Vertigo and dizziness

[lindsay]

I have been diagnosed with age related vertigo/dizziness. Specificially BPPV, positional vertigo. I wont go into the details. If you have it you know it. Am doing ALL the exercises. No medication helps. Nothing to do with sea sickness which I have never had.

Has anyone been able to continue sailing with this? Does it go away? First hand experience of self or others really appreciated. After 21 years single handed liveaboard I cant complain if I have to give the life up if I really have to. It would not be the end of the world....but I do need to be convinced that I really have to.

Thanks in advance

 

[RupertW]

I have been diagnosed with age related vertigo/dizziness. Specificially BPPV, positional vertigo. I wont go into the details. If you have it you know it. Am doing ALL the exercises. No medication helps. Nothing to do with sea sickness which I have never had.

Has anyone been able to continue sailing with this? Does it go away? First hand experience of self or others really appreciated. After 21 years single handed liveaboard I cant complain if I have to give the life up if I really have to. It would not be the end of the world....but I do need to be convinced that I really have to.

Thanks in advance

My wife has long term vertigo from a severe episode of labyrinthitis which is different in cause to yours but sounds like similar symptoms. The boat is a good place for her because it's all designed to work any way up with lots of handholds and a flat horizon visible when on deck to keep her oriented. Better than getting about on land, so you may find that stopping sailing doesn't help and you might as well enjoy what you can. I do not envy her the frequent queasiness though but she has gradually got used to it.

 

[Doineann]

I assume you have tried the Eplay manoeuvre?
I have had a few ‘bouts’ of BVVP, they can last up to 4 months, go away and come back in my experience . I sailed all of last summer, about 4 months, with BVVP
In my case and I think most others, if you keep your head steady for long enough it stops, but of course that is pretty much impossible on boat.
I found by trial and error that I could identify which specific head movement caused my dizziness and which did not, (I guess all sufferers would be different) and found out how to work around that. In my case this meant I never slept on my left side. If I wanted to look to my left I turned my body. To look up, I sort of put by head on my right shoulder and then from there turned my head to look up
So I would say stick with it. BVVP can feel like you are going to die, but the B is for 'benign'

 

[Mistroma]

I doubt that there's a simple answer covering all cases. I woke up one morning when I was 60 and the room was moving around wildly . It would slew from one side to the other, jump back and repeat. I couldn't stand up, threw up when trying and had to remain prone. The doctor was pretty certain it was BPPV and I did manage to lie down in back of the car and get to the surgery. Diagnosis was confirmed by a simple process (threw up again immediately).

I had to hand in my driving licence until the doctor gave the all clear. I think that I had a 50% chance of it coming back again within a year and much lower figure thereafter. However, it cleared up and hasn't returned yet in past 7-8 years.

A friend's wife wasn't so lucky and she had bouts every so often. Didn't stop her setting off around the world several years ago and she seemed to manage attacks and get used to them.

My attack was very bad and I couldn't even get any idea which direction was up. I couldn't consider sailing during an attack but doctor seemed to think it would be unlikely to happen when I'm upright and moving around (hence OK to drive). I guess that there will be a range of outcomes (e.g. Bad & infrequent to minor and more frequent). I hope you don't fall into frequent bad attack category but suspect that's not the most usual condition.

 

[lindsay]

Many thanks for the replies so far. Those are exactly my symptoms. Something like a bad case of sea sickness, I am told. "At first you are afraid you are going to die. Then, as it worsens, you are afraid you are NOT going to die".

Mistroma, I assume that the doctor said it was NOT likely to happen when upright and moving?? In any event very encouraging.

I will be easyjetting back to the Med in a week to see how the boat is after 5 months of frigging around in the UK with doctors, tests, followups and specialists and told there was nothing serious to be found,ie BPPV, and to "try taichi". I'd prefer to be sailing, or at least living on board, and see how it goes.

 

[Mistroma]

Yes, sorry. I didn't notice I'd typed "likely" instead of "unlikely". I was in a bit of a rush as signal was very erratic, it was dark and boat was rolling quite a lot (at least I hope it was the boat ). Good luck.

 

[KellysEye]

I started to get dizzy at the end of last November my doc sent to me to see a consultant who gave me lots of tests and found nothing, I had a CT scan, an MRI scan and wore a heart monitor for a week, still nothing found. What I found soon after getting dizzy was if a drank lots of water it went away dehydration, six months later that stopped working. Anti dizzy pills twice a day reduced dizzy to mini-dizzy they have also stopped working. Basically I don't know what to suggest other than see your doctor, mention the tests above, and do the tests I did and see if they find anything. The MRI scan tests your ears.

 

[KellysEye]

One other thought it is worth taking anti-dizzy pills, for which you will need a prescription, it is Prochloperazine Buccal 3mg, use kitchen roll to dry under an upper lip and put it there. It comes in packs of 50 and it recommended you take 2 a day - 25 days. You double that by getting a second pack but then you have to wait two months to start again. As I said for me they did eventually stop working but at least you get a long break at mini-dizzy levels.

 

[lindsay]

Am in the same boat. 4 months of continuous tests- MRI scan, 2 ecg's, neck sonar, dozen tests for blood inc thyroid, 5 gp appointments, 1 visit TIA clinic, plus session with geriatic private balance specialist. Cant do Epley because of neck problems, but Brand Daroff similar excercise practised daily with good results, also all the other vestibular rehabilation stuff. No fun as you know. GP basically gave up and said do tai chi but balance specialists said to get referral to neurophysiology clinic if symptoms do not settle down, which they have not yet. Also prochlorozine like you.


Apologies for boring other forum members!!

 

[lindsay]

Ps to Kellys Eye,are you still sailing with all this?

 

[Jeannius]

I had BPPV suddenly occur every time I looked upwards. Absolutely terrifying until you get the diagnosis!

I see you say you can't perform the Epley manoeuvre because of neck problems. I have arthritis in the neck so quite reasonably limited range of movement. My GP got over this by turning from my shoulders rather than my neck. I think it should be possible to do the manoeuvre even if you totally fix the neck with a brace, it will just be a little more awkward. Anyway, my GP fixed it for me in just one session. She was a bit disappointed as I was apparently a classic case and if it went again she'd get a load of students in to watch the procedure and immediate results!

By the way, if the dizziness happens on side to side movement instead of up/down there is another procedure called Lempert.

Hope you get it fixed.

 

[KellysEye]

>Ps to Kellys Eye,are you still sailing with all this?

No I wouldn't sail with dizziness but we stopped sailing in 2010 after sailing 12,000nms.

 

[lindsay]

That was an achievement to be proud of!!