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Posted 1/22/2009 6:56 PM (GMT 0)
I just got back from my ski trip, which I made it through w/o any D, for those of you I spoke to before.

I had something else wierd tho...the night before i left I woke up in the middle of the night with the room spinning. It came and went while I was on the trip, but only while I was in a certain position, sitting with my head back or lying down.

It got really bad on the last day when I had to take a drink and tilted my head back...I had to grab on the counter to not fall over. Now I can't lie on my back or look at the sky without the room spinning uncontrollably.

When I got home, I went to emerge (as my fam. Dr. is on vacation as always) and she told me it was vertigo. She didn't think for sure it was anything to do with in my ears, but possibly tension (in the neck?) Either way, she didn't seem to know for sure. She suggested trying a drug, or it might go away on it's own. I declined the pills for now as I'm on enough for UC. I called my GI just to see if there was any relation to the being from pred or pentasa. He wasn't sure but is going to taper me 5mg of pred every 5 days instead of 7 days. ( i hope this doesn't increase my chances of D coming back). Anyways..sorry for the long post, I guess my question is has anyone experienced this? Did it go away? Was it a result of the drugs?

I am still staying as positive as possible, but being only 28, I feel like in the last 6 months my body decided to fall apart for some reason. I wish it would take a breather on these new health issues. they're becoming harder to deal with. I really hope thie vertigo goes away. It's a scary thing and makes exercise, and even just relaxing kind of tough. Hard to stay stress free to help the UC when other things come into play too.

Thanks for listening. Keeping my head up still ... :-)

Posted 1/22/2009 7:23 PM (GMT 0)

Wow ... sorry to hear you suffer from vertigo. It is horrible! Well, since you were skiing, were you in the mountains? You might have some pressure in your ears. The thing with the neck tension is called cervical syndrome or similiar to it and it comes with severe headaches. Do you have a lot of headaches?

Are you planning on seeing a doctor for it? They perform a weird test to see if there's something wrong with your inner ear. They let you sit on that bench, then they take your head in their hands and swing you around swiftly in all kinds of directions. If you pass out or vomit, there is something wrong with the inner ear. I had unexplained dizzy spells myself two years ago (and sometimes they come back) and since the doc found nothing, anxiety was blamed for it. I tried a drug called antivert. If the drug that was offered to you was antivert, I would give it a try. It really helped me and I had zero side effects from it. Since you are truly miserable.

Pred can certainly be blamed for a lot of things, but I never heard of people complaining about a spinning room - dizziness and lightheadedness for sure. I am not a doc, but I would tend to think it is an inner ear thing since the vertigo woke you up in your sleep. You might have some kind of inflammation in your ear or fluid has collected. Go get your ears checked out, too. Just a suggestion.

Hope you feel better soon!

Posted 1/22/2009 7:55 PM (GMT 0)
Scarlet,

I actually woke up with it the night before I left to go on the trip. That and I wasn't in any extreme mountains, so I don't think it would be from that.

I also thought that it could be my ears, and not neck since I woke up in the middle of the night. I did go see a dr. in the emerge, but she didn't seem to think so. She did a couple tests with lying me back and moving my head around.

Anyways, my family doctor is back next week, so I plan to go see him if has not subsided by then. He is fairly thorough, so hopefully he'll want to get to the bottom of it.

I don't think it is anxiety, as I can go about my daily activities with nothing, I just can't put my head back or lie flat or I'm done for. I've never had any problems with anxiety. I have also been in touch with a physio therapist in my area who specializes in this, so if it's not gone next week, I will make a trip to see her as well. The drug she offered me wasn't antivert. I'd like to try to stay away from any drugs (at least until I figure out a cause) and hope this will pass with time or help. I think antivert is a motion sickness drug that is relatively mild tho, so might be worth a shot until the symptoms subside.

I can tell you one thing, it is a scary thing to have and I can see how it can drastically affect someone's life. I hope whatever this is is temporary and will be a thing of the past REAL soon and I can again focus on my UC and getting my health back.

Thanks for replying.

Posted 1/22/2009 11:02 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Chuck,

I'm on day five of vertigo. I, too, woke up in the night with the room spinning. And it bothers me if I put my head back or when I lay down. My ears are also ringing. I'm thinking my sinuses are bothering me with all the weather changes lately. I don't normally get vertigo, so this is new to me as well. I do notice that many people in my community are suffering various ailments from bronchial stuff to gut bugs and everything in-between. I might just be my own special way of catching some kind of bug. Hopefully it will disappear soon. I take Asacol and the occasional Ativan. But I've been taking Asacol for a long time.

Hope you get to feeling better soon.
Posted 1/23/2009 1:00 AM (GMT 0)

This is what I had - benign positional vertigo.  Website explains it.  It gradually got better and doctor said it was common in "older" people.

I still think it may have started when taking Colzazal but I had to give that up because of side effects so not sure.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001420.htm

Posted 1/23/2009 1:28 AM (GMT 0)

Thanks for the replies and thanks kops2da for the website. It's good to know that it will probably go away or can be easily treated. The last think I want is to have something else new besides UC limiting what I can do and forcing more drugs on me.

Squattie, I hope you feel better soon too. Maybe we both have picked up some kind of virus that will run its course. *fingers crossed*. Keep me posted.

Thanks again all :)

Posted 1/23/2009 2:00 AM (GMT 0)
When I first started prednisone I got some vertigo. Sometimes I get a lurch kinda feeling. It doesn't happen very often anymore though.
Posted 1/23/2009 2:37 AM (GMT 0)

mythmoon said...
When I first started prednisone I got some vertigo. Sometimes I get a lurch kinda feeling. It doesn't happen very often anymore though.

what do you mean by lurch feeling? I felt a bit spaced out when i started pred. Not sure if it's causing the vertigo, although my GI is tapering me a bit quicker as he thinks it is possible. I only get the vertigo when my head is in a certain position. Really hoping it subsides soon too.
Posted 1/23/2009 2:49 AM (GMT 0)
I'll be standing still or get up suddenly and it feels like the world is rushing up to meet me so I lurch forward a bit...it's kinda weird. Like a headrush where all the blood drains out of your head really fast.
Posted 1/23/2009 3:05 AM (GMT 0)
Did you have a flu recently? My husband had vertigo 2 years ago after he had recovered from a bad flu. He woke up one morning seeing the ceiling spinning. He tried to get up but changing the position of his head made him extremely dizzy. I had to call for an ambulance and had him sent to ER on a stretcher. He was then on I.V. and was sent home in the afternoon. The doctor said he had vertigo which would go away by itself.
The same thing happened again a couple of days later in his office. He was dizzy and wanted to throw up. He was sent to ER again by his colleagues. Then our family doctor prescribed some kind of anti-nausea medicine which helped a little bit.
And now he still feels dizzy sometimes. But no more vertigo which, to him, means a spinning ceiling, unable to walk and throwing up.
Hope you will get better soon.
Posted 1/23/2009 3:48 AM (GMT 0)

That's kind of how I feel burnabygirl. The ceiling spins out of control. I haven't vomitted as it only seems to be when my head is tilted way back. I did go to ER tho, but I took myself. I was told it was vertigo. They offered drugs, but for now I said no as I am on enough for UC. Hopefully it will go away before it gets any worse. I did not get the flu or anything as your husband did tho. Hoping it goes away as quickly as it came. It's pretty scary sometimes.

Posted 1/23/2009 3:55 AM (GMT 0)
I've adjusted a out of whack C1 on alot of people with that symptom and it went away. First thing I look at is something out at C1 or C2 if no vascular component.
Posted 1/23/2009 4:04 AM (GMT 0)

Dr-A said...
I've adjusted a out of whack C1 on alot of people with that symptom and it went away. First thing I look at is something out at C1 or C2 if no vascular component.

Would this be chiropractic techniques?

Posted 1/23/2009 10:40 PM (GMT 0)
I've been experiencing something similar for the last few weeks. I don't think it's vertigo but it is bad dizziness/lightheadedness. It comes and goes throughout the day. I take some group fitness classes and during the last 2 or 3 classes I was extremely dizzy throughout the whole class and felt like I was going to pass out. I haven't increased the intensity of my workouts or anything or changed what I eat or my meds and my UC symptoms have not changed at all, so I have no idea what's going on. For a couple months previously, I got nausea every time after I worked out. It would pass after about 20 minutes or so.I need to call my doctor about this but I don't have any health insurance right now. Hope your vertigo passes soon.
Posted 1/23/2009 10:57 PM (GMT 0)

Sara,

It doesn't sound like vertigo. Do you eat anything before working out? Well hydrated enough? Might help to have a yogurt or granola bar or something small shortly before a workout. Also maybe a banana or something after as well. You might already do that, but it could help. Make sure you're eating enough during the day too.

Hopefully it's nothing, but don't ignore it if you get too dizzy.... hope it passes for both of us soon. It's no fun when something ELSE besides UC also gets in the way of you trying to keep your life as normal as possible.

Posted 1/24/2009 5:24 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Pushingforward - Yes, I almost always eat a snack about an hour before working out and I drink lots of water throughout the day, during the workout and afterwards. I always eat something after too. Thank you for the suggestions though! I think it might be stress related somehow because I go there right from work and it also happens while I'm at work and it doesn't seem to happen to me much at home. I'm sure what you're dealing with is a lot worse. I hope yours passes soon too.
Posted 1/24/2009 6:39 PM (GMT 0)

Sara14 said...
Hi Pushingforward - Yes, I almost always eat a snack about an hour before working out and I drink lots of water throughout the day, during the workout and afterwards. I always eat something after too. Thank you for the suggestions though! I think it might be stress related somehow because I go there right from work and it also happens while I'm at work and it doesn't seem to happen to me much at home. I'm sure what you're dealing with is a lot worse. I hope yours passes soon too.

Hi Sara...Can't really say it's worse, I'm sure yours is no fun either. Hopefully they will both pass.

I am debating whether to go to my hockey game tonight. I feel not too bad right now, but I'd hate to be skating along and the world start spinning. There would be me lying on the ice wondering where I am haha. I think I'd look a bit strange.

Anyways...thanks all for the replies. Hopefully this will be just a blip and won't last long. I started tapering the pred again today, but sounds like it's probably not the cause.

Fingers crossed for back to normal soon. No need to have this on top of the UC for long.

Hope everyone is well !!!

Posted 1/25/2009 1:24 AM (GMT 0)
Since you say it only happens when your head is in a certain position I would say it's BPPV, Benign positional vertigo. I went through this last year. When I would turn my head suddenly to the left or if I would look up I would get the worst dizzy spell. My eyes would jerk back and forth uncontrollably as well. I went to an ENT and had the "Eppley Maneuver" done. If you do a search on youtube you can see how to do it. Once I had the procedure done I had to sleep upright for 2 nights and not bend over for 1 week. Since then I haven't had ANY problems. You need to get the crystals in your ear canal back into the correct place. There is always the chance it will happen again but at least I know it can be taken care of. I hope you find answers.
Posted 1/25/2009 5:38 AM (GMT 0)
I experience dizzyness all the time since being on Pred. I am a horseshoer so i stand bent over with my head below my wait most of the time I'm working. Alot of the time when I stand up I get dizzy for a split second. I just figured it was the pred or lack of sleep pred has caused. I also have started to get the shakes occassionaly on the pred. and before anyone asks, yes I have been tested for diabetes... and no I don't have it. LOL. I actually went to doctor while shaking and they took a blood sugar count right then and there and I was fine. So i figure its a side effect of the pred for me.
but back to the vertigo.... even before UC when I traveled in the mountains, if I felt even the slightest bit sick I would bet dizzy and ears popping. Doctors told me it was because of the tubes I had put in my ears when I was a kid... So did you have tube in your ears? Mine were put there for allergis and fell out at the right times about when I was 12-13. But I guess this kind of thing is a life long side effect of having had those tubes....
Posted 1/25/2009 8:39 AM (GMT 0)
It sounds like BPPV as well. I've had it since 1966 in my right ear and since 1999 in both. It can be precipitated a few things.

The Epley maneuver can be very successful. There's also the Semont which works as well...hard to figure out, sometimes, what one needs.

You should, however, see your doctor to make sure you don't have a mild ear inection...which can precipitate BPPV, Once it's triggered, it seems it can plague some people continually, worse so if underlying problems aren't dealt with.

Have you had a cold lately? Do you do yoga or running or exercises that can jar the head? Have you suffered from migrane headaches?

You could try Sudafed...it did seem to help with me..but I also had eustachian tube problems as well...

Try to do as much as you can normally..

Keep us posted as to how you're doing.
q
Posted 1/28/2009 12:46 AM (GMT 0)

Well, I thought it was going away...and today, I put my head back and BAM...almost fell off the couch, room spinning around like crazy...it's back mad

I haven't had the flu or anything lately, but quincy..I do do a bit of yoga..nothing hardcore tho (I'm so not flexible haha)

No tubes in my ears unclebubba...

I'm going to call and make an appointment to see my family dr. tomorrow. I will mention these exercises to him if he rules out anything like an ear infection etc...(hopefully nothing more serious). I have found a physio therapist in my area who is trained in dealing with vertigo...i'll mention that to him as well.

I know it's a bit off topic...sorry...just very frustrating..I hope its short lived..I don't want two health issues to deal with haha....but thanks for listening.

For now, I'll just sit here...spin out of control every once in a while, and watch the leafs try to finally win a game tonight.

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