposed to VEDA in search to get it up, sorry can't remember what the rest stands for.  You can post your story on there, get feedback too.  Best of luck, and don't despair, you need to learn to manage this yourself and not totally rely on the medical profession okay.