owainm
29-09-09, 21:36
Hi there my name is Owain and I want to post a note here on the subject of dizzyness, sorry about the length of the post but all of you with similar probs will relate and understand.
My story starts with a diving accident in greece in 1992, I was a normal person then I dived about 15 ft of a rock into the water, as soon as I surfaced I felt weird and when I blew my nose I fractured my sinus bone and air entered under one of my eyes and puffed up my cheek. I know sounds like a freak accident which it was, anyway immidiately after this accident I felt like I was in another world I felt dizzy and off balance and my vision was surreal, everything seemed to move and float when I looked at it. I had to return home the next day and flew (which I prob should not have), I then immidiately went to the hospital for tests which all came back normall, but I still felt strange so I persisted and so began years of ENT checks CT scan MRI ect all which showed nothing according to the experts, basically they had no clue and I had tubes put in my ears as they said it must be pressure even though I had no feeling of pressure and eventually was told I had depression!!!, so I was sent away and had to live with feeling off balance, dizzy and strange vision 24/7.
Over the next few years I gradually developed a worsening anxiety/depression problem which resulted in my having two breakdowns in the last few years I now take propananol everyday to control it and am also on seroxat as I also suffer from OCD. I also had a mastoid surgery for further probs with my left ear ten years ago (this however did not make my symptoms worse), because of this I have had constant contact with ENT specialists for the last decade as the cavity left by the surgery needs attention every few months). I have raised the question about the fact that I still have these strange dizzy/visual symptoms since I had the accident in 1992 and tried to get answers to which most of the time they have none.
Then out of the blue this year the nurse who attends to my mastoid cavity made me an appointment with the doctor she described as the dizzy specialist (whom I had never seen before and none of the other so called ENT specialist referred me too). After a five minute exam with simple tests he told me I had a balance problem with my inner left ear and refered me for VRT (vestibular retraining therapy). When I went for my first appointment my therapist asked about my symptoms and actually asked me if I suffered from certain problems before I told her. These were the same symptoms I had been telling Doctors about since my accident in 1992. Finally somebody knew what I was talking about it turns out my Vestibular function in my left ear is faulty and my VOR (vestibular-occular-reflex) no longer functions properly.
Since this diagnosis I have done load of research and low and behold people with vestibular disorders have much higher incidences of anxiety/depressive problems. In my case living undiagnosed for 17 years being told nothing was wrong and thinking I was nuts may very well have brought on my anxiety problems. My symptoms are as follows
Extreme what people called brain fog
Felling dizzy/off balance 24/7 every day, even with eyes closed when I stand straight and not moving inmy head it feels like I am slightly swaying
I feel exhusted and fatigued all the time and need at least 10 hours sleep every night or feel awful next day
Weird visual symptoms (my therapist refers to this as visual dizzyness) i.e. if I am in a crowd of moving people, trace a moving car or in a wide open space, in a room with harsh lighting (particularly strip lighting) or look at things with heavy patterns (like a carpet) everything seems to float and moved around in my vision) this is my worse symptom as it occurs 24/7 and effects everything I do
My symptoms also increase hugely if I do physical exercise, i.e. any strenuous activity or sporting activity that needs fast accurate hand eye co-ordination
All of these according to my therapist are classic vestibular disorder problems, I also explained to here that the only times I feel normal are after having a few drinks, no she said a lot of my paitients say that, the reason being your brain is used to feeling unblanced when we drink alcohol so it cancels out the feeling of unbalance form the vestibular problem. However paitents report terrible hangovers (that is exactly me) she said it before I told her.
Sorry about the length of post and hope this can be of use and please if anyone out there has similar problems of dizzyness etc 24/7 please get in touch, for the last 17 yeas I thought I had some freak condition now I realise that others feel the same and I cant help feeling so angry with the so called medical professionals that put me through so much for the last 17 years,
cheers Owain
http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/images/misc/progress.gif
My story starts with a diving accident in greece in 1992, I was a normal person then I dived about 15 ft of a rock into the water, as soon as I surfaced I felt weird and when I blew my nose I fractured my sinus bone and air entered under one of my eyes and puffed up my cheek. I know sounds like a freak accident which it was, anyway immidiately after this accident I felt like I was in another world I felt dizzy and off balance and my vision was surreal, everything seemed to move and float when I looked at it. I had to return home the next day and flew (which I prob should not have), I then immidiately went to the hospital for tests which all came back normall, but I still felt strange so I persisted and so began years of ENT checks CT scan MRI ect all which showed nothing according to the experts, basically they had no clue and I had tubes put in my ears as they said it must be pressure even though I had no feeling of pressure and eventually was told I had depression!!!, so I was sent away and had to live with feeling off balance, dizzy and strange vision 24/7.
Over the next few years I gradually developed a worsening anxiety/depression problem which resulted in my having two breakdowns in the last few years I now take propananol everyday to control it and am also on seroxat as I also suffer from OCD. I also had a mastoid surgery for further probs with my left ear ten years ago (this however did not make my symptoms worse), because of this I have had constant contact with ENT specialists for the last decade as the cavity left by the surgery needs attention every few months). I have raised the question about the fact that I still have these strange dizzy/visual symptoms since I had the accident in 1992 and tried to get answers to which most of the time they have none.
Then out of the blue this year the nurse who attends to my mastoid cavity made me an appointment with the doctor she described as the dizzy specialist (whom I had never seen before and none of the other so called ENT specialist referred me too). After a five minute exam with simple tests he told me I had a balance problem with my inner left ear and refered me for VRT (vestibular retraining therapy). When I went for my first appointment my therapist asked about my symptoms and actually asked me if I suffered from certain problems before I told her. These were the same symptoms I had been telling Doctors about since my accident in 1992. Finally somebody knew what I was talking about it turns out my Vestibular function in my left ear is faulty and my VOR (vestibular-occular-reflex) no longer functions properly.
Since this diagnosis I have done load of research and low and behold people with vestibular disorders have much higher incidences of anxiety/depressive problems. In my case living undiagnosed for 17 years being told nothing was wrong and thinking I was nuts may very well have brought on my anxiety problems. My symptoms are as follows
Extreme what people called brain fog
Felling dizzy/off balance 24/7 every day, even with eyes closed when I stand straight and not moving inmy head it feels like I am slightly swaying
I feel exhusted and fatigued all the time and need at least 10 hours sleep every night or feel awful next day
Weird visual symptoms (my therapist refers to this as visual dizzyness) i.e. if I am in a crowd of moving people, trace a moving car or in a wide open space, in a room with harsh lighting (particularly strip lighting) or look at things with heavy patterns (like a carpet) everything seems to float and moved around in my vision) this is my worse symptom as it occurs 24/7 and effects everything I do
My symptoms also increase hugely if I do physical exercise, i.e. any strenuous activity or sporting activity that needs fast accurate hand eye co-ordination
All of these according to my therapist are classic vestibular disorder problems, I also explained to here that the only times I feel normal are after having a few drinks, no she said a lot of my paitients say that, the reason being your brain is used to feeling unblanced when we drink alcohol so it cancels out the feeling of unbalance form the vestibular problem. However paitents report terrible hangovers (that is exactly me) she said it before I told her.
Sorry about the length of post and hope this can be of use and please if anyone out there has similar problems of dizzyness etc 24/7 please get in touch, for the last 17 yeas I thought I had some freak condition now I realise that others feel the same and I cant help feeling so angry with the so called medical professionals that put me through so much for the last 17 years,
cheers Owain
http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/images/misc/progress.gif