Vertigo

From PreparingYou
Jump to: navigation, search
Carol Foster, MD Vertigo Treatment Oct 11 Time 3:33

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benign_paroxysmal_positional_vertigo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epley_maneuver


Members tell their stories...


I woke one morning, turned my head to look at the clock and the room started spinning. My wife, a nurse, said put your feet on the floor. I sat up, broke out into a cold sweat, became nauseous, and got the dry heaves. My wife took my blood pressure and pulse and they were normal. After calming down I got dressed, sat in a lounge chair and slept for a couple hours. I could not lie down without the room spinning. Because of the nausea I was not eating much. I was sleeping in a reclining chair. Chiropractic and acupuncture did not help. After several days I visited a MD. He checked my ears and said there was no infection but he did say I was loosing my marbles. The medical term is Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. There are tubes in our ears that give us our sense of balance. Inside those tubes are little hairs with crystal balls on the end. The tubes are filled with a liquid solution. Gravity moves these hairs to tell us which way is up (we have a wonderful designer). Sometimes those crystal balls come loose from the hairs and start rolling around in the ear causing vertigo. This is more common in people over 60. The MD sent me to the physical therapist who went to the internet and printed off the instructions for the Epley maneuver. This is a series of head movements designed to move the crystal ball to a safe place in the ear where it should eventually dissolve. It reminded me of the child toy where you have a ball in a maze that you try to maneuver into a hole. Actually, somebody makes a hat with tubes sticking out the front to help people do the maneuver. I did the maneuver for a couple days and the vertigo mostly went away.