DD has sudden severe vertigo

[CathyA]

DD called me yesterday, barely able to talk. Said she woke up yesterday morning with severe dizziness. No other symptoms. She had some alcohol 2 days earlier, but nothing the day before and had been drinking lots of water. She was in agony all of yesterday. Last night it got really bad and we got ready for the 3 hour drive to go see her, but she finally took some dramamine and it helped somewhat and she was going to try to sleep through the night.

We decided to postpone going, since she would be asleep and hard to assess.
Is this the way benign positional vertigo is? I know when I had a couple spells of something like that, I had a little warning a few days ahead, with slight dizziness.

We were going to take her to the ER, but she doesn't think she can even move out of her bed. She has no other symptoms.........no headache, vision, or sinus problems. We might make the trip today if she's no better after a good night's sleep. She does drink alot of caffeine. She's VEGAN, but insists that she gets all the right nutrients.
Is this how this disorder acts.........with sudden onset? Any suggestions as to her treatment? She's at school in another state and doesn't have a doctor, so we'll probably have to take her to an ER.......which will be a feat in itself, trying to transport her with this incredibly severe vertigo.
Poor DD. She's been through so much lately, and now this.

[Mrs-M]

It's been many years since my last episode with vertigo (had it twice in my lifetime), but I had no warning. I went to bed the night prior to, feeling normal and well, and by morning I couldn't get out of bed. I was seeing double (triple), everything was moving and spinning, I couldn't walk, I couldn't even keep my eyes open, because the spinning and moving sensation was bringing on nausea. I was scared. DH came home from work to take me to the hospital. It took ± 36 hours (if I remember correctly) for all signs and symptoms to subside.

[Sad Eyed Lady]

Funny, the same thing happened last weekend to my massage therapist I see every now and then. She was about 20 minutes into my massage and all at once I felt her kind of leaning on me. Then she said, "I can't finish your massage. I am so dizzy. The room is just spinning around.". After I dressed and came into the reception area she was sitting with a wet washcloth and not looking so good. She said it was sudden, she had no other symptoms, and had never experienced anything like this in the past. She assured me she had someone to call and to drive her home, so I left. I've wondered in the days since how she is doing. Sounds so much like what happened to CathyA's DD.

[pinkytoe]

This has happened to me several times throughout life starting in my teen years. I would just wake up and the room would be spinning. Even turning over in bed was difficult. Once it was diagnosed as a virus. Another occurrence was the day after dh had sprayed some bug spray in the house so who knows. Another time a doc told me it was just anxiety. Mine has always resolved itself within 24 hours but I had to go to sleep first. I hope that is the case with your daughter but I have to wonder if there isn't a connection with the vegan diet, ie B12 or some other deficiency. Strangely, I have heard several people lately complaining of sudden dizziness.

[CathyA]

Thanks everyone. Sorry to hear of your own experiences with it! I had it a couple months ago. It would happen mostly if I turned to my left side, or even turned my head to that side. Its awful.

I talked to DD this morning and the Dramamine was helping a bit. She was able to walk downstairs to get a drink, without getting too dizzy or nauseous. But the longer she's up, the dizziness gets worse. Supposedly the "Epley Manuever" helps alot with this. I sure wish we lived closer to her.

I just wonder how our modern world factors into this. Who knows what cell phones, etc. might do to those little crystals in our inner ears that keep us balanced. We also have a tiny sodium pump in our inner ears and its probably easy to overload it with all the salt in our diets.
I'm going to do a search for what vitamins might be helpful for this sort of thing. I might have to force her to eat a steak. haha She wouldn't.
Thanks for your replies.

[redfox]

Sounds like an inner ear infection. This has hit me twice in my life, and it is weird.

[CathyA]

Redfox, did you have any pain with your inner ear infection?

I feel so bad for DD. I'd posted awhile back about her struggle with bedbugs. Now that she's laying in her bed all the time, she has bites all over. She'd been keeping on top of that problem by vacuuming and laundering all the time. But now that she's so dizzy, she can only lay there and attract them. I can't wait for her to move out of that house.........but she has 7 more months on her lease. I think in a couple months we'll try to convince her to just move out, and we'll pay the rent until her lease is up. She just can't seem to cut a break. She gets one problem under control and then gets another one. She was just starting to make some headway out of a depression and then this dizziness hits her. If her dizziness doesn't appear to be resolving, we'll go get her and bring her home for testing soon.

[mtnlaurel]

Would she show you a copy of the lease?
Do you think the bedbugs could give her any kind of out on the lease?

[CathyA]

Hi mtnlaurel,
She said that in that state (Ohio), landlords are not responsible for bedbugs. I have the sneaking suspicion that they were there when she moved in in August. They showed up soon after that. She has tried to reach the person who rented it before her, but she hasn't responded back. What's unfortunate is that maybe the previous tenant wanted out for the same reason, and failed to say anything about them since she just wanted to get away from them herself. I don't know if this was the case, but its very curious that they started up right after she moved into this house.

[Tweety]

Odd, I had a day and a half of vertigo with headaches 2 days ago. I assumed it was some sort of virus and tried to lay low, ate very little and didn't move much. Can't remember ever having anything like that before, but it did pass and I feel normal today.