Inner Ear Problems........

[Amethyst]

Hope everyone's feeling better....I have had vertigo twice. It is a scary, helpless feeling. Both times, I was diagnosed with fluid in the inner ear, given antihistamines and told to go home and go to sleep.

The antihistamine is supposed to dry up the trapped fluid, which in my case was related to seasonal allergies. Each time, I was fine in 24 hours. Hope I don't get rocks in my ears one of these days! Tinnitus is bad enough.

[heardoc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebird5825 I don't understand how the maneuvers w*rk. Is it a method of getting the fluid in the inner ear to shift around and hopefully dislodge something? Or an equalizing method ?

Just saw this post.... for what it's worth:

The theory is that you have little crystalline particles "otoliths" sitting around in your semi-circular canals. They are causing a firing of neuronal impulses not expected by the brain and that is causing dizziness. The rapid movement of your head through all spheres is meant to dislodge the otoliths. Not sure if the science is correct, but the
maneuver is very successful in a large number of patients.
It will not work on viral infections,tumors etc, etc which is why it's important to have a full workup by an Audiologist followed by an ENT if symptoms persist more than a few days.

[TromboneAl]

Quote:

I don't understand how the maneuvers w*rk.

Imagine that you have a twisted up tube filled with Prell shampoo, and attached to the top of a bottle (also filled with Prell shampoo). There's a pearl in the middle of one of the tube loops, and it's causing problems. So, you want to work the pearl through the tube and into the bottle. You tilt it this way, wait, then tilt it another way, and wait etc. That be the basic idea behind the maneuver.

And in case your brain isn't stuffed with old commercials as mine is:

YouTube - Liquid Prell 1965 Commercial

[Helen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dawg52 The maneuver must have worked. Got to feeling much better this afternoon.

I am so happy for you that it is BPPV. I was a patient of Dr. Epley here in Portland, OR for a while. He semi retired and is only seeing BPPV patients. I unfortunately had Meniere's and not BPPV.

My hearing was screwed up for almost five years. It wasn't just hearing loss but distortion. But the worse was the vertigo, that stuff is awful as you know.

I was actually fortunate in that my symptoms went away about 2 years ago. I think the pre-menopause flared up the symptoms of Meniere's. Over a two week period (no pun intended) the distortion went away and I could communicate again. I haven't had vertigo since either.

Some poor souls have severe symptoms from Meniere's and live life with frequent and long lasting vertigo attacks. My heart really goes out to them. Vertigo feels like you drank a 5th of whiskey then got on a tilt-a-whirl. There is no sense of balance so you have to crawl to the bathroom and it can last for hours or days. It is the most horrible sensation. My eyes would involunarily dart back and forth (which is why I could see things spinning), I would sweat and turn ghost white. I was lucky when it hit at work I didn't have to crawl and I never threw up. Someone would escort me to the nurse's station and I would lay down until it passed. A few times the nurse didn't recognize me when I came out of the room because I looked so different from when I first went down there.

Anyway, God bless Dr. Epley for persisting with his research. He almost lost his license because the medical community thought he was a quack. He hung in there and it was a long time before the medical community accepted his methods and theories. He should write a book about it. He has given a lot of people their life back.