Having A Scary Episode Of Vertigo

[mesmerize]

Last night around 1am, I woke up very suddenly with the feeling that I was spinning/falling. I sat up in bed and it seemed to ease a bit, although I still felt very dizzy and nauseous. As soon as I would lie back down it would start again. It was so scary, it literally felt like I was spinning very quickly and falling, and my eyes would start jerking around and I couldn't focus.

I tried to get up and move around a little, and that helped, although I still felt very dizzy and couldn't walk in a straight line. This whole thing lasted over an hour, until finally I reached the point where I could lie down without feeling like I was spinning quite as much.

This morning (after a little online research) I realized that this was vertigo. (From WebMD: Vertigo is a feeling that you or your surroundings are moving when there is no actual movement. You may feel as though you are spinning, whirling, falling, or tilting. When you have severe vertigo, you may feel very nauseated or vomit. You may have trouble walking or standing, and you may lose your balance and fall.)

I had heard the term before, but didn't really know what it was. And although it seemed much better when I first woke up this morning, at the moment I'm back in bed because I'm having nausea and the spinning sensation again (not as bad as last night, but enough to make me run into things when I try to walk!)

Now I'm just trying to figure out what is causing it. There seem to be a bunch of different inner ear & neurological issues that can cause it, but of course my first instinct is always to suspect that it has something to do with my celiac and/or thyroid problems. Have any of you ever experienced this? Any ideas on if/how it could be related to my other problems? Ordinarily I'd go straight to the doctor because this seriously freaked me out last night, but I just started a new job and my insurance hasn't kicked in yet. I'm already up to my ears in past medical bills.

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer...

-Sara-

[wolfie]

Vertigo can be caused by different things. I know that when I had an inner ear infection I was so dizzy that I couldn't walk. I was waiting tables at the time and had to go home and lay down. My FIL also had vertigo right after I had DD and ended up in the hospital it was so bad. I don't think they ever found out what was causing it.

Do you have a dr that maybe you can call the nurse and see if they can tell you whether or not you need to come in to be seen?

Do you have any benedryl? That may help. They gave me antivert when I had it and I believe that it is just a stong antihistamine.

Hope you feel better soon!

[zansu]

I belive antivert is a brand name meclizine which is also sold OTC as dramamine II non-drowsy (25 mg).

My vertigo is primarily congestion in the inner ear and eustacion tubes and usually responds to sudaphed (the real stuff behind the counter!) Although I had a horrific case a few years ago and nothing helped. They ran all sorts of tests on me. In the end, it went away by itself AFTER 3 months of short term disability and after I had seen an ENT, a neurologist, a neuro-otologist (who knew they existed?) and a neuro-opthamologist (my presbyopia (Old eyes) kicked in at the same time complicating the attempts at diagnosis) and had been checked for brain tumors, MS and who knows what else. best guess in retropect: Inner ear infection.

This was shortly after I went gluten-free.

[super-sally888]

Hi,

If you are not feeling better yet, maybe go see a dr. and get checked for ear infection... this would be the most likely cause of suddenly getting vertigo... it is possible to have ear infection without pain.

Let us know how you go.

Sally

[georgiagirl]

Wow, maybe it is a symptom of celiac disease. I am newly diagnosed and had 2 very weird attacks of vertigo about a year ago. They both scared me to death and sound similar to your experience.

The first "attack" I had was when I was fast asleep. The sensation woke me up it was so powerful. It was terrifying. Everything was spinning violently and I don't know how I stopped myself from throwing up. I woke my husband and told him to call 911 as I thought I was having a stroke, heart attack, or something life threatening. Amazingly, he had read about vertigo and explained to me what was happening. I lay still and it finally passed after an hour or two.

The second "attack" happened last Easter. I was getting ready to go to Easter lunch, moved my head a certain way, and boom, the vertigo happened again. I lay down on the floor for about 4 hours to try to stop myself from throwing up. I was afraid that if I got up I would fall over as my balance was completely gone.

I went to an ENT who tested my hearing and confirmed it wasn't a brain tumor. They suspected it was just an inner ear infection. Fortunately, I haven't had any more vertigo since then.

I'm 37 and, apart from celiac disease, I am in good health.

I wonder if this really is a celiac symptom, or just coincidence that we both experienced it?

[chick2ba]

Sometimes, after a gluten contamination, I get weird vertigo. None of mine have been that scary, but there have been times when I've fallen over from lack of balance and watched everything 'shift' in front of me. A few nights I had to fall asleep sitting up on my couch because it was too disorienting to lie down. My vertigo definitely is gluten-triggered and won't go away until I sleep for awhile. However, sometimes the dizziness is coupled with digestive problems and other times just with gluten induced headaches (my symptoms vary)-- so I guess it is possible your vertigo is also gluten related. I hope you feel better.

[ICWendy]

Last night around 1am, I woke up very suddenly with the feeling that I was spinning/falling. I sat up in bed and it seemed to ease a bit, although I still felt very dizzy and nauseous. As soon as I would lie back down it would start again. It was so scary, it literally felt like I was spinning very quickly and falling, and my eyes would start jerking around and I couldn't focus.

I tried to get up and move around a little, and that helped, although I still felt very dizzy and couldn't walk in a straight line. This whole thing lasted over an hour, until finally I reached the point where I could lie down without feeling like I was spinning quite as much.

This morning (after a little online research) I realized that this was vertigo. (From WebMD: Vertigo is a feeling that you or your surroundings are moving when there is no actual movement. You may feel as though you are spinning, whirling, falling, or tilting. When you have severe vertigo, you may feel very nauseated or vomit. You may have trouble walking or standing, and you may lose your balance and fall.)

I had heard the term before, but didn't really know what it was. And although it seemed much better when I first woke up this morning, at the moment I'm back in bed because I'm having nausea and the spinning sensation again (not as bad as last night, but enough to make me run into things when I try to walk!)

Now I'm just trying to figure out what is causing it. There seem to be a bunch of different inner ear & neurological issues that can cause it, but of course my first instinct is always to suspect that it has something to do with my celiac and/or thyroid problems. Have any of you ever experienced this? Any ideas on if/how it could be related to my other problems? Ordinarily I'd go straight to the doctor because this seriously freaked me out last night, but I just started a new job and my insurance hasn't kicked in yet. I'm already up to my ears in past medical bills.

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer...

-Sara-

[ICWendy]

Last night around 1am, I woke up very suddenly with the feeling that I was spinning/falling. I sat up in bed and it seemed to ease a bit, although I still felt very dizzy and nauseous. As soon as I would lie back down it would start again. It was so scary, it literally felt like I was spinning very quickly and falling, and my eyes would start jerking around and I couldn't focus.

I tried to get up and move around a little, and that helped, although I still felt very dizzy and couldn't walk in a straight line. This whole thing lasted over an hour, until finally I reached the point where I could lie down without feeling like I was spinning quite as much.

This morning (after a little online research) I realized that this was vertigo. (From WebMD: Vertigo is a feeling that you or your surroundings are moving when there is no actual movement. You may feel as though you are spinning, whirling, falling, or tilting. When you have severe vertigo, you may feel very nauseated or vomit. You may have trouble walking or standing, and you may lose your balance and fall.)

I had heard the term before, but didn't really know what it was. And although it seemed much better when I first woke up this morning, at the moment I'm back in bed because I'm having nausea and the spinning sensation again (not as bad as last night, but enough to make me run into things when I try to walk!)

Now I'm just trying to figure out what is causing it. There seem to be a bunch of different inner ear & neurological issues that can cause it, but of course my first instinct is always to suspect that it has something to do with my celiac and/or thyroid problems. Have any of you ever experienced this? Any ideas on if/how it could be related to my other problems? Ordinarily I'd go straight to the doctor because this seriously freaked me out last night, but I just started a new job and my insurance hasn't kicked in yet. I'm already up to my ears in past medical bills.

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer...

-Sara-

I hope this is the correct way to reply. Meniere's disease comes to mind, as well as something called Migraine Induced Dizziness. It's a migraine phenomenon without actual pain, but the same changes that occur in blood flow cause the dizziness/vertigo, and nausea. Also, I believe that any serious allergy can cause inflammation, and fluid shifts, like blocked sinuses, that can cause symptoms like this. Did you go off your diet, eat a lot of salty food like potato chips, or expose yourself to mold or an outdoor allergen like pollen? Think back and see if it could have been something like that. Did you have any other symptoms like a stuffy nose or difficulty breathing?

I hope you figure it out. I have only had this happen once, in response to a new medication I took, and it was extremely unpleasant - mine lasted 24 hours, or until the medication wore off. But, I have a close friend who has symptoms like this chronically, and his journey has been difficult, through many Ear, Nose, and Throat specialists, to finally a diagnosis of severe mold allergy. He moved out of his house, has been having some alternative therapy work, and is starting to feel better.

I sincerely hope this was a one-time thing, and you never experience it again. Dealing with celiac's is enough for most of us. If it ever happens again, and it is not in response to diet or a new medication, you could try taking an antihistamine or a decongestant and see if it does anything. Ginger tea is good for nausea, and a homeopathic remedy called "nux vomica" might help too.

Wendy in Portland

[ICWendy]

Hi,

This is IC Wendy (I have gluten intolerance and Interstitial Cystitis - that 's the IC). Can someone briefly tell me how to respond to a post - I seem to be screwing it up differently every time. I tried to find the answer in the help section, but it was no "help".

Thanks in advance. Problems are that my name seems to keep being attached to the post I'm trying to reply to, or that my post is attached at the bottom to the post I'm replying to, and I see that everyone else's is just the reply itself.

Wendy

[mesmerize]

Well I ended up going to an urgent care clinic last night because I was still really off balance and having trouble walking straight or even sitting up. The doctor there said that the majority of vertigo cases are "benign paroxysmal positional vertigo," which has something to do with calcium crystals in your inner ear breaking off and floating around where they're not supposed to. So typically, unless they have an obvious reason to suspect that it's being caused by something else, they diagnose with you with BPPV and give you medication for it (Antivert). Then if that doesn't work, they start exploring other possible causes.

So now I'm on the Antivert, which makes me SO tired. It doesn't seem to be helping my symptoms yet, but I guess that might take a day or two.

And to answer some of your questions... No I haven't been glutened recently, so I don't think it was directly connected to gluten. There was nothing out-of-the-ordinary about my diet before this happened. I haven't been sick either, no colds or anything. And I've never really had pollen allergies.

Well I guess I'm just going to have to wait and see if this medication helps at all...

[UNCHeel]

Sara

I have a feeling that this may have nothing to do with the Celiac. I'm not an MD but a former co-worker of mine just went through what the Dr thought at first was vertigo. Her eyes started spining around cazy and they had to take her from work by ambulance. It ended up being an ear infection that went a bit awry. Not fun but I would not recommend self diagnosing or really listening to me for that matter. Get to a Dr. and a spcialist. Take care.

[MO3]

Last night around 1am, I woke up very suddenly with the feeling that I was spinning/falling. I sat up in bed and it seemed to ease a bit, although I still felt very dizzy and nauseous. As soon as I would lie back down it would start again. It was so scary, it literally felt like I was spinning very quickly and falling, and my eyes would start jerking around and I couldn't focus.

I tried to get up and move around a little, and that helped, although I still felt very dizzy and couldn't walk in a straight line. This whole thing lasted over an hour, until finally I reached the point where I could lie down without feeling like I was spinning quite as much.

This morning (after a little online research) I realized that this was vertigo. (From WebMD: Vertigo is a feeling that you or your surroundings are moving when there is no actual movement. You may feel as though you are spinning, whirling, falling, or tilting. When you have severe vertigo, you may feel very nauseated or vomit. You may have trouble walking or standing, and you may lose your balance and fall.)

I had heard the term before, but didn't really know what it was. And although it seemed much better when I first woke up this morning, at the moment I'm back in bed because I'm having nausea and the spinning sensation again (not as bad as last night, but enough to make me run into things when I try to walk!)

Now I'm just trying to figure out what is causing it. There seem to be a bunch of different inner ear & neurological issues that can cause it, but of course my first instinct is always to suspect that it has something to do with my celiac and/or thyroid problems. Have any of you ever experienced this? Any ideas on if/how it could be related to my other problems? Ordinarily I'd go straight to the doctor because this seriously freaked me out last night, but I just started a new job and my insurance hasn't kicked in yet. I'm already up to my ears in past medical bills.

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer...

-Sara-

I had a similar problem. It turned out to be an ear infection. Ear infections are sometimes difficult to diagnose. I got rid of my problem with Goldenseal. You should see a DR. But if you wait too long it may not look like one (an ear infection) when it is. This problen can come and go. Good Luck.

[jesscarmel]

i also get regular vertigo but only since going gluten free. it has been diagnosed as migraine related vertigo even though i dont get the headacehs- i feel like vertigo is the worse thing ever!! so scary hope you feel better!!! i went off the pill and that seems to help a little

[CarlaB]

Not fun but I would not recommend self diagnosing or really listening to me for that matter. Get to a Dr. and a spcialist. Take care.

I agree. Do your research so you understand the doctors and can participate in the diagnosis. I don't like medications that hide symptoms ... I'd much rather find the CAUSE!

I get vertigo so bad I need support (hubby's arm or kid's shoulder) to walk. Mine is from Lyme Disease, so I know the source, it's a common symptom, and I'm treating the cause.

Keep looking for what's causing yours!

[mesmerize]

For those of you who missed my last reply, I did go to a doctor. They gave me a prescription for Alavert, and by Tuesday my symptoms were completely gone. I still don't know for sure what caused it, but it really didn't seem to be related to gluten.

And a note on "self-diagnosing"... I don't like trying to self-diagnose, but I don't have insurance (or a whole lot of money) right now since I just started a new job. And quite honestly, since I've had to deal with so many completely useless, idiotic doctors over the last two years (though this whole ongoing thyroid / celiac ordeal), I think it's often much more cost effective to research things on my own and only see a doctor when I know I need a prescription or something like that.

Just my 2 cents.

Oh, and to CarlaB... I'm still keeping in mind the Lyme stuff (mentioned in my other thread about my other intolerances), but I really just have to wait until my new insurance kicks in (June 1) before I can even start to think about getting tested for it or anything.

-Sara-

[Gamecreature]

For those of you who missed my last reply, I did go to a doctor. They gave me a prescription for Alavert, and by Tuesday my symptoms were completely gone. I still don't know for sure what caused it, but it really didn't seem to be related to gluten.

And a note on "self-diagnosing"... I don't like trying to self-diagnose, but I don't have insurance (or a whole lot of money) right now since I just started a new job. And quite honestly, since I've had to deal with so many completely useless, idiotic doctors over the last two years (though this whole ongoing thyroid / celiac ordeal), I think it's often much more cost effective to research things on my own and only see a doctor when I know I need a prescription or something like that.

Just my 2 cents.

Oh, and to CarlaB... I'm still keeping in mind the Lyme stuff (mentioned in my other thread about my other intolerances), but I really just have to wait until my new insurance kicks in (June 1) before I can even start to think about getting tested for it or anything.

-Sara-

Is that working for you? I've been Gluten free for about 6 months and I've been experiencing vertigo for about 4.5 weeks now. I went to the doctor last week and they noted the nystagmus with my eye movements and suggested that it's related to allergies (pollen appears to be very high this season). They gave me some allergy medicine and Antivert, but so far I've not experienced any change in my symptoms.

[mesmerize]

Is that working for you? I've been Gluten free for about 6 months and I've been experiencing vertigo for about 4.5 weeks now. I went to the doctor last week and they noted the nystagmus with my eye movements and suggested that it's related to allergies (pollen appears to be very high this season). They gave me some allergy medicine and Antivert, but so far I've not experienced any change in my symptoms.

My vertigo went away about 2 days after I started taking the Antivert, and it hasn't returned since then. I really have no way of knowing if the Antivert actually helped, or if my symptoms just went away on their own...

[Gamecreature]

My vertigo went away about 2 days after I started taking the Antivert, and it hasn't returned since then. I really have no way of knowing if the Antivert actually helped, or if my symptoms just went away on their own...

Thanks for letting me know. I've been taking these meds for 8 days and I haven't noticed any change at all.

[Roxanna]

Last night around 1am, I woke up very suddenly with the feeling that I was spinning/falling. I sat up in bed and it seemed to ease a bit, although I still felt very dizzy and nauseous. As soon as I would lie back down it would start again. It was so scary, it literally felt like I was spinning very quickly and falling, and my eyes would start jerking around and I couldn't focus.

I tried to get up and move around a little, and that helped, although I still felt very dizzy and couldn't walk in a straight line. This whole thing lasted over an hour, until finally I reached the point where I could lie down without feeling like I was spinning quite as much.

This morning (after a little online research) I realized that this was vertigo. (From WebMD: Vertigo is a feeling that you or your surroundings are moving when there is no actual movement. You may feel as though you are spinning, whirling, falling, or tilting. When you have severe vertigo, you may feel very nauseated or vomit. You may have trouble walking or standing, and you may lose your balance and fall.)

I had heard the term before, but didn't really know what it was. And although it seemed much better when I first woke up this morning, at the moment I'm back in bed because I'm having nausea and the spinning sensation again (not as bad as last night, but enough to make me run into things when I try to walk!)

Now I'm just trying to figure out what is causing it. There seem to be a bunch of different inner ear & neurological issues that can cause it, but of course my first instinct is always to suspect that it has something to do with my celiac and/or thyroid problems. Have any of you ever experienced this? Any ideas on if/how it could be related to my other problems? Ordinarily I'd go straight to the doctor because this seriously freaked me out last night, but I just started a new job and my insurance hasn't kicked in yet. I'm already up to my ears in past medical bills.

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer...

-Sara-

[Roxanna]

That is exactly what happened to me for years. I would have vertigo for a few weeks or months. It would go away and come back. The many doctors I told about it ignored it. I was so frustrated. They just contributed it to my seizures. I have been gluten free for about a year and have not had one episode of it. Roxanna