Has anyone has this happen to them?

[Zathras]

Yesterday morning I had something strange happen to me and I was hoping that someone here could tell me what it was because my doctor had no idea.

When I stood up first thing in the morning my balance was so off that I stumbled a few feet from me bed through the doorway of the bedroom. Had I not grabbed the door frame I would have crashed into the wall on the other side of the hallway. I was so unsteady that I had to sit on the bed for several minutes trying to get the feeling to pass.

It was not the light headedness that comes because your blood pressure drops due to the change in body position. I have had that and that is a completely different feeling. When that happens a minute or so of holding on to something and the blood pressure goes back to normal and everything is fine. That did not work this time and the drop in BP has never caused me to stumble like this.

I did not stumble again during the day but I felt unsteady on my feet the entire day. The weirdest thing was if I stood with my feet shoulder width apart and closed my eyes I felt like I was swaying and was in danger of falling down.

The doctor suggested that I might be coming down with the flu but no symptoms of that yesterday or today. He also suggested dehydration but I am replacing fluids all day and any other time that I have been the least bit dehydrated I cramp up badly.

Has this happened to anyone else?

[foxgrove]

YES!!! You bet I've had it happen.  Every day!!!  I THINK from what rwilli and I have been able to determine, it MAY be caused by a muscle in your neck pressing on some doohicky that causes you to be unbalanced (probably somehow pressing on the inner ear or a nerve that relates to it).  I THINK it was part of the massiter muscle that leads from your clavicle up to your jaw and up into your skull.  IF you've got a copy of the book (oh help.,. I can't remember the name.. the one with the trigger point stuff) you can start working on it.  I'll look for my reference as well.. Ron had a fabulous link to pictorals of how to deal with it.

So far, I'm dealing with it but I'm still dizzy.. Just not as bad as I was.  Start low, go slow..  Be well brother....

Fox

[Peter]

Best to keep an eye on the problem.  Could be the beginnings of an inner ear infection, a sinus problem even.  Or flu.

But .. a number of years ago (at least) it was listed as one of the "pleasures" of having FM.   I have had problems with equillibrium for ... gosh ... 15 or more years.   Docs just finally threw up their hands in defeat.   So I walk with my legs spread so I don't tip over.   I don't close my eyes in the shower ... otherwise I find myself on the floor wrapped up in the shower curtain   

If you do find a remedy I sure would appreciate hearing about it.

[augoldminer]

It was not the light headedness that comes because your blood pressure drops due to the change in body position. I have had that and that is a completely different feeling.

The vagus nerve can cause Vertigo

Also another condition called    
Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (Benign Positional Vertigo)

Try setting down and tilting your head up then down then side to side rapidly.
if turning your head in one or two directions causes vertigo you may have this.

Its caused by calcium particles in the inner ear.

http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec06/ch080/ch080e.html

I use to run into this as a EMT because it would scare a lot of people when it happened and they would call a ambulance

[ronr]

This book - http://homepages.sover.net/~devstar/phsympt.htm


These sites
http://www.myofascialtherapy.org/
http://www.triggerpoints.net/_sgg/m1m1_1.htm
http://www.round-earth.com/HeadPainIntro.html

[Zathras]

Thanks for the information brothers. I hope that the others suffering with this get some relief as well.

[foxgrove]

Cool stuff.. I tried out the head tilting and swinging thing.. other than having a REALLY sore neck right now I guess that isn't my problem..  (someone remind me to be more gentle when I experiment like that!!!)

Good information.. That was the link Ron.. Thank you brother.

I think the muscle group that I was looking for is the Sternocleidomastoid (sternal).  rwilli pointed me to this page as well for info on taking on the associated TrPs.. http://www.round-earth.com/SCM.html  Hope this helps.

Fox

[BRPFan]

Yipe, that has happened to me lots in the last 20 years. It seems to come and go as it pleases! I will have to check out the links that Ronr posted, Thanks!

[countryboy]

Zathras,

My similar experience with this problem was 3 years ago.  I was on a lite diuretic due to water retention.  I had been on the same med for 2 years.  I was taking only 1/2 mg every other day.  I started retaining more water and my current GP increased the dosage to 1 mg every day.  After two weeks he again doubled the amount to 2 mg per day. 

Two days later, I could hardly get out of bed from being dizzy and my whole body felt like it was made of jello.  This lasted most of the day, but it eased up as the day went on.  The next day it happened again, and that is when I fell down and screwed up my knee.  I went into urgent care and they told me that I had become allergic to the diuretic med.  They told me that they had seen a couple of cases like this.

I finally got into my GP 2 days later and he said the same thing.  Of course I stopped taking that med the same day that I went to urgent care.  The symptoms went away in the 2 days between urgent care and seeing my GP.  Too bad the knee problems didn't so the same thing.

Any way, that is my 2 cents worth.

[Tay]

How weird!  I got up this morning, and felt 'off balance' and it has continued all day, although has eased up a little.  It certainly didn't feel like low blood pressure.

I thought after breakfast I would feel better, then I thought after lunch I would feel better (which I did).  But I can still feel it in the background.

I even lay on the bed and read for a while (oh and had a little snooze) but still feel it!

I have had vertigo before - so maybe its crept back in again.

Thank heavens its the weekend, and way too hot to do anything!

Cheers

Tay

[waimser]

I used to have this happen to me every time I stood up. For a long time now though I have simply been prepareing myself briefly before standing up and have never had a problem since.

All i do is tap my heals quickly on the ground for a few seconds, leaving my toes on the ground. Basically just a up and down shaking motion. Hope you understand what I mean.

At the same time I wriggle my fingers and give my arms a small shake, and take a few deep slow breaths.

Then I shake my bum in the seat a little, this is more to losen my lower back a little but it helps with the other as well.

Then Im good to go. The whole process only takes 3 to 5 seconds and  helps with general movement too. Ive also found I dont have to do it imediately before I stand. Actially it seems better if I do it 20-30 seconds before standing.
The best part about that is if your with company you can time your preperation so that no one will notice your doing it.

Hope this helps .

waimser.

[rwilli]

   If the links that ronr posted didn't help. I posted one from Devin today that explains how it is from the mastoid muscle in your neck. I think it was a post about CMP. When moving ground yourself for a second or two.    rwilli

[Zathras]

Fortunately the problem went away and has not returned. Not sure what it was but I did ask the doctor about it. I can't remember what he suggested that it might be but whatever it was he said that it would pass in about 2 weeks. That is what happened so I hope that he was right.

[Mr.Andersen]

Looks like everything turned out good for you, I wonder why it stopped after a couple weeks? I have had this going on for years and have trouble trying to describe it to my doctor, I told her I was getting this dizzy feeling and she asked me if it felt like this type of dizziness or another (I cannot remember the examples) but I tried to describe it the best I could and she gave me this kind of perplexed look, never gave me an answer or idea, and almost seemed like she just dropped the subject.

[Upbeat]

I had something similar start last summer.

Every once and awhile, I'd get dizzy. Mostly when I stood up from sitting, but not always.

This culminated in my fainting one time after getting up, walking a bit and standing talking to someone. I felt the light-headedness coming on and thought, "I should sit down" and that's the last I remember.

I was carted off to the hospital and was okay in a few hours, except that I'd cracked my tailbone when I went down and went through an extremely painful next few weeks while the fracture healed.

I know my blood pressure was really low and I'm on blood pressure medication and the day had been extremely hot and I may have been dehydrated.

But, I've been on blood pressure medication for years and lived through many extremely hot and humid days and had never had the dizzy - light-headed thing before it started last year. It has happened a few times since, in cold weather as well as hot, fortunately without the fainting. If it happens when I'm out walking somewhere, I quickly find something to hold onto or some place to sit until it passes.

It is scary though.

I also find my balance is sometimes off and I start bumping into things. e.g., door frames when I'm walking. Just comes and goes.

Another thing I asked a couple of doctors about and received non-committal responses.

[foxgrove]

I hear you Upbeat.. It really can be scary.  Of course, at 230lb and 6'2", when I fall down, it gets REAL scary for the people around me.  I just about wiped my mother off the map one time when she decided to catch me on the way down!!

The part that scares me the most is the confusion after coming to.. Doc doesn't seem too worried but we still are.