Post cold/flu wooziness
Posted , 3 users are following.
About a week ago, I had the cold/flu and didn't get better until recently. However, after my cold symptoms started to go away, I've been experiencing a slight pressure on my head (both left and right), pain on my neck and shoulders, sore temples, a woozy/spaced-out/derealization sensation in my head, and a slight ringing in my ears (pretty much only noticeable when I'm in my bed at night when everything is silent).
The only thing that has gotten significantly better is the head pressure (although I get random, acute head pains/irritations throughout my head). Being someone who Is easily anxious, I've felt nauseous from time to time, but no vomiting. What's annoying me the most is the wooziness feeling in my head. I've been able to relieve this temporarily by taking hot showers. I let the water run on the back of my head/neck, which really feels good as I can feel all the nerves being "released".
Everything is good until the next day. I wake up in the morning and everything feels fine. However, I'd say starting or after breakfast, the wooziness kinda comes back. I've browsed through the internet and people with similar symptoms have said anxiety or sinus infections, both of which I've never really experienced before. Can anxiety really do such a thing to me? I'd say that I probably spend the entire day worrying about it, especially everytime I sense something in my head or neck. In terms of sinus infections, I still have a runny or stuffy nose, so I'm not sure if that has to deal with this either. Honestly, the moment I wake up every morning, I lie in bed and hope that it'll be gone, as silly as it seems.
P.S. Something I'm also suspecting is my pillow; the night before this all started happening, I switched my pillow with a really old one because it had the memory foam head contour thing. This was when I still had head pressure. The wooziness started happening,
0 likes, 3 replies
Guest jimmy03701
Posted
I hope you are feeling better since your post. I have had a cold that turned to a chest infection for which I am on antibiotics. I am getting all of the symptoms you describe including the tinnitus and wooziness which is the worse for me. I also get neck and shoulder pain but I have osteoarthritis in my neck, early stages. Because of my chest infection I too have changed my sleeping position to sitting up in bed which makes my neck ache. When you mentioned about changing your pillow and noticing the changes it set alarm bells ringing for me. Do you have neck arthritis? Sometimes that can make you feel woozy. You are right in saying anxiety and sinus problems can also cause it. Neck arthritis can also be associated with tinnitus. I hope you are feeling better.
jimmy03701 Guest
Posted
Thanks for your reply.
I'm starting to feel slightly better, but not completely. The wooziness is kind of there, but it's slowly disappearing. I only really notice it and feel it the most when I'm indoors. Once I step outside, I feel a lot better. Maybe it's the fresh air that's helping.
Since my last post, I've been experiencing a lot of brain fog and minor sinus headaches (one night I felt the pressure in my forehead, but that went away after a good night's sleep). With the brain fog, my mental thought process has been really slow and it's been slow for me to recall information. Every time I talk to someone, I'm always really self-conscious about the words coming out of my mouth. I think I've been stressing out too much about this to the point where I've had a slight tremor in my left hand (the slight shaking is there only when I bend it up and down). I've been googling my symptoms every day NONSTOP since the first day I've been sick with old and new symptoms, which has definitely been a bad idea because I've ended up with either satisfying or really bad/scary results. There is still pain in my left temple when I press it and sometimes, I feel a dull pain there.
I didn't mention it last time, but the pain in my neck is specifically near the bone (or muscle? not sure) behind my ear on both the left and right side. When I apply pressure, it hurts! I also still have nasal congestion that seems to go away after I blow my nose, but comes back either being runny or stuffy the next day. I also didn't mention last time that I've had weird sharp (but not really sharp) pains in my head that aren't really painful, but more so annoying. It kind of feels like if someone took a finger and just pressed down on my skull once. Surprisingly, my cold/flu started a day right after I felt that "sensation" while in shopping in a store, so that's kind of odd. Perhaps an infection?
Either way, I think I'm planning on seeing a doctor next week. I'm a 20-year old college student, and the start to this quarter has been awful because this has been all I've been worrying about.
Guest jimmy03701
Posted
Hi Jimmy,
I'm happy to hear that you are starting to feel better. With a cold/flu virus and all the symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, blocked nose etc, it affects all the nerves in the head giving rise to all of these aches and pains such as tension headaches, earrache, swollen glands etc. I take NSAIDS for relief, I find they relieve my woozy head feeling, not the tinnitus though because aspirin, Ibruprofen can aggravate and even cause tinnitus. You are also worrying otherwise you wouldn't be posting here and this is causing some anxiety which doesn't help. When you are out in the fresh air you said you feel better, that is because when you are out you are not dwelling on it. Fresh air is good as long as you dress for the weather accordingly. I hope you continue to feel better but if not go see your doctor if it's just for peace of mind. Best wishes with your studies.
Kind regards