Monday, January 5, 2009

Vertigo

I woke up in the night and had to pee, and about fell off the toilet seat because I was unbalanced. I figured it was because I was half asleep and went back to bed...but not to sleep.

I have vertigo. Not dizziness or lightheadedness, but vertio - a very distinct sense of motion where there is none. It's there all the time to a degree (I haven't felt 'right' since last night) but sometimes it gets worse and makes me vomit. I have a hard time walking straight and turning my head right or left seems to make it worse.

I haven't had any cold symptoms, tinnitus, or hearing loss. I can make my ears pop when I try Valsalva's Maneuver and there's no pain. My BP is 120/72, my pulse is in the 90's, respers at 18. My left pupil is larger than the right (I can't measure accurately) and is slower to respond to light. Urbaner says I have nystagmus (he's trained to administer field sobriety tests and know what nystagmus looks like).

I don't know if I have labrynthitis or what the fuck is going on. I do know that I'm seeing my doc at 0920 this morning, because this aint right.

Anyone got any ideas?

2 comments:

Chris said...

No idea, but hugs!

Satia said...

I've lived with vertigo for 2 yrs so I think I can share some suggestions.

First, see a doctor asap. There are some very scary things out there that can cause vertigo (including brain tumors, stroke) and some debilitating causes as well (MS, Menieres). You've already verified it probably isn't an inner ear thing (although it could still be BPPV) and you know it isn't your blood pressure, etc.

It took 3 MRIs, CT Scan, and more tests than I care to list to get an answer. I'm hoping it won't take you as long to reach your answers and good luck!