I am so sorry to hear about your wife’s inoperable tumor on her vestibular nerve. We sure get to learn about a lot of medical problems as we age.
In my experience with Ménière’s, it was beyond dizziness and into several hours of bed ridden vertigo, per attack. Then, I was ok until the next one. This was true even at the beginning of symptoms.
Especially with decent insurance, I’d see an ENT, along with the other good specialist suggestions in here. GL. Dizziness sucks.
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What sort of dizziness?
BPPV, which is common, tends to cause spinning dizziness when you turn your head in a particular direction, it lasts seconds to minutes but then settles if you are still. It can also cause a more generalized floaty feeling. Most common movement to elicit it is up and back to the right, or laying down/rolling over in bed. It’s pretty easy to treat and depending where you are you’d want to see an audiologist or a physiotherapist.
Edit: Are these guys near you, for example? Services | Gold Country Hearing | Lodi, CA
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No, not close. But, thank you for this information. I’m seeing an ENT soon. Your description is not what I’m experiecing. I do have dizziness in bed rolling over. A nausa feeling comes up in my chest then I hear a noise in my head or ears and I become dizzy to the point of fainting, but I don’t.
I am not à doctor but have some knowledge. I noticed you mentioned you are drinking a lot of water. Your problem may be simply a lack of electrolytes. electrolytes are minerals. People drinking lots of water daily and becoming I’ll from it is increasingly common. You might want to get a good multi mineral supplement and start taking it.
Another thing to consider and I do not want to scare you is people who are developing diabetes or kidney disease tend to first start drinking lots of water You should have your doctor check for either of these conditions
But I do also urge you to consider a good daily multi mineral.
This could still just be BPPV. Sometimes the sense of unbalance isn’t experienced as a full spin, but definitely it can cause nausea. If it only lasts seconds to minutes and then passes, that’s very suggestive of BPPV.
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I have had my lab work and everything is fine, do diabetes or kidney issues. Doc thinks it could be from dehydration, but it doesn’t seem to be working. With your suggestion on electrolytes I’m increasing my water intake drinking CORE water which is supposed to have minerals.
Got to get to the root of this.
I’ll look up BPPV. Thanks.
BPPV is exactly as you said it Neville. I’ve also just been dx with this disease by doing a tilt test. My ENT has thoughts it might be caused from my CI. My GP has just put me on a trial of Stemital this morning to see if that helps the dizziness.
Let me know if the Stemital works and any side effects, thanks.
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That seems odd. Why not just get the repositioning maneuvers done. Has it not been responsive to professional treatment?
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Neville are you talking about the Epley maneuvers? I did the vestibular physiotherapy course for 3 months. I do a modified Epley maneuvers at home as well which physio taught me to do. Just trying to shift the those stubborn canalith. I do all the exercises at home from the physio as well… I might be ok for 1-2 nights and it comes back.
It can be tough to complete the maneuvers correctly on one’s own. Did a professional ever move you through them?
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I have an appointment in August at a physical therapist to evaluate my symptoms and if they think the maneuvers will help then it’s a go.
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Neville yes he did, in the 3 month course.
Did the 3 month course help you?
Yes it did help to a certain degree. But it wasn’t a cure, just a way of managing BPPV.
Keep in mind that there are multiple potential causes for your symptoms. The experts are the ones to have figure it out, even if it takes a while. They’ll start with the most common causes that fit the symptoms and work their way down the list of less common causes if needed. My wife’s tumor is near the bottom of the list with one source saying only 50,000 cases in the entire US population.
She has dizzyness, lightheadedness, and some vertigo (spinning feeling). They initially tried the Epley maneuver, which seemed to help but did not provide the amount of improvement that they had expected. It wasn’t until the MRI that they identified the cause. Since they diagnosed the vestibular schwannoma, she’s been to therapy to try to get her brain to ignore the bad side and pay attention to the good side. This has helped some. I’m hoping this is not the cause of your problem. From what I’ve read, some schwannomas are operable. It varies on location and other factors.
Did your wife have headaches before she was diagnosed? Just wondering if tumors cause headaches.
Reason: I family member had headaches turned out to be a tumor.
My wife did not have anything unusual in the way of headaches before or since she was diagnosed. Tumors can present in a lot of different ways.