UKC

As you can guess I have recently suffered Vertigo. Apart from Alcohol induced room spinning sessions a long time a go, this is something new to me. To wake up with the camper spinning, unable/scared to move, full on sweats was not much fun. 

Research on the NHS page confirms what it was, I ticked all the boxes that I will summerise as "moving like a sloth" to counter sensations.

A trip to the pharmacist offered Travel sickness pills and anti Histamine

Took more of the above, last night and have awakened feeling much better if a little "muggy" (Garmin watch recorded 9.5 hrs of sleep)

Can anyone offer What are the triggers/conditions? What other solutions? When does it get bad and I should be getting a GP appointment? 

Dr Google offers  much Quackery. I'm appealing to the UHC massive for a steer to a quality resource of info. Vertigo is something I'd like to avoid.

Thanks to everyone.

In reply to annieman:

If it’s a sudden onset, one to quickly check for is BPPV

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/benign-parox...

If your eyes are jumping between two pointing directions that could confirm this.  A doctor can try and reset it by rotating you around like one of those little ball bearing mazes to get the magic calcium crystals back in the right part of your ear.  Some private physios will also be able to do this.

Assuming you don’t normally sleep that much and given the sweats it could be a viral infection causing the vertigo, sweats and conked sleep.

Sounds like a good time to speak with a GP…. Sudden negative changes normally warrant a proper opinion…

In reply to annieman:

My wife gets this from time to time, although thankfully rarely as badly as you're describing.  

There's a simple set of motions you can go through which might help - this often improves things significantly for Clare.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/home-e...

In reply to annieman:

I get this.

In fact I’m suffering this morning…and only last week I had the pleasure of having to have a lift home in an ambulance due to an episode out walking that left me incapacitated ☹️

I’ve had all the tests/scans which ruled out BPPV and others, and was left with Vestibular Migraine as the diagnosis. So essentially Migraines which it would appear are very tricky to manage (in my experience).

I’ve been trying optokinetic physiotherapy but with little joy.

I’d certainly seek advice if I was you…

https://www.uhs.nhs.uk/Media/UHS-website-2019/Patientinformation/Audiology/...

In reply to annieman:

A friend is going through this at the moment - the sudden onset symptoms were so severe that the GP asked her to go to A&E for a brain scan to rule out a stroke. 

The first thing they did was the stroke tests, the second was the BPPV check. When both came back negative they found an ear infection. A week of antibiotics got rid of the infection but the symptoms remained.

The explanation was that the infection created inflammation in one inner ear, so her brain was getting signals from one balance centre that said 'everything's fine' and from the other 'everything's weird' - that confusion was what caused the symptoms.

The inflammation can take a long time to ease but because the brain is really plastic it can adapt to the imbalance in signals. This adaptation is often quicker than the inflammation healing. It took a couple of months until she could go back to work from home and a month more until she could drive again.

Fingers crossed for you!

In reply to compost:

And yes, travel sickness and antihistamines can be useful but because they mask the symptoms they slow the adaptation in the brain so advice was not to use them for more than a week

In reply to annieman:

Afraid I don’t have any advice, but am I right in thinking I am meant to be putting your thread title to the tune of Cotton-Eye Joe?

In reply to Wimlands:

Yeah, I get vestibular migraines too. Fortunately very rarely, and short-lived (generally just a day in bed and I'm ok the next) but it's horrendous having to puke every time you move, and the world just spinning crazily.

In reply to Welsh Kate:

Last weeks was fairly amusing if horrible. I went down on a public footpath, horrendous vertigo, full on sweating, nausea and vomiting. Simply couldn’t move my head off the floor and was stuck there.

Problem was it was a popular footpath so had to put up with everyone passing saying “are you OK” “you alright?” Which was getting a bit wearisome…

The landowner decided he didn’t want me dying on his property so called an ambulance 😀

In reply to annieman:

Had something like this whilst on holiday in Whistler a few years ago, sudden onset, major whirlies where I couldn’t even see.  

Narrowed it down to BPPV.  Forced myself to repeatedly do the Brandt-Daroff manoeuvre which was utterly horrible but managed to convince my brain that I wasn’t about to fall off the planet every time I changed position.

In reply to annieman:

Cotton eyed Joe!

Sorry that was in my head, had to get it out. 

My sister-in-law suffers from this, seems completely random.

In reply to annieman:

You’re in good company, Don Whillans was also a sufferer. 

In reply to annieman:

I had BPPV, which is pretty horrible. However the Epley manoeuvre - link above from Jamie Wakeham - was a miracle cure, and it has never come back. I just followed the instructions from the internet and it took a couple of minutes.

Worth a try.

In reply to annieman:

It has been a while since I have had my one and only bought of vertigo.

Only medication was anti sickness pills and allow it to happen and it went away eventually.

For me triggers seemed to be placing my head backwards, pretty much every time would get the spins.

In reply to annieman:

I've had it once.  Very weird experience, felt slightly dizzy  for a few moments, after tying a shoelace up. 

Nothing else happened until later in the day when I quickly started to loose my balance, and couldn't stand, felt sick, ill and just wanted to lay down.   I spent  two days laid out, and following a discussion with a GP she said I had classic symptoms vertigo.
Some people is appears that the 'crystals', in their ears are a problem - as a couple of others mentioned.  The GP also said it could be caused by a virus.  Either way I took a couple of the pills she gave me which stopped the nausia, but didn't cure the balance  issue.   The whole episode lasted about 48 hrs with a total recovery

God knows what would have happened had it happened whilst driving or even worse perhaps on some remote hillside.

In reply to annieman:

You need to get checked out. All sorts of causes have very different treatments. It can be an indication of something very serious in a very small minority of cases.

https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/ears-nose-and-throat/ve...

In reply to annieman:

Thanks all for your info and input. BPPV doesn't seem to match my symtoms as I was "spinning" for a good 30 mins, sat on the edge of the bed not wanting to move any part of my body. I've since spent much time trying to get an appt with my GP, the call handler agrees that I need an appt but there are none available, call back tomorrow etc. I tried to make an appt on-line but the first section was a red flag section where I ticked a box that said "did the dizzyness last longer than three minutes?" Answer, go direct to A&E. Had I been able to then I would have. Next time I'll call 999. It was 3hrs before I felt that I could drunkenly walk to a Pharmacy and then another 3 before I set off home after taking Paracetamol, anti histamine and travel sickness tablets. I am much better today but still any quick head movements cause me to stop. Thanks all again, I'll be continuously be on the phone on Monday, everytime that I get knocked back I will say thanks and then redial immediately. I'll also be learning the twist dance to get my crystals back in-line

In reply to annieman:

Worth noting that my GP referred me to see a NHS ENT consultant in January 2023. That’s just to see someone, not have any scans or actual treatment. I’m still on the waiting list … was forced to go private.

In reply to annieman

I fully recovered fully from my vertigo.  Hope you do the same.  

In reply to annieman:

I do not normally suffer from Vertigo but a couple of years ago or so I had an ear infection (I lost my most of my hearing for a few weeks with through blockage).

One of the early symptoms was an intermittent inability to sense position properly - my sense of balance lagged behind what my eyes were telling me - this made coming down mountains interesting on occasion.  My most memorable experience was turning over in bed and while my eyes told me I'd stopped moving my brain suddenly sensed the whole room turning over with me as my sense of balance from my ear hadn't caught up! This happened several times and another problem was getting suddenly up from sitting.  Alarming to say the least but definitely caused by an ear infection that took 2 or 3 months to clear up.